MC 3333 Multiculturalism & the Media: African-American Resources
Mass Communication Librarian
Newspapers & Other Media
- African American Newspapers, 1827-1998 This link opens in a new windowAfrican American Newspapers, 1827-1998, provides online access to approximately 270 U.S. newspapers chronicling a century and a half of the African American experience. This unique collection, which includes papers from more than 35 states, features many rare and historically significant 19th-century titles.
- Afro-Americana Imprints, 1535-1922 This link opens in a new windowThis collection spans nearly 400 years, from the early 16th to the early 20th century. Critically important subjects covered include the Wests discovery and exploitation of Africa; the rise of slavery in the New World along with the growth and success of abolitionist movements; the development of racial thought and racism; descriptions of African American lifeslave and freethroughout the Americas; and slavery and race in fiction and drama.
- Black Life in America This link opens in a new windowComprehensive coverage of the African American experience from the early 18th century to the present day. Sourced from more than 19,000 American and global news sources, including over 400 current and historical Black publications. An easy-to-use online resource—updated daily—for every institution working toward social justice and racial equity.
- Chicago Defender (1909-1975) This link opens in a new windowAs part of the ProQuest Historical Newspapers program, the Chicago Defender offers primary source material essential to the study of American history and African-American culture, history, politics, and the arts. Covering the years 1909-1975, the Chicago Defender includes the complete paper, cover-to-cover, with full-page and article images in easily downloadable PDF format.
Research Databases
- Archives Unbound (African American Studies) This link opens in a new windowAn interdisciplinary academic collection devoted to the study of the history, culture, and politics of Black Americans covering the tumultuous period from 1900 to present day. From U.S. nation-building in Liberia to Freedom Riders and from Rastafaria to FBI surveillance, researchers can explore a breadth of experiences.
- Black Thought and Culture This link opens in a new windowBlack Thought and Culture contains 1,303 sources with 1,210 authors, covering the non-fiction published works of leading African Americans. Particular care has been taken to index this material so that it can be searched more thoroughly than ever before. Where possible the complete published non-fiction works are included, as well as interviews, journal articles, speeches, essays, pamplets, letters and other fugitive material.
- Caribbean Literature This link opens in a new windowStarting with the literature produced in Spanish and French colonies in the 1800s, the collection offers an extensive selection of 19th- and 20th-century works from every Caribbean country. As the database grows, we will supplement the novels, short stories, and poems of these artists with author interviews and reference works, including dictionaries of various Creole languages.
- Oxford African American Studies Center This link opens in a new windowThe Oxford African American Studies Center combines the authority of carefully edited reference works with sophisticated technology to create the most comprehensive collection of scholarship available online to focus on the lives and events which have shaped African American and African history and culture. The Oxford African American Studies Center provides students, scholars and librarians with more than 10,000 articles by top scholars in the field.
- Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice 1490 - 2007 This link opens in a new windowDesigned for both teaching and research, this resource brings together documents and collections from libraries and archives across the Atlantic world covering an extensive time period from 1490. Close attention has been given to the varieties of slavery, the legacy of slavery, the social justice perspective and the continued existence of slavery today.
- Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law This link opens in a new windowThis HeinOnline collection brings together a multitude of essential legal materials on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world. This includes every statute passed by every colony and state on slavery, every federal statute dealing with slavery, and all reported state and federal cases on slavery. Our cases go into the 20th century, because long after slavery was ended, there were still court cases based on issues emanating from slavery. To give one example, as late as 1901 Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court had to decide if a man, both of whose parents had been slaves, could be the legitimate heir of his father, because under southern law, slaves could never be legally married. The library has hundreds of pamphlets and books written about slaverydefending it, attacking it or simply analyzing it. We have gathered every English-language legal commentary on slavery published before 1920, which includes many essays and articles in obscure, hard-to-find journals in the United States and elsewhere. We have provided more than a thousand pamphlets and books on slavery from the 19th century. We provide word searchable access to all Congressional debates from the Continental Congress to 1880. We have also included many modern histories of slavery. Within this library is a section containing all modern law review articles on the subject. This library will continue to grow, not only from new scholarship but also from historical material that we continue to locate and add to the collection.