Research Guides: African American History: Primary Sources & Newspapers

Primary Source Collections

Library Catalog This link opens in a new window
The Library Catalog will help you find collections of primary sources on your topic such as diaries, personal narratives, interviews, letters, and more. The Library Catalog also finds secondary sources, so make sure you evaluate each item.

Example of Primary Source Collection:

Memories of the Enslaved by Spencer R. Crew; Lonnie G. Bunch; Clement A. Price
Call Number: WCU GENERAL E444 .M46 2015
ISBN: 9781440841781
Publication Date: 2015-09-15

There are many primary source collections that have been digitized by libraries, archives, and museums around the world. You can often find them with a Google search. Here are some examples:

African American History Online: From the Library of Congress
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
Amistad Research Center
Google Arts and Culture: Black History
A collection of informative digital exhibits from museums and institutes.
Eyes on the Prize: Digitized Interviews and Transcripts
Video interviews of hundreds of key figures in the Civil Rights Movement--originally taken for the Eyes on the Prize documentary series

Newspapers & Periodicals

The purpose of early African-American journalism was " 1) to define the identity of a people who had been stripped of their own culture in a hostile environment; 2) to create a sense of unity by establishing a network of communication among literate blacks and their white supporters throughout the country; 3) to examine issues from a black perspective; 4) to chronicle black achievements that were ignored by the American mainstream; and 5) to further the cause of black liberation" (Garland, 2006. "Journalism." Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History, p. 1203).

Newspapers

Black Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
ProQuest Historical Newspapers-Black Newspapers offers primary source material essential to the study of American history and African-American culture, history, politics, and the arts. Examine major movements from the Harlem Renaissance to Civil Rights, and explore everyday life as written in the Chicago Defender, The Baltimore Afro-American, New York Amsterdam News, Pittsburgh Courier, Los Angeles Sentinel, Atlanta Daily World, The Norfolk Journal and Guide, The Philadelphia Tribune, and Cleveland Call and Post.
African-American Newspapers This link opens in a new window
A collection of U.S. newspaper articles published in the 19th and 20th centuries. Chronicles a century and a half of the African American experience, including: life in the Antebellum South, growth of the Black church, the Jim Crow Era, the Great Migration, Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights movement, political and economic empowerment and more. All full text.
News & Newspapers This link opens in a new window
In addition to the black historical newspapers, contains the full text of these mainstream newspapers: the Washington Post (1877-2002), Los Angeles Times (1881-1995), New York Times (1851 - 2015), and Chicago Tribune (1849-1996). As well as The Wall Street Journal 1984-Present and other newspapers.

Magazines -- great for cultural topics (fashion, beauty, music, sports, food)

African-American Periodicals This link opens in a new window
Covering 1825 to 1998, this resource searches 170 periodicals by and about African Americans include academic and political journals, and literary magazines.
Includes Crisis, which was originally published by W.E.B. DuBois, who said "the object of this publication is to set forth those facts and arguments which show the danger of race predudice, particularly as manifested to-day..." (full article)

Jet Magazine
Google's archive of Jet from 1950-2008. Jet is a weekly news magazine "its reputation for news and commentary on social events was best expressed by a character in a play by writer Maya Angelou, who claimed, 'If it didn't happen in Jet, it didn't happen anywhere'" (Encyclopedia of African-American Culture & History, 1175)
Negro Digest/Black World
Google's archive of Negro Digest, later named Black World, from 1961-1976. "An unabashed imitation of Reader's Digest, [Negro Digest] published general articles about African-American life, with an emphasis on racial progress (Encyclopedia of African-American Culture & History, 287). Hunter Library also has these print volumes: v.3(1944/45)-v.6(1947/48), v.9(1950/51). Located in the Lower Mezzanine. They can be checked out.
Ebony Magazine Archives
Google's archive of Ebony from 1959-the 1990s. Intended as a "monthly glamour magazine...filled with pictures of prominent and successful blacks" (Encyclopedia of African-American Culture & History, 672). Click on an issue, then click on the image that says "Contents" to browse for images, articles, etc.
Johnson Publishing Company, Inc.
Read the company history of the publisher of Ebony, Negro Digest/Black World, and Jet.

Other Resources

Voices from the Days of Slavery

Documenting the American South This link opens in a new window

FBI Vault

African American History

Primary Source Collections

Newspapers & Periodicals

Other Resources

HUNTER LIBRARY

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