Biographical Resources (Print and Online)
African American Biographical DatabaseProvides biographical profiles and extended narratives of African Americans from all walks of life.
American National Biography
Standard biographical source for deceased Americans, including many famous African Americans.
Biography Resource Center
Information from sources such as Dictionalry of American Biography and Contemporary Authors is provided.
Contemporary black biography: profiles form the international black community. A multi-volume set. Detroit:Gale,1992.
Dictionary of American Negro Biography. New York: Norton, 1982. No living persons included, cut off date 1970.
Homespun heroines and other women of distinction. Xenia, Ohio: Aldine Pub., 1926
Men of Mark: eminent, progressive, and rising. Cleveland, Ohio: G.M. Rewell, 1887.
Notable black American men. Detroit: Gale, 1998.
Notable black American Scientists. Detroit: Gale, 1999.
Notable black American women. 2vols. Detroit: Gale, 1992-
Noted Negro women: their triumphs and activities. Chicago: Donohue & Henneberry, 1893.
Who's who among African Americans. New York: Gale, 1996.
Who's who in colored America: a biographical dictionary of notable living persons of African descent in America, 1928-
Encyclopedias, Dictionaries, Handbooks, Etc.
African Americans in the media today: an encyclopedia. 2 vols. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2007.
Africana: the encyclopedia of the African and African American experience. New York: Basic Civitas Books, 1999.
Entries range from topics such as the family, religion, health, and the law to the fine arts, music, the media, and literature.
Black American writers past and present: a biographical and bibliographical dictionary. 2 vols.
Black firsts: 4, 000 ground-breaking and pioneering events. Detroit: Visible Ink Press, 2003.
Black literature criticism. 3vols. Detroit: Gale Research, 1992.
Provides extracts from critical studies of African American literature.
Black women in America: an historical encyclopedia. 2vols. Brooklyn, N.Y.: Carlson Pub., 1993.
Includes biographical essays on individual black women and entries on general topics and organizations.
Blacks in American films and television: an encyclopedia. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988.
Dictionary of literary biography. Detroit, MI: Gale, 1984-
Volumes 33, 38, 41, 50, 51, and 76 provide information on African American authors and their works.
Directory of African American religious bodies. Washington, DC: Howard University Press, 1995.
Encyclopedia of African-American culture and history. 5 vols. New York: Macmillan Library Reference, 1996.
Contains biographical essays, events and cultural achievements.
Encyclopedia of African-American culture and history: the black experience in the Americas. 6 vols. Detroit: Macmillan Refernce USA, 2006.
Encyclopedia of African American religions. NY, Garland Pub., 1993.
Provides entries on major religious leaders, denominations, religious groups, and organizations.
Encyclopedia of African American history 1619-1895: from the colonial period to the age of Frederick Douglass. 3 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
Encyclopedia of African American society. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications, 2005.
Encyclopedia of American race riots. 2 vols. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood press, 2007.
Encyclopedia of slave resistance and rebellion. 2 vols. Westport, Conn.; Greenwood press, 2007.
The Greenwood encyclopedia of African American civil rights: from emancipation to the twenty-first century. 2 vols. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2003.
Historic black landmarks. Detroit: Visible Ink, 1991.
Covers more than 300 sites in the U.S. and Ontario, including archives, museums, houses, gravesites, churches and libraries.
Juba to jive: a dictionary of African American slang. New York: Penguin Books, 1994.
A collection of African American words and phrases and their definitions.
Just permanent interests: black Americans in Congress, 1870-1991. New York: Amistad Press, 1992.
My soul looks back, 'less I forget: a collection of quotations by people of color. New York: HarperCollins, 1993.
The Negro handbook, 1942. New York : Current Books, 1942.
Negro year book: an annual encyclopedia of the Negro, 1918-. Tuskegee, Ala.: Negro year Book Pub.
The New York Public Library African American Desk Reference. New York: Wiley, 1999.
Reference library of black America. 5 vols. Detroit: Gale, 2000
Directories
The African American yellow pages: a comprehensive resource guide and directory. New York: Henry Holt, 1996.The Black resource guide: the 1990-91 edition. Washington, DC: R.B. Johnson.
Directory of blacks in the performing arts. Metuchen, N. J.: Scarecrow Press, 1990.
Freedom's lawmakers: a directory of black office holders during Reconstruction. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Statistics
Historical statistics of Black America. New York: Gale Research, 1995. v. 1-2Negro population in the United States, 1790-1915. New York: Arno Press, 1968.
