Black History
Features for Black History Month
We have added many new resources on these pages, and they are marked 
- NARA Records Pertaining to American Slavery and the International Slave Trade
- Walter B. Hill Jr.'s publication, "NARA Records pertaining to American Slavery and the International Slave Trade", makes the information accessible to online researchers during February, Black History Month.
Online Resources:
NARA Resources
- NARA Records pertaining to American Slavery and the International Slave Trade
- Compiled by Walter B. Hill, Jr.
- The USIA Motion Picture Collection and African American History
- This article is a review of the USIA Motion Picture holdings related to African American history which appeared in the NARA publication Prologue, (Summer 1997, vol. 29, no. 2).
- A Guiding Light
- From the NARA publication Prologue, (Summer 1997, vol. 29, no. 2) this article by Debra Newman Ham highlights her research into black history records at the National Archives.
- Black Family Research: Using Records of the Post Civil War Federal Agencies at the National Archives
- Reconstruction-era Federal Records document the black family's struggle for freedom and equality and provide insight into the Federal Government's policy toward the nearly 4 million African Americans freed at the close of the American Civil War.
- Black Studies: a Select Catalog of National Archives Microfilm Publications
-
This 1984 catalog lists NARA's microfilm publications on Black studies.
To search this catalog online:- From the main Microfilm Catalog page, click Advanced Search (next to the Search button)
- In the right hand column, under Subject Catalog, select "Black Studies"
- Hit "Search"
- Documentation of African Americans in Federal Records
- Online version of an article from Prologue, the quarterly journal of the National Archives and Records Administration.
- Documenting African Americans in the Records of Military Agencies
- This article by Lisha Penn, from the NARA publication Prologue, (Summer 1997, vol. 29, no. 2)
reports on her progress in developing Reference Information Paper 105 (RIP 105), Records of Military
Agencies Relating to African Americans from the Post World War I Period to the Korean War (2000).
- Federal Records and African American History
-
An online version of a special edition of Prologue, with topical contributions from many NARA staff members. The introduction was written by Walter B. Hill, Jr.
- Freedman's Bureau Preservation Project
- (Prologue Summer 2002)
Reginald Washington's article on the preservation of post-Civil War era records documenting the federal government's assistance to newly freed slaves by the National Archives and Records Administration.
- Freedmen's Bureau Records: An Overview
- This article by Elaine C. Everly appeared in the Summer 1997 edition of the NARA publication, Prologue.
- From Slave Women to Free Women: The National Archives and Black Women's History in the Civil War Era
- This article from NARA's publication, Prologue, was written by Noralee Frankel and appeared in the Summer 1997 edition.
- Institutions of Memory and the Documentation of African Americans in Federal Records
- By Walter B. Hill, Jr., this article appeared in the Summer 1997 edition of NARA's publication, Prologue.
- Voices of African Americans in Federal Records
- This introduction to the summer 1997 issue of Prologue was written by John W. Carlin, Archivist of the United States.
- African American History and Culture
- (Smithsonian Institution)
This site contains selected links to sites hosted by Smithsonian Institution museums and organizations. - African American History and Culture
- (National Park Service)
This National Park site covers slavery, the underground railroad, African-American participation in the War of 1812 and the Civil War, Black women's history, and the African-American Sailors' Project. - African-American History Month,
50 Years of Change
- (U.S. Census Bureau)
- The African-American Mosaic
- This is a Library of Congress resource guide for the study of Black history and culture.
- African American Odyssey
- According to Choice magazine, this Library of Congress virtual exhibition was designed to "give a comprehensive, rich picture of more than 200 years of African American struggle and achievement."
- Afro-American Genealogical Research
- (Library of Congress)
Instructions on how to begin Afro-American genealogical research. - Books and sources for images on African American history
- (Library of Congress)
A bibliographic reference aid from LC's Prints and Photographs Division.
- The Daniel A.P. Murray Pamphlet Collection
- (Library of Congress)
Full-text manuscripts documenting African-American history and culture from the early 19th through the 20th centuries. - Time line of African American History, 1852-1925
- Part of the Daniel A.P. Murray Collection at the Library of Congress, this time line presents a panoramic and eclectic review of African-American history and culture.
- African American Biographical Database
- According to Chadwyck-Healey, this database is the largest electronic collection of biographical information on African Americans, 1790-1950. Click "Search" in the left-hand panel to access tips for locating individuals or searching full-text subjects.
- African American History: Digital Library
- This site links black history information in libraries across the country. Subjects range from personal papers and manuscripts to sheet music to transcripts of speeches.
- The African-American Journey
- A compilation of PBS sites that focus on the African-American experience. Sites are organized into topics such as History, Politics, People, Video, and links for teachers.
