Penn State University Libraries - African American Studies

Use bibliographies to locate information on specific topics/subjects in books, journals, magazines, and newspapers.

African-American Newspapers and Periodicals : a National Bibliography
This national bibliography lists almost 7,000 African American newspapers, journals, and magazines, including bibliographic description, dates and place of publication, frequency, and holding libraries.

The Civil Rights Movement : References and Resources
Covers publications about the Civil Rights Movement in the southern United States between 1955 and 1968.

Newspapers and Periodicals by and about Black People : Southeastern Library Holdings
Provides full coverage for materials concerning cultural contributions of the African diaspora throughout the Americas.

The African-American Mosaic : a Library of Congress Resource Guide for the Study of Black History and Culture
Exhibit with sample entries available online from the Library of Congress
A collection of bibliographies in essay format, covering topics such as slavery, the antebellum period, Civil War, Reconstruction, World Wars I and II, and the Civil Rights era.

Hint: to find other bibliographies:

• use basic search or advanced search in The CAT
• enter the word bibliography along with your subject, e.g., African American women authors and bibliography or Black authors bibliography as keyword search terms.

Use to locate biographical information about significant African and African American people in books, journals, magazines, and newspapers.

American National Biography Online
The American National Biography Online offers portraits of more than 17,000 men and women — from all eras and walks of life — whose lives have shaped the nation. The online version reproduces the full text of the original 24-volume set published in 1999, with new and updated entries added regularly. The online edition features thousands of illustrations, hyperlinked cross-references, links to select web sites, and powerful search capabilities.

Biography and Genealogy Master Index [online]
An index (not a full-text resource) to biographical information about influential people worldwide, both living and historical.

African American Women : a Biographical Dictionary
Three hundred African American women who have "made significant contributions to social reform, politics, arts and entertainment, religion, business, education and the professions from colonial times to the present" are the subject of this volume.

Contemporary Black Biography
Profiles prominent individuals from various backgrounds, including Ralph Abernathy, Naomi Campbell, Youssou N'Dour, Marcus Garvey, and presidents of various African nations. Photographs and selected brief bibliographies included.

African-American Firsts : Famous, Little-known and Unsung Triumphs of Blacks in America
This fascinating collection of little-known African American achievers contains over 400 entries and 75 pages of photographs. The people are arranged by profession and the time period spans from the beginning of this country to the early 1990s.

Notable Black American Men
Lengthy biographical profiles of 500 famous African American men, ranging from artists, sports figures, musicians, scientists, politicians, and many other occupations. Entries are signed, and include short bibliographies and, often, black and white photos.

Notable Black American Women
Massive, two-volume authoritative source for biographical information on African American women from a wide variety of disciplines and accomplishments. Many illustrations; also includes access by area of endeavor.

Hint: To find other biographies:

• use the word biography in an advanced search in The CAT, along with your name search, for example, Martin Luther King Jr. and biography;, Malcolm X and biography.
• limit your material type to reference book.

Charles L. Blockson Collection of African-Americana and the African Diaspora
The African-Americana and the African Diaspora collections contain materials relating to African American, African, Latin American, and Caribbean history and culture. The Blockson Collection focuses not only on African-Americana, but more broadly documents the African Diaspora, the pattern of human migration that reaches back hundreds of years and traces the movement of Blacks from their African homelands to areas around the world.

Jack Rabin Collection on Alabama Civil Rights and Southern Activists
Multi-layered compilation of documents, sound recordings, and visual images documenting:

• the activities of the Montgomery Improvement Association
• photographs and surveillance tapes of sit-ins
• the Selma March
• the Poor People's Campaign
• oral histories of the white activists
• films of African-American activists

The finding aid to the Jack Rabin Collection will provide more details about the contents of this collection.

Slavery Documents Collection, 1836-1876 [mostly 1839 to 1854]
Receipts for the sale of slaves, apprentice indentures, certificates of authentication receipt against a deed of trust, receipt for the sale of land, and one partial, illegible receipt [perhaps an indenture for separation] from the Gatlin/Conley family of Tennessee.

The finding aid to the Slavery Documents Collection will provide more details about the contents of this collection.

Vivian Virtue Papers, 1938-2000
Correspondence, original works, publications, translations, broadcasts, newspaper clippings, research, and photographs of the Jamaican poet, translator, broadcaster, and son-in-law of black poet Claude McKay.