Population distribution in Colonial America. New York; AMS Press, 1966.
The State of Black America, 1979- . New York: National Urban League.
Statistical record of Black America. Detroit: Gale Research,1997.
U.S. Census Bureau: African Americans
Databases
Use these databases to locate articles in journals, magazines, and newspapers. In addition, book chapters, conference proceedings, dissertations, research reports, and other materials may be used. Since African American Studies is interdisciplinary and covers various subjects, consider searching across disciplines. Additional databases can be located at All Research Databases. See also, Subject & Course Guides, such as African American Studies, and History.Discipline-Specific Databases
EducationERICLiterature
Indexes published and unpublished sources of educational topics.
HistoryContains poems by African American poets of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
ABELL (Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature)
Provides citations to books, articles, and book reviews of literary works from anywhere in the world from 1920 to present.
Black Drama
Contains the full-text of about 1, 200 plays written from the mid 1800s to the present by playwrights from North America, English-speaking Africa, the Caribbean, and other African diaspora countries.
Black Short Fiction
Contains the full text of about 800 stories and folktales by African, African American, and Caribbean authors.
MLA International Bibliography
Indexes materials on literature, linguistics, and folklore, from all over the world.
Literature Online (LION)
Criticism and other works for English and American poetry, drama and prose.
Twentieth-Century African American Poetry
Provides full-text access to almost 9,000 poems.
African American History (Library of Congress)
Provides access to manuscripts, rare books, government documents, and other sources.
America: History & Life
Provides abstracts of scholarly literature on the history and culture of the United States and Canada from prehisoric to the present.
Documenting the American South (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
"Documenting the American South (DocSouth) is a digital publishing initiative that provides internet access to texts, images, and audio files related to southern history, literature, and culture."
Encyclopedia Britannica's Guide to Black History
Music
African American Music Reference
African American Song
Covers a diverse range of generes such as jazz, blues, gospel, ragtime, folk songs, and more.
Center For Black Music Research
Coverage includes jazz, gospel, calypso, rhythm & blues, reggae, salsa, and hip-hop among others.
International Index to Music Periodicals
Indexes international music journals and periodicals 1874 to present.
RILM Abstracts of Music Literature
Covers all aspects of music, including historical musicology, instruments and voice, dance and music therapy. If related to music, works in other fields are included.
Social Work
SociologySocial Services Abstracts
Abstracts and indexes journals related to social work, community development, and social policy among others.
Social Work Abstracts
Contains abstracts of articles "from social work and other related journals on topics such as homelessness, AIDS, child and family welfare, aging, substance abuse, legislation, community organization ... ."
Sociological Abstracts
Covers topics in sociology and related disciplines such as anthropology, education, medicine, and community development, among others.
Women's Studies
Contemporary Women's Issues
Indexes journals, newsletters, and research reports in the fields of education, sociology, psychology, health, business, law, and more.
GenderWatch
Provides publications that focus on the impact of gender across a broad spectrum of subject areas.
Gerritsen Collection: Women's History Online, 1543-1945
A major source for topics such as feminism and the movement for women's rights.
North American Women's Letters and Diaries
A full-text database of women's diaries and correspondence, from Colonial times to 1950.
Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000
Multidisciplinary Databases
Academic Search Premier
Indexes scholarly articles in the social sciences, business, humanities, general science, multi-cultural studies, and education.
Coverage includes history, politics, legal and constitutional issues, business, media, music, literature and more. Entries are drawn from a wide range of materials including, enclyclopedias and other secondary source materials, primary source documents, audio clips, images, maps, and photographs.
Alternative Press Index
Indexes alternative, radical, and left publications. Topics covered include anarchism, democracy, ecology, feminism, labor, national liberation, socialism, and more.
Black Thought and Culture
Non-fiction published works of leading African Americans including, monographys, journal articles, letters, essays, speeches, and interviews.
Ethnic NewsWatch
Provides full-text access to "newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press."
Humanities Index (1907-)
Broadly ranging coverage of articles in a variety of humanities fields, including archaeology,
area studies, classical studies, dance, communications, journalism, philosophy, theology and more.
International Bibliography of the Social Sciences
Indexes journals and books in the fields of economics, political science, sociology, and anthropology.
International Index to Black Periodicals Full-Text
Provides bibliographic citations of journals and newsletters from the United
States, Africa, and the Caribbean. Includes disciplines such as art, cultural criticism, economics, education,
health, history, langualge and literature, law, philosophy, politics, religion, and sociology. In addition,
there is full-text coverage of about 20 Black Studies journals.
