LibGuides: African American Studies: African American Studies Overview

Reference Resources

Using Reference Resources

The information on this page will help you gather background information for your research. Consult these reference books, databases, and websites to learn a more about your topic.

The reference resources listed below are a combination of library databases, standalone books or ebooks, films, and websites.

Reference Databases

Britannica Academic This link opens in a new window
Encyclopedia articles, geographic data, primary sources
Gale Virtual Reference Library This link opens in a new window
Encyclopedias, handbooks and dictionaries; all topics
SAGE Reference This link opens in a new window
Encyclopedias, handbooks and dictionaries; all topics.

Reference Websites

African American History Month
From the website: The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum join in paying tribute to the generations of African Americans who struggled with adversity to achieve full citizenship in American society.
BlackPast
From the website: This reference center with 7,377 posts is dedicated to providing information to the general public on African American history and the history of more than one billion people of African ancestry around the world.
Black Freedom Struggle in the United States
From the Website: This website is focused on Black Freedom, featuring select primary source documents related to critical people and events in African American history.
Civil Rights Digital Library
From the website: CRDL is a partnership among librarians, technologists, archivists, educators, scholars, academic publishers, and public broadcasters. The initiative receives support through a National Leadership Grant for Libraries awarded to the University of Georgia by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
SlaveVoyages
From the website: This digital memorial raises questions about the largest slave trades in history and offers access to the documentation available to answer them.

Reference Books

American Decades by Tompkins, Vincent; Baughman, Judith; Layman, Richard; McConnell, Tandy.
ISBN: 9781414411163
Publication Date: 2001
This is an ebook available through Gale Virtual Reference Library
The Cambridge History of African American Literature by Maryemma Graham (Editor); Jerry W. Ward (Editor)
Call Number: Upper Level PS153.N5 G685 2010
ISBN: 9780521872171
Publication Date: 2011-02-03
Complete Encyclopedia of African American History by African American Publications (various roles)
Call Number: Upper Level E185 .C72 2014
ISBN: 9780692711538
Publication Date: 2015-06-01
Encyclopedia of African-American culture and history the Black experience in the Americas by Palmer, Colin A.
ISBN: 0028660714
Publication Date: 2006
This is an ebook available through Gale Virtual Reference Library
Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Society by Richard T. Schaefer (Editor)
ISBN: 9781412926942
Publication Date: 2008-03-20
This ebook is available through SAGE Knowledge.

Films

African-American Lives: Listening to Our Past
From Films on Demand: This episode explores the post–World War I “Great Migration” of African-Americans to northern cities like Detroit and Chicago as well as those who stayed in the South during the period of Jim Crow segregation.
African-American Lives: Searching for Our Names
From Films on Demand: The challenge of genealogical research is even more evident as Henry Louis Gates Jr. continues back through the Colonial period of American history in this program.
African-American Lives: The Promise of Freedom
From Films on Demand: This program looks at how African-Americans defined their freedom after slavery.
African-American Lives: Beyond the Middle Passage
From Films on Demand: In this episode, when the paper trail runs out, Henry Louis Gates Jr. visits scientists who are using DNA analysis to trace ancestral roots.