The finding aid to the Vivian Virtue Papers will provide more details about the contents of this collection.

Harry B. Henderson Collection
Focusing on African American artists, Henderson, a Penn State Alum, author/editor, amassed a private collection of books, letters, journals/diaries, oral history interviews, and photographs created by, and about, African American artists. His collection led to the publication of A History of African-American artists: from 1792 to the present. The collection includes more than 500 books and 50 cubic feet of archival records.

Cyril Griffith Papers
Penn State faculty member [1970-1995] who specialized in African American history, the Griffith papers include his extensive research into African American history, religion, and culture - including detailed work on A.M.E. churches. Griffith was the first director of the Black Studies Program at Penn State.

Some of the key collections for African American Studies which are owned by the Penn State Libraries are available only on microfilm. Microfilm collections are cataloged and can be searched using The CAT.

Highlights of some of the special collections relating to African Americans are listed below:

• The Papers of the NAACP
  This microfilm collection includes a variety of materials from the NAACP [National Association for the Advancement of Colored People]. There are many parts to these papers which range from meeting minutes, speeches, and personal correspondence to a variety of papers and documents on special subjects. The collection is cataloged. Search The CAT by Papers of the NAACP.

• FBI Files
  The News and Microforms Library has collections of FBI files on a variety of topics and organizations. The collections also include files on several individuals including Malcolm X, Jesse Jackson, Paul Robeson, as well as the files on the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.. Some of these files have individual guides. Search The CAT to find the Libraries' collections.

• Personal Papers : Various Individuals
  The News and Microforms Library also has the personal papers of several famous African Americans including George Washington Carver, Frederick Douglass, and Mary Church Terrell.

• Documents from the United States Commission on Civil Rights
  Many of the documents from this Commission are available on 2nd Floor Paterno Library Stacks in the United States government documents section under the U.S. documents call numbers CR 1 to CR 17. Among the documents found in this collection are reports from the early years of the commission, special studies on different topics, and newsletters and journals.
  This collection is available online via the Thurgood Marshall Law Library at the University of Maryland School of Law.

Current Penn State Libraries' subscriptions

• Chicago Defender

• New York Amsterdam News

• New Pittsburgh Courier

• Philadelphia Tribune

Historical Newspapers

• Antebellum Black Newspapers

• Black Abolitionist Papers, 1830-1865

Indexes to African American Newspapers

• Index to Black Newspapers

Libraries' Databases for African American Newspapers

Available to researchers with a Penn State Access Account.

• Ethnic NewsWatch

• ProQuest

• LexisNexis Academic

African American Newspapers online

• BlackPressUSA.com

• AFRO
  African American headlines, blogs, sports, entertainment, and culture from African American newspapers

Print Periodicals

• Afro-Americans in New York Life and History

• Black Congressional Monitor

• Black Enterprise

• Black Issues in Higher Education

• Callaloo

• Contemporary Black Biography

• Essence

• Ethnic and Racial Studies

• Jet

• The Black Collegian

• The Crisis

• The Griot

• The International Review of African American Art

• The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education

• The Langston Hughes Review

• The Literary Griot

• The Mississippi Quarterly

• The State of Black America

• The State of Black Philadelphia

• Western Journal of Black Studies

Online Periodicals

• Diverse : Issues in Higher Education [formerly, Black Issues in Higher Education]

• Brides Noir

• Emerging Minds

• Essence

• Exodus

• Hype "monitoring the Black image in the media"

• Jet

• Shades of Love "the Black relationship magazine"

• The African American education data book

• Black Americans : a statistical sourcebook

• Black demographic data, 1790-1860 : a sourcebook

• 1990 Census of Population. Characteristics of the Black Population
  Also available online from the U.S. Census Bureau.

• New Orleans Slave Sample, 1804-1862
  Additional data sets are available in Economics of American Negro Slavery series [ICPSR].

• Historical Statistics of Black America

• Statistical Record of Black America

• We the People : Blacks in the United States, from the U.S. Census Bureau.

• The Black Population in the United States
  A collection of links to U.S. Census Bureau reports.

• Race Data
  A collection of links to U.S. Census Bureau reports.