JSTOR
Full-text archive of core journals in select disciplines including African American Studies, usually journal issues from the most recent 3-5 years are not available.
Oxford African American Studies Center
Contains resources for research in African American Studies, African Studies, Minority Studies, History, Art, Law and Literature.
PAIS International and PAIS Archive
Indexes and abstracts books, journals, US and foreign government reports and documents, and the publications of many international organizations such as, the United Nations and the World Bank. Subjects covered include, public policy, international affairs, demography, politices, and economics.
Project MUSE
Provides access to full-text articles for more than 100 scholarly journals published by major university presses.
Readers' Guide Retrospective (1890-1982)
Provides citations to articles in popular and general interest magazines, covering the period 1890-1982
Social Sciences Index (1907-)
Subjects covered include anthropology, ecomomics, gender studies, minority studies, plitical sciences, psychology, and sociology.
Primary Sources Online
Use these to find historical documents such as, autobiographies, firsthand accounts, speeches, interviews, diaries, and letters.
African American Newspapers: The 19th Century
Provides complete text of the major African American newspapers published in the United States during the 19th century. Newspapers included are: The Christian Recorder (1861-1902), The Colored American (1837-1841), Frederick Douglass Papers (1851-1859), Freedom's Journal (1827-1829), The National Era (1847-1860), The North Star (1847-1851), and Provincial Freeman (1854-1857)
American Memory from the Library of Congress
Digitized documents, rare books, manuscripts, pamphlets, photographs, sound recordings, slave narratives, and other collections.
American Slave Narratives (University of Virginia)
"These former slaves, most born in the last years of the slave regime or during the Civil War, provided first-hand accounts of their experiences on plantations, in cities, and on small farms."
Documenting the American South (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
"Primary resources for the study of southern history, literature, and culture ... "
Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800
Materials indexed include fiction and non fiction covering almost every aspect of America life in the 17th and 18th century.
Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819
Early American Newspapers, Series I, 1690-1876
Provides full-text access to hundreds of newspapers published in America from 1690-1876.
Making of America (University of Michigan)
"Making of America (MoA) is a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. The collection is particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, science and technology... . The collection currently contains approximately 9, 000 books and 50, 000 journal articls with 19th centrry imprints."
Pennsylvania Gazette 1728-1800
The Pennsylvania Gazatte is considered the "New York Times of the 18 Century."
Manuscript and archival collections at Temple University Libraries
Special Collections Department (Temple University Libraries)Other Philadelphia Area Resources for manuscripts and archival collections
Urban Archives (Temple University Libraries)
African American Museum in PhiladelphiaDissertations and Theses
Historical Society of Pennsylvania
"Even before the merger with the Balch Institute, the Historical Society had significant holdings related to ethnic and immigrant history, particularly regarding African Americans ... "
Library Company of Philadelphia
Print IndexesAfrican American Theses and Dissertations
Contains about 600 theses and dissertations on African American topics completed at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1907 to 2002.
Proquest Dissertations & Theses
Comprehensive source for information of doctoral dissertaions and master's theses from universities in the United States and Canada. Temple University dissertations since 1997are free for downloading.Proquest Dissertations & Theses @ Temple University
Only contains Temple dissertatons and theses.
Black Biography, 1790-1950: a cumulative index. 3 vols. Alexandria, Va: Chadwyck-Healey, 1991.Newspapers
Index to black periodicals. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1984- Previous titles: Index to periodical articles by and about blacks (1974-1983) and Index to periodical articles by and about Negroes (1960-1972)
In black and white: a guide to magazine articles, newspaper articles, and books concerning more than, 15, 000 black individuals and groups, Detroit: Gale, 1980.
The Kaiser index to Black resources, 1948-1986. 5 vols. Brooklyn, N.Y.: Carlson Pub.,1992.
Access World News
Access to hunderds of newspapers including many Pennsylvania papers.
African American Newspapers: The 19th Century
Provides complete text of the major African American newspapers published in the United States during the 19th century.
Ethnic NewsWatch
Contains full-text articles from the minority press in the United States
LexisNexis Academic
Full-text of news, business, legal, medical, and industry information.
Bibliographies and Research Tools
African American history in the press, 1851-1899: from the coming of the Civil War to the rise of Jim Crow as reported and illustrated in selected newspapers of the time. Detroit, MI: Gale Research, 1996.
A commented bibliography of one hundred and one influential books by and about people of African descent, 1556-1982: a collector's choice. Amsterdam: Gerits & Sons, 1989.
