LibGuides: Ethnic Studies: African American Studies

Resources by Type

The 1619 Project by Caitlin Roper, Ilena Silverman, & Jake Silverstein (Eds.)
Call Number: 973 1619
Publication Date: 2021-11-16
In late August 1619, a ship arrived in the British colony of Virginia bearing a cargo of twenty to thirty enslaved people from Africa. Their arrival led to the barbaric and unprecedented system of American chattel slavery that would last for the next 250 years. This is sometimes referred to as the country’s original sin, but it is more than that: It is the source of so much that still defines the United States.
An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States by Kyle T. Mays
Call Number: 973.049 MAYS
Publication Date: 2021
The first intersectional history of the Black and Native American struggle for freedom in our country that also reframes our understanding of who was Indigenous in early America
Afro-Latin American Studies by Alejandro de la Fuente (Editor); George Reid Andrews (Editor)
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2018
Alejandro de la Fuente and George Reid Andrews offer the first systematic, book-length survey of humanities and social science scholarship on the exciting field of Afro-Latin American studies. Organized by topic, these essays synthesize and present the current state of knowledge on a broad variety of topics, including Afro-Latin American music, religions, literature