• Slave Movement during the 18th and 19th centuries
  From the Data and Information Services Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison: "This site provides access to the raw data [Free registration is required to download the data] and documentation which contains information on the following slave trade topics from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries:

  • records of slave ship movement between Africa and the Americas
  • slave ships of eighteenth century France
  • slave trade to Rio de Janeiro
  • Virginia slave trade in the eighteenth century
  • English slave trade (House of Lords Survey)
  • Angola slave trade in the eighteenth century
  • internal slave trade to Rio de Janeiro
  • slave trade to Havana, Cuba
  • Nantes slave trade in the eighteenth century
  • slave trade to Jamaica"

Researchers with a Penn State Access Account can find statistical information online at Statistical Insight [ProQuest].

The Penn State Libraries' Social Sciences Statistics and Data Web page will also help researchers find statistics sources.

Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture
This renowned and widely-linked site supports the Schomberg Center, "a national research library devoted to collecting, preserving and providing access to resources documenting the experiences of peoples of African descent throughout the world." The site continues to grow, recently adding the Digital Schomburg and Online Exhibitions.

American Memory : Historical Collections for the National Digital Library
Developed by the Library of Congress, this site includes

• African-American Mosaic

• African-American Odyssey

• African-American Perspectives

American Memory is a searchable collection with documents, photographs, maps, sound, and film clips.

The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
"The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center on the banks of the Ohio River in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio, opened August 23, 2004. The Freedom Center features three pavilions, celebrating courage, cooperation and perseverance. The story of freedom is woven through the heroic legacy of the Underground Railroad and the American struggle to abolish human enslavement and secure freedom for all people."

The Center for Africana Studies [The University of Pennsylvania Library]
"The Center for Africana Studies is a space for the critical examination of the human, cultural, social, political, economic and historical factors that have created and shaped the African American and African Diaspora experiences throughout the world."

Africana Studies and Research Center [Cornell University]
"Africana studies is a tradition of intellectual inquiry and study of African peoples. Using a transdisciplinarian approach, Africana scholars document the global migrations and reconstruction of African peoples, as well as patterns of linkages to the African continent (and among the peoples of the African Diaspora)."

National Museum of African American History and Culture : Resources

The Anacostia Museum and Center for African American History and Culture (Smithsonian)
"As the Smithsonian Institution's museum of African American history and culture, the Museum explores American history, society, and creative expression from an African American perspective."

The Amistad Research Center Tulane University
"As the nation's largest independent archives specializing in the history of African Americans and other ethnic groups, the Amistad Research Center is dedicated to preserving America's ethnic heritage by providing a home to the manuscripts, photographs, oral histories, books, periodicals and works of art that contain the history of peoples, of nations, of beliefs and dreams, of a past worth sharing with the future."

Africans in America
Companion website to the PBS four-part documentary, covering the years 1450 through 1865. Includes individual online chapters for various sets of years, with narrative text, maps, illustrations, and other resources. Includes student and teacher guides, plus information about the documentary series.

NAACP
Founded in 1909, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is the largest civil rights organization in the United States. "The principal objective of the NAACP is to ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality of minority group citizens of the United States".

National Association of African American Studies and Affiliates [NAAAS]
This site includes links to conference papers in NAAAS Monograph Series as well as job postings and articles from affiliate associations: the National Association of Hispanic and Latino Studies, the National Association of Native American Studies, and the International Association of Asian Studies.

National Urban League
The National Urban League works to assist "African Americans in the search for social and economic equality". From this site, you can find resources, affiliate members, current news, and a listing of special events.

National Council of Negro Women [NCNW]
NCNW was begun by Mary McLeod Bethune to unite women to secure justice. It is now a multi-faceted organization that works at local, state, national and international levels.

Government information of all types [books, magazines, pamphlets, etc.] and in all formats [paper, microfilm, CD-ROM, video, online] can be found:

• GPO: United States Government Printing Office

  • FDSys (Federal Digital System) "provides public access to Government information submitted by Congress and Federal agencies and preserved as technology changes."

  • Catalog of U.S. Government Publications

• USA.gov

Researchers with a Penn State Access Account can also find government information in the following databases:

• LexisNexis

  • LexisNexis Academic
    web publications, SEC filings, case law

  • LexisNexis State Capital
    bills, statutes, regulations by state

• ProQuest

  • Congressional
    hearings, reports, and other congressional publications; statutory law; The Congressional Record

  • Statistical Insight
    statistical publications and data sets from federal and state agencies

• CQ Electronic Library
  provides access to CQ Weekly, CQ Global Researcher, CQ Press Congress Collection, and the Historical Documents series — among other online resources.