Ham, Debra Newman. Black history: a guide to civilian records in the National Archives. Washington, D.C.: National Archives Trust Fund Board, General Services Administration, 1984.
Hodge, Ruth E. Guide to African American resources at the Pennsylvania State Archives. Harrisburg, Pa.: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 2000.
Igoe, Lynn. 250 years of Afro-American art: an annotated bibliography. New York: Bowker, 1981.
Miller, Wayne Charles. A comprehensive bibliography for the study of American minorities. New York: New York University Press, 1976.
Moebs, Thomas Truxtun. Black soldiers - black sailors - black ink: research guide on African Americans in U.S. military history, 1526-1900. Chesapeake Bay: Moebs Pub. Co.,1994.
Newman, Richard. Black access: a bibliography of Afro-American bibliographies. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1984.
Porter, Dorthy Burnett. The Negro in the United States: a selected bibliography. Washington: Library of Congress, 1970.
Richards, Larry. African American films through 1959: a comprehensive, illustrated filmography. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1998.
Sims-Wood, Janet L. The Progress of Afro-American women: a selected bibliography and resource guide. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1980.
Work, Monroe Nathan. A bibliography of the Negro in Africa and America. New York: Argosy-Antiquarian, 1965.
Core List of Works on the History, Sociology, and Culture of Blacks
Aptheker, Herbert. Negro slave revolts in the United States, 1526-1860. New York: International Publishers, 1939.Blassingame, John W. The slave community: plantation life in the antebellum South. New York: Oxford University Press, 1972.
Bond, Horace Mann. Negro education in Alabama: a study in cotton and steel. Washington, DV. The Associated Publishers, 1939.
Cox, Oliver Cromwell. Caste, class & race: a study in social dynamics. Garden CIty, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1948.
Davis, Allison. Deep South: a social anthropological study of caste and race. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, 1941.
Drake, St. Claire, and Horace R. Cayton. Black metropolis: a study of Negro life in a northern city. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1945.
Dubois, W.E.B. The Philadelphia Negro: a social study. Philadelphia, Published for the university, 1899.
_____________. The souls of black folk: essays and sketches. Chicago: A.C. McClurg, 1903.
______________.The suppression of the African slave-trade to the United States of America, 1638-1870. New York: Schocken Books, 1969.
Foner, Philip S., ed. The life and writings of Frederick Douglass. 4 vols. New York: International Publishers, 1950-1955.
Franklin, John Hope. From slavery to freedom: a history of Negro Americans. New York: McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, 1988.
Frazier, Edward Franklin. The Negro family in the United States. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1966.
Genovese, Eugene D. Roll, Jordan, roll: the world the slaves made. New York: Vintage Books, 1976.
Greene, Lorenzo Johnston. The Negro in colonial New England. New York: Atheneum, 1968.
Gloria T. Hull, Patricia Bell Scott, and Barbara Smith, eds. All the women are white, all the blacks are men, but some of us are brave: Black women's studies. Old Westbury, N.Y.: Feminist Press, 1982.
Hill, Robert A., ed. The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association papers. 6 vols. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983-1990.
Hine, Darlene Clark. Black women in American history. 16 vols. Brooklyn, N.Y.: Carlson Pub., 1990
James, C.L.R. (Cyril Lionel Robert). The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution. New York: Vintage Books, 1963.
Jordan, Winthrop D. White over black: American attitudes toward the Negro, 1550-1812. Chapel Hill: N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1968.
Levine, Lawrence W. Black culture and black consciousness: Afro-American folk thought from slavery to freedom. New York: Oxford University Press, 1968.
Locke, Alain. The new Negro. New York: Atheneum, 1968.
Logan, Rayford Whittingham. The Negro in American life and thought: the nadir, 1877-1901. New York: Dial Press, 1954.
Myrdal, Gunnar. An American dilemma: the Negro problem and modern democracy. New York: Harper, 1944.
Painter, Nell Irvin. Exodusters: Black migration to Kansas after Reconstruction. New York: Knopf, 1977
Quarles, Benjamin. The Negro in the American Revolution. Chapel Hill: N.C. University of North Carolina Press, 1961.
Raboteau, Albertt J. Slave religion: the "invisible institution" in the Antebellum South. New York: Oxford University Press, 1978.
Redding, J. Saunders. To make a poet Black. Chapel Hill: Univ. of N. Carolina Press,1939.
Stampp, Kenneth M. The peculiar institution: slavery in the ante-bellum South. New York: Knopf, 1956.
Stucky, Sterling. Slave culture: nationalist theory and the foundations of black America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.