Simpson Library: African American Studies: History and Culture

Finding books to check out

The books in the catalog are tagged with phrases called "subject headings" that describe what each book is about. When you know the correct subject heading for your topic, you can search on that subject heading to find every book that the library has on the topic.

Here are some subject headings to help you find books about African American history and culture:

Databases -- History and Culture

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Enormous database covering all fields of study. Includes over 12,000 periodicals, with almost 8,000 in full text.
African American Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Full-text pages from several African American newspapers published between 1827 and 1902. Part of the Accessible Archives database.
America: History and Life with Full Text This link opens in a new window
American and Canadian history, from prehistoric times to the present.
Ancestry Library Edition This link opens in a new window
One of the largest online family history resources available, Ancestry.com provides unprecedented access to family history via documents that record the lineage of individuals from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, and more.
Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new window
Newspapers and magazines from ethnic and minority communities. Full text articles from over 315 publications as far back as 1990. Also includes Ethnic NewsWatch: A History, which provides full text articles from a few dozen publications as far back as 1959. To restrict your search to African American publications, scroll down to the Ethnic Group options and check the box next to "African American/Caribbean/African."
Federal Surveillance of African Americans, 1920-1984 This link opens in a new window
Declassified FBI documents about the FBI's scrutiny, harassment, and prosecution of African Americans between 1920 and 1984.
HarpWeek: The Civil War Era and Reconstruction I and II This link opens in a new window
Full-text access to Harper's Weekly, a leading 19th-century illustrated newspaper. Covers the years 1857-1877. You can search for words or phrases, browse individual issues, or browse lists of topics.
Historical Abstracts with Full Text This link opens in a new window
World history. Does not cover the United States, but would be useful for researching African origins and the Middle Passage. Includes documents published 1954 - present.
James Meredith, J. Edgar Hoover, and the Integration of the University of Mississippi This link opens in a new window
Over 8000 pages of declassified FBI documents about the racial integration of the University of Mississippi.
We Were Prepared for the Possibility of Death: Freedom Riders in the South, 1961 This link opens in a new window
Over 4000 pages of declassified FBI documents about the 1961 Freedom Rides.

Reference Books -- History and Culture

The African American Encyclopedia
Call Number: REFB E 185 .A253 2001
Publication Date: 2001
A ten-volume encyclopedia. Many articles lack bibliographies, but volume 10 includes a master bibliography, arranged by subject.
African American Religious Cultures
Call Number: REFB BL 2500 .A37 2009
Publication Date: 2009
A two-volume encyclopedia covering all African American religious traditions. Articles have excellent bibliographies. Also includes essays, a chronology, and primary documents.
Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African & African American Experience
Call Number: REFB DT 14 .A37435 2005
Publication Date: 2005
A five-volume encyclopedia of African and African American topics. Most articles lack bibliographies, but there is a master bibliography at the end of volume 5.
Black America
Call Number: REFB E 185 .B537 2011
Publication Date: 2011
Covers black history in every corner of the United States, including frequently-overlooked states such as Montana or Hawaii. Also available as an e-book.
Black Women in America
Call Number: REFB E 185.86 .B542 2005
Publication Date: 2005
Reference articles about black women in America and the issues that affect them. Includes a chronology of African American women's history.
Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History: The Black Experience in the Americas
Call Number: REFB E 185 .E54 2006
Publication Date: 2006
Five volumes of excellent encyclopedia articles and one volume of primary documents, plus a section containing almanac-style statistics and lists.
Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition
Call Number: REFB HT 1031 .E53 2007
Publication Date: 2007
Focuses mostly on antislavery movements in the Americas. Articles include short bibliographies; there is a longer bibliography at the end of volume 2. Also available as an e-book.
Encyclopedia of the Middle Passage
Call Number: REFB HT 1322 .E63 2007
Publication Date: 2007
Covers the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Articles include short bibliographies; there is a longer bibliography at the end of the book. Also available as an e-book.
The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Civil Rights: From Emancipation to the Twenty-First Century
Call Number: REFB E 185.61 .E54 2003
Publication Date: 2003
A two-volume encyclopedia about African American civil rights.
The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore
Call Number: REFB GR 111 .A47 G74 2006
Publication Date: 2006
Covers all aspects of black culture in the Americas, including music, food, dance, festivals, and folktales. Articles have short bibliographies; there is a longer bibliography at the end of volume 3.
Milestone Documents in African American History
Call Number: REFB E 184.6 .M55 2010
Publication Date: 2010
Four volumes of primary documents. Each document is accompanied by an overview article that analyzes the document, discusses the document's context and impact, and recommends secondary sources for further reading. Also available as an e-book.

Websites -- History and Culture

The African-American Mosaic
A guide to African-American history and culture, from the Library of Congress. Includes primary documents.
Africans in America
A comprehensive history, organized by time period. Includes historical overviews, primary documents, and analysis by modern scholars. A companion to the PBS TV series of the same name.
Library of Congress Digital Collections: African American History
Digitized documents relating to African American history. Excellent source of primary documents.
BlackPast.org
Timelines, bibliographies, primary documents, and an encyclopedia with over 3000 entries.
The Black Renaissance in Washington, D.C.: 1920-1930s
Includes biographies of key figures and a timeline of events. Also includes a lengthy bibliography of other sources on the topic.
Chronicling America: African American Newspapers
More than 200 digitized newspapers from Black communities, mostly from the late 19th and early 20th century. A subset of the larger Chronicling America collection, which provides historic newspapers from all communities in the United States.
The Citizens' Council
Full text reproductions of the Citizens’ Council, a newspaper published by the white supremacist Citizens’ Council of Mississippi between 1955 and 1961. Useful primary documents for studying racism or opposition to civil rights.
Civil Rights Digital Library
A tool for finding primary sources from the Civil Rights movement, including pamphlets, flyers, letters, records, diaries, photographs, and video and audio recordings.
Digital Schomburg
The digital collections of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Includes exhibitions, books, articles, photographs, audio and video streams, and links to other useful sites.
Documenting the American South
Excellent source of primary documents relating to the South. Divided into eighteen themed collections, including North American Slave Narratives and The Church in the Southern Black Community. Provided by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The Frederick Douglass Papers at the Library of Congress
A searchable collection of over 7,000 primary documents related to Frederick Douglass's life as an escaped slave, abolitionist, editor, orator, and public servant.
In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience
Information on African-American migrations throughout history. Includes overview articles, timelines, pictures, maps, and and hundreds of full-text documents, both primary and secondary. Presented by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute
Outstanding source of information on the life and times of Dr. King. Scroll down the page to view various collections of King’s documents; most chapters are available online in free full text. The Institute’s encyclopedia offers summary articles, quotes, a timeline of events, and more primary documents.