- After Slavery: Race, Labor and Politics in the Post-Emancipation Carolinas
- This web site is an international research collaboration drawing together developments of the post-emancipation South and understanding the period to be an important part aof American labor history.
- African-American Women On-line Archive
- A site dedicated to significant African-American Women that is sponsored by Duke University.
- African American Women Writers of the 19th Century
- (New York Public Library)
The African American Women Writers of the 19th Century site is an online collection of 52 full-text works. - African-Americans- Biography, Autobiography, and History
- This web site, hosted by the Avalon Project at Yale Law School, makes accessible a number of full-text books by notable Black authors including Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, and Martin Luther King Jr.
- Africans in America
- (Public Broadcasting Corporation)
This well-organized PBS site was designed as a teaching guide for a six-hour television series covering the history of slavery in the U.S. - Black History, American History
- A collection of essays by African-American public intellectuals which have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly over the years. The contributors include Frederick Douglass (1866), Booker T. Washington, (1896, 1899) and W.E.B. DuBois (1897, 1902) and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1963).
- Black History Journal
- You can follow black history throughout time sponsored by Devry University.
- Black History Month
- Infoplease.com has assembled this collection of resources and features to honor Black History month. Features include information on personalities of note, statistics, a Civil Rights Time line, quizzes, and a new biography each day.
- The Britannica Guide to Black History
- Encyclopedia Britannica's online guide to African-American History covers the years 1619-1999. This site offers a comprehensive time line and information on terms, people, and eras relating to Black History.
- Information Resources on African American Studies
- This Stanford University site is a good site for beginning Black History research.
- The John Henrik Clarke Africana Library
- This Cornell University library provides a special collection focusing on the history and culture of people of African ancestry.
- John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American Documentation
- Part of the Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, this collection highlights archival material concerning African-American history and culture, with particular strengths in nineteenth century slavery and African-American life in the post-World War II civil rights era
- Moorland-Spingarn Research Center
- At Howard University, the MSRC is recognized as one of the world's largest and most comprehensive repositories for the documentation of the history and culture of people of African descent in Africa, the Americas, and other parts of the world.
- W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for Afro-American Research
- At Harvard University, the Institute is the nation's oldest research center dedicated to the study of the "history, culture, and social institutions of African Americans."
State, Regional, and Local Research
- The African-American Experience in Ohio, 1850-1920
- Search or browse the Ohio Historical Society's collections relating to African-Americans in Ohio.
- African American History of Western New York
- The Mathematics Department at the University of Buffalo sponsors this research project to study the historical presence of blacks in western New York State from 1700 to 2000.
- African Americans: Finding Aid, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Archives
- Listing of collections relating to African Americans in Wisconsin and particularly the Milwaukee area.
- African Missouri
- The University of Missouri-St. Louis provides links to information, articles, and narratives on the history of African Americans in St. Louis.
- Guide to African-American History at the Missouri State Archives
- This site is full of links to research in the Missouri State Archives. Of particular interest are:
- Guide to African American History
- Time line of Missouri's African American History
- Missouri's Dred Scott Case, 1846-1857
- Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture
- The College of Charleston, South Carolina, documents the "history and culture of African Americans in Charleston and the South Carolina Low Country."
- Black Archives of Mid-America
- This project is a collaboration between the Black Archives of Mid-America Inc. and the Kansas City Public Library. Funded by the Missouri State Library, it is the largest repository of African American history and artifacts in the Midwest, particularly in the four-state area of Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, and Oklahoma.
- Documenting the American South
- This collection at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, contains sources on Southern history, literature and culture from the colonial period through the first decades of the 20th century.
- Guide to African-American Documentary Resources in North Carolina
- Afro-American Sources in Virginia: A Guide to Manuscripts
- The University of Virginia Press provides full-text links to these valuable online publications.
- National Archives for Black Women's History
- (Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site, Washington, D.C.)
The mission of this site is to "identify, collect, develop, interpret, and preserve the legacy of Mary McLeod Bethune including her unique focus on the individual and collective history of African American women." - Records relating to African Americans in the New York State Archives
- New York State Archives Leaflet No. 8; 1997.
- Allegany County African American History
- Western Maryland's Historical Library provides a list of African American individuals, groups and organizations of Allegany and surrounding counties.
Military
- African Americans During World War I
- Historical background and photographs of the 369th Army Regiment. A celebration of one of World War I's finest troops.
- African-Americans in Military History
- An extensive bibliography of documents relating to African-American military involvement. Maxwell Air Force Base offers current suggestions for internet, video, and print media materials relating to the roles African-American played in every major American war.
- African American Warriors
- This site contains primary and secondary source material on African Americans in the military.
