Afro American Studies
A general guide to library research in Afro American Studies.
Librarian
Isabel Espinal
Contact:
W.E.B. Du Bois Library
University of Massachusetts
Available by appointment. I can meet via phone, Zoom, or other online venue. To request an online appointment or get any other help, please email iespinal@library.umass.edu or call:
University of Massachusetts
Available by appointment. I can meet via phone, Zoom, or other online venue. To request an online appointment or get any other help, please email iespinal@library.umass.edu or call:
413-545-6971
Website Skype Contact: isabel.espinal2010
Librarian in New Africa House
One on one consultation
I can meet you at the W.E.B. Du Bois Library, on Zoom or other online venues. To request an appointment or get any other help, please use this form or send me an email.
Click here for assistance. Be well!
Office hours in New Africa House hopefully reinstated for Fall 2023.
(Door of New Africa House some years ago)
Ready for graduate level library research? Take the quiz!
Introducing Special Collections and University Archives
Special Collections and University Archives continues in its efforts to build around the Du Bois collection, adding other important printed and manuscript materials in African American history.
African American History Special Collections
Summer Readings
American History Now by Call Number: E175 .A454 2011 and online
Representing the Race: a new political history of African American literature by Call Number: PS153.N5 J398 2011 And online
SUMMER 2022 READINGS
Margo Crawford, What Is African American Literature? (2020) [on order at UMass]
Pero Dagbovie, What is African American History? (2015) [on order at UMass]
The Discipline and the African World 2022: The National Council for Black Studies Annual Report
Previous Readings
SUMMER 2014 READINGS
- Kevin Gaines, African American History (pdf), in American History Now by Eric Foner and Lisa McGirr
- Gene Jarrett, Representing the Race: A New Political History of African American Literature
- Meier and Rudwick, Black History and the Historical Profession
Read one of the following survey texts:
- Lerone Bennett, Jr., Before the Mayflower (any of last 2 or 3 editions)
- ...., The Shaping of Black America
- Mary Frances Berry and John W. Blassingame, Long Memory: the Black Experience in America
- John Hope Franklin and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, From Slavery to Freedom
- Darlene Clark Hine et al, African American Odyssey—any edition
- James & Lois Horton, Hard Road to Freedom: the Story of African America
- Deborah Gray White et al, Freedom On My Mind
Black History and the Historical Profession, 1915-1980 by Call Number: E184.65 .M45 1986ISBN: 0252012690No e-book available
The Shaping of Black America by Call Number: E185 .B43ISBN: 0874850711Publication Date: 1975No e-book available
Long Memory: the Black Experience in America by Call Number: E185.5 .B4ISBN: 0195029097Publication Date: 1982No ebook available
From Slavery to Freedom: a History of African Americans by Call Number: E185 .F8266 2011ISBN: 9780072963786Publication Date: 2011No ebook available.
The African-American Odyssey by Call Number: E185 .H533 2000ISBN: 013571852XPublication Date: 2000No ebook available
AFRO AM 701 List (Fall 2015)
How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Call Number: HC800 .R62 1981 Reserve-3 hr and via Inter-Library Loan and online
Books listed below in the order in which they appear on the syllabus.
Capitalism and Slavery by Call Number: HC254.5 .W5 1994 and online
The Myth of the Negro Past by Call Number: HT1581 .H4 and online
Exchanging Our Country Marks: the transformation of African identities in the colonial and antebellum South by Call Number: Online and via Inter-Library Loan
Laboring Women: reproduction and gender in New World slavery by Call Number: HT1048 .M67 2004ISBN: 0812218736Publication Date: 2004Also online
Many Thousands Gone: the first two centuries of slavery in North America by Call Number: E446 .B49 1998 and online
Roll, Jordan, Roll by Call Number: E443 .G46 and online (limited user access)
The Classic Slave Narratives by Call Number: E444 .C63 1987ISBN: 0451627261Publication Date: 1987This particular book not online, but most slave narratives are.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Call Number: E449 .D74905 and online from various sourcesNarrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave / written by himself.
Call Number: Online via HATHI Trust Library
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Written by Herself by Call Number: E444.J17 A3 1987 And online via Black Women Writers and elsewhereIncidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Written by Herself by
Call Number: Online via HATHI Trust Library
African-American Poetry of the Nineteenth Century by Call Number: PS591.N4 A35 1992ISBN: 0252019172Publication Date: 1992No ebook available.
Many poems in the African-American Poetry Database 1760-1975 from the Electronic Text Center at UVA at: http://www.lib.vt.edu/find/databases/A/african-american-poetry-database-from-uva.html
African-American Poetry Database 1760-1975 from the Electronic Text Center at UVACall Number: Free online database of poetry
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Call Number: PS2954 .U5 2010d and online
The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution by Call Number: F1923 .T85 1963ISBN: 0679724672Publication Date: 1989
Blake; or, The huts of America, a novel. by Call Number: PS3507.E36 B63 1970
American Negro Slave Revolts by Call Number: E447 .A67 1977ISBN: 0527030007Publication Date: 1997Link to 1983 version: http://silk.library.umass.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cat06087a&AN=umass.000352261&site=eds-live&scope=site
In Hope of Liberty: culture, community, and protest among northern free Blacks, 1700-1860 by Call Number: E185 .H644 1997ISBN: 019504732XPublication Date: 1997
All Bound up Together: the woman question in African American public culture, 1830-1900 by Call Number: E185.86 .J663 2007 and online
Been in the Storm So Long: the aftermath of slavery by Call Number: E185.2 .L57 1980ISBN: 9780394743981Publication Date: 1980
Reconstruction: America's unfinished revolution, 1863-1877 by Call Number: E668 .F66 1988ISBN: 0060158514Publication Date: 2002
Iola Leroy, or, Shadows uplifted by Call Number: PS1799.H7 I6 1987ISBN: 0807063177Publication Date: 1999Also online- African-American Poetry of the Nineteenth Century by Call Number: PS591.N4 A35 1992ISBN: 0252019172Publication Date: 1992No ebook available.
