Africa Focus: Sights and Sounds of a Continent
Includes sound and visual materials from the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections.
African American Heritage
From the National Archives, includes and intrroduction to African American research and primary source materials
Afro-American History Series
Reproduction of documents relating to Black history in America
Main Micro Fiche 1182(58 microfiche)
The Bayard Rustin Papers (microform)
A civil rights activist and colleague of Dr. Martin Luther King.
Online through Black Freedom Struggle
Black Abolitionist Papers, 1830-1865
Main Micro Film 2374
Guide to the Papers: Main Micro Index E449 .B625 1981
Also online through Black Studies Center
Black Culture Collection
Selected books, pamphlets, theses, and periodicals from the Trevor-Arnett Library at Atlanta University.
Main Micro Film #1701-1881
Guide: Main Micro Index GN645 B55 guide
The Black Women Oral History Project : From the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Radcliffe College,
Main Libr E185.86 .B544 1991
Black Workers in the Era of the Great Migration, 1916-1929 (microform)
Main Micro Film #2536-2560
Guide: Main Micro Index E185.8 .B562 guide
Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938
More than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves.
Credo (Du Bois Online)-released July 2011
The digital collections at UMass Amherst; includes Du Bois' photos, correspondence, essays, lectures, papers and notes, and documents related to the Niagara Movement and the early history of the NAACP.
Documenting the American South
A collection of primary resources for the study of Southern history, literature, & culture.
New Deal Agencies and Black America in the 1930s (microform)
Main Micro Film #1941-1965
Guide: Main Micro Index JK723.A34 N48 guide
Southern Life and Slavery, Plantations Records
Civil Rights and the Black Freedom Struggle
Primary source materials from organizations, including SCLC, ACOA, and Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and personal papers, including Claude Barnett and Bayard Rustin
Civil Rights During the Johnson Administration, 1963-1969: A Collection From the Holdings of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, Austin Texas. (microform)
Main Micro Film #2490-2535
Civil Rights During the Kennedy Administration, 1961-1963: A collection From the Holdings of the John F. Kennedy Library, Boston, Massachusetts(microform)
Main Micro Film #2601-2619
Guide: Main Micro Index JC599 .U5 C567 guide
Historical Publications of the United States Commission on Civil Rights: Thurgood Marshall Law Library
"The Marshall Law Library has been digitizing the historic documents of this important Commission, which since 1957, has attempted to examine issues dealing with race, ethnicity, religion, and, more recently, sexual orientation."
NAACP Papers: Complete Papers
In 6 parts, includes the entire collection formerly on microfilm.
NAACP Papers: Guide to the collection
The Papers of the Congress of Racial Equality: Addendum, 1944-1968 (microform)
Main Micro Film #2276-2300
Guide: Main Micro Index E185.61 C67P3 Suppl. guide
Guide:Main Micro Index E185.61 N3P3
President Truman's Committee on Civil Rights (microform)
Main Micro Film #1991-2000
Guide: Main Micro Index E185.61 .P647 guide
Records of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, 1954-1970 (Civil Rights and the Black Freedom Struggle)
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. served as president of the SCLC from its founding in 1957 until his assassination in April 1968.
U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division
A good source for researching federal civil rights policy, this site includes a FAQ page, committee and task reports. A good source when researching federal civil rights policy.
FBI: FOIA/Privacy Website
Provides access to information from the FBI’s Central Records System, including previously inaccessible files on civil rights figures.
FBI File on Paul Robeson (microform)
Main Micro Film #2391-2392
Guide to the file is at Main Micro Index E185.97 R63F4 guide
Federal Surveillance of African Americans, 1920-1984
Federal Surveillance of Afro-Americans (1917-1925): The First World War, The Red Scare, and The Garvey Movement (microform)
Main Micro Film #1966-1990
Guide to the collection is at Main Micro Index E185.61 .F434 1985 guide
Marcus Garvey: FBI Investigation File (microform)
FBI file papers, including clipping from the New York Times, dating from 1921-1971
Main Micro Film #1615
Sample documents available at:
The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association..
The Martin Luther King, Jr. FBI File (microform)
Main Micro Film #3092 (25 reels)
Guide: Main Micro Index E185.97.K5 M34 guide
Accessible Archives
Includes African American newspapers published in the 18th and 19th century
African American Newspapers (1827-1998)
Full text of more than 270 newspapers
Chicago Defender
Full text published from 1910-1975
New Amsterdam News
Full text published from 1922-1993
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.
Main Ref E185.2 .A25 1996
Antebellum Black Newspapers: indices to New York Freedom's Journal (1827-1829), The Rights of All (1829), The Weekly Advocate (1837), and The Colored American (1837-1841)
These newspapers are available in full text through Accessible Archives or African American Newspapers
Main Ref E185.5 .J33
Records of Ante-Bellum Southern Plantations from the Revolution Through the Civil War, Series C, Selections from the holdings of the Library of Congress, part 1 [microform]
Main Micro Film #3086 no. 1-8
Guide: Main Microform Index HD1471 .U5 R45 ser. C
Records of Ante-Bellum Southern Plantations from the Revolution Through the Civil War, Series E, Selections from the University of Virginia Library, University of Virginia, part 2 [microform]
Main Micro Film #3087 no. 1-26
Guide: Main Micro. Index HD1471.U5 R45 ser. E, pt. 2-3
For other national and international newspapers, see Databases and Indexes in this guide.
Primary Sources at Bates or Colby
Papers of the NAACP. Part 21, Relations with the modern civil rights movement, 1956-1965 (microform) 22 reels and printed guide
Records of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, 1895-1992 (microform) 26 reels and printed guide