- Black Dispatches: Black American Contributions to Union Intelligence During the Civil War
- (Central Intelligence Agency)
This publication originally appeared in the Winter 1998-1999 edition of Studies in Intelligence, a journal published by the CIA's Center for the Study of Intelligence. - Black Men in Navy Blue during the Civil War
- A history of black participates in the Navy during the Civil War. An article from the NARA publication, Prologue, by Joseph P. Reidy.
- Black Wings: African American Pioneer Aviators
- (Smithsonian Institution, National Air and Space Museum)
This online exhibit is about the early black pioneers of aviation who learned to fly despite formidable obstacles. - Documenting African Americans in the Records of Military Agencies
- (National Archives and Records Administration)
This article by Lisha Penn, from the NARA publication Prologue, (Summer 1997, vol. 29, no. 2) reports on her progress in developing Reference Information Paper 105 (RIP 105), Records of Military Agencies Relating to African Americans from the Post World War I Period to the Korean War (2000). - Exploring the life and history of the "Buffalo Soldiers"
- (National Archives and Records Administration)
Walter Hill, author of this article in The Record, and an archivist at NARA, writes about the black military presence during the Civil War period, and after the war, when the members of the 10th Calvary acquired the name "Buffalo Soldiers" during the 1871 campaign against the Comanche Indians. - The Fight for Equal Rights: Black Soldiers in the Civil War
- This is a NARA "Teaching with Documents" lesson plan on Colored Troops during the Civil War.
- Military Resources: Blacks in the Military
- An ALIC Reference at Your Desk page on the participation of Blacks in the military.
- Preserving the Legacy of the United States Colored Troops
- Documents and information related to the treatment of African American POWs in the Civil War.
- Researching African Americans in the U.S. Army, 1866-1890: Buffalo Soldiers and Black Infantrymen
- An article by Trevor Plante from the Spring 2001 issue of the NARA publication Prologue.
Photographs/Photographers
- The American Image: Portrait of Black Chicago Part 1
- (National Archives and Records Administration)
An exhibit of photographs taken by John White of Chicago during the 1970s.
- The American Image: Portrait of Black Chicago Part 2
- (National Archives and Records Administration)
Second part of an exhibit of Black Chicago photographs taken by John White during the 1970s. - Creative Portraits by Carl Van Vechten, 1932-1964
- (Library of Congress)
The Carl Van Vechten Photographs Collection at LC consists mainly of portraits of celebrities, including many from the Harlem Renaissance. - Images of African Americans from the 19th Century
- (New York City Public Library)
Digital images from the Schomburg Collection - James VanDerZee
- From the Art Institute of Chicago, James VanDerZee was one of the first African-American photographers of the 20th century. Self-taught, he became known as the photographer of choice for some of Harlem's most illustrious residents.
- Through the Lens of Time: Images of African Americans from the Cook Collection of Photographs
- This collection includes nearly 300 images of African Americans dating from the 19th and early 20th centuries, primarily in the Richmond and central Virginia area.
- Archives of African American Music and Culture
- (Indiana University)
Established in 1991, the AAAMC is a repository of materials covering musical idioms and cultural expressions from the post-World War II era. - African-American Sheet Music, 1850-1920
- (Library of Congress)
This collection consists of 1,305 pieces of African-American sheet music dating from 1850 through 1920, including many songs from the heyday of antebellum black face minstrelsy in the 1850s and from the abolitionist movement of the same period. - Black Film Center/Archive
- (Indiana University)
A repository of films and related materials by and about African Americans. - Center for Black Music Research
- (Columbia College Chicago)
This collection documents, collects, preserves, and disseminates information about black music in all parts of the world. - Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
- The CFCH, part of the Smithsonian Institution, promotes the understanding and continuity of contemporary grassroots cultures in the United States and abroad.
- Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
- (New York City Public Library)
This web site for the New York Public Library's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture now features the following digital exhibits:- African American Women Writers of the 19th Century;
- Images of African Americans from the 19th Century;
- Harlem 1900-1940: an African American Community;
- The Schomburg Legacy: Documenting the Global Black Experience for the 21st Century;
- In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience;
- The African Presence in the Americas, 1492-1992.
- Freedom's Journal
- The State Historical Society of Wisconsin has made available in digital format all 103 issues of the first African-American owned and operated newspaper published in the United States (1827-1829).
- National Center for the Study of Civil Rights and African-American Culture
- Alabama State University's Center declares its mission to serve as a clearinghouse for information concerning Montgomery, Alabama's pivotal role in the shaping and development of modern civil rights movement, and to preserve and disseminate information which reflects socioeconomic conditions, political culture, and history of African Americans in Montgomery, Alabama.
- A Nigerian Yoruba Naming Ceremony
- Part of the Smithsonian Institution's African Immigrant Folklife Study Project, this site
follows the traditions involved in a naming ceremony, performed in the Washington, DC area.
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