Many poems in the African-American Poetry Database 1760-1975 from the Electronic Text Center at UVA at: http://www.lib.vt.edu/find/databases/A/african-american-poetry-database-from-uva.html - African-American Poetry Database 1760-1975 from the Electronic Text Center at UVACall Number: Free online database of poetry
African American Music by Call Number: ML3556 .A34 2006 And online
The Conjure Woman by Call Number: PS1292.C6 C65 1969 and online via HATHI Trust Library
The Conjure Woman and Other Conjure Tales by Call Number: PS1292.C6 A6 1993ISBN: 0822313782Publication Date: 1993
The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man by Call Number: PS3519.O2625 A95 2011 And 1912 edition online via HATHI Trust Library
Up from Slavery by Call Number: E185.97.W4 A3 2003 And online
An Army of Lions by Call Number: E185.61 .A437 2013 and Online via JSTOR
AFRO AM 702 List (Spring 2016)
Books listed below in the order in which they appear on the syllabus.
The new Negro: an interpretation by Call Number: E185.82 .L75 and Online via Alexander Street PressPublication Date: 1925Locke, Alain Le Roy, 1886-
The Book of American Negro Poetry by Call Number: PS591.N4 J6 1931 and Online via HATHI Trust Library- African-American Poetry Database 1760-1975 from the Electronic Text Center at UVACall Number: Free online database of poetry
Cane by Call Number: PS3539.O55 C3 1975ISBN: 9780393931686Publication Date: 2011No ebook available. Order copies via Inter-Library Loan at this link.
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Call Number: PS3515.U789 T5ISBN: 9780060931414Publication Date: 1998No ebook available
Black Metropolis : a study of Negro life in a northern city by Call Number: F548.9.N4 D73 1993ISBN: 0226162346Publication Date: 1993No ebook available
Freedoms Given, Freedoms Won by Call Number: F2651.S2 B85 1998ISBN: 0813525047Publication Date: 1998No ebook available
Jesus, Jobs, and Justice by Call Number: BR563.N4 C644 2010 And online (Only one reader at a time)ISBN: 9781400044207Publication Date: 2010-02-02This groundbreaking book begins with slavery and gives us a remarkable account of the religious faith, social and political activism, and extraordinary resilience of black women during the centuries of American growth and change. Collier-Thomas makes clear that while religion has been a guiding force in the lives of most African Americans, for black women it has been essential. As co-creators of churches, black women were a central factor in their development. Collier-Thomas explores the ways in which women had to cope with sexism in black churches as well as racism in mostly white denominations in their efforts to create missionary societies and form women's conventions; and how, within the church, men treated women as second-class citizens despite their importance to the very existence and survival of the church itself. African American churchwomen created national organizations such as the National Association of Colored Women and the National Council of Negro Women, they confronted racism in white-led quasi Christian groups such as the YWCA, and they worked in male-dominated organizations such as the NAACP and National Urban League, to demand civil rights, equal employment, and educational opportunities, and to protest lynching, segregation, and discrimination. Jesus, Jobs, and Justice restores black women to their rightful place in American history, elucidating both the quality and consequence of their faith in themselves, their race, and their God.
The World Is a Ghetto by Call Number: HT1507 .W56 2001ISBN: 0465043402Publication Date: 2001No ebook available
Hammer and Hoe by Call Number: HX91.A2 K45 1990 And online
Holding Aloft the Banner of Ethiopia by Call Number: E184.C27 J36 1998 and online
Native Son by Call Number: PS3545.R815 N3 2014ISBN: 9780062357250Publication Date: 2014No ebook available
The Street by Call Number: PS3531.E933 S75 1991ISBN: 0395573807Publication Date: 1991No ebook available
Maud Martha by Call Number: PS3503.R7244 M28 1974ISBN: 0404113680Publication Date: 1974No ebook available- African American Music by Call Number: ML3556 .A34 2006 And online
Invisible Man by Call Number: PS3555.L625 I5 and online (only one reader at a time)
Go Tell It on the Mountain by Call Number: PS3552.A45 G62 2016ISBN: 9781101907610Publication Date: 2016Library has 1985 and other editions. If our copy is checked out, request through Inter-Library Loan via link above. Give it a few days to arrive.
Lift Every Voice by Call Number: E185.5.N276 S85 2009 and online
The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Call Number: BP223.Z8 L57943 1992ISBN: 9780345379757Publication Date: 1992
Local People by Call Number: E185.93.M6 D58 1994ISBN: 0252021029Publication Date: 1994No ebook available
A Raisin in the SunCall Number: PS3515.A515 R3 and online (only one reader at a time)
Call and Response: the Riverside Anthology of African-American Literature by Call Number: PS508.N3 C35 1997ISBN: 9780618449095Publication Date: 1997
The Color Purple by Call Number: PS3573 .A425 C6 1985ISBN: 0671727796Publication Date: 1985No ebook available
Beloved by Call Number: PS3563.O8749 B4 And online (Only one reader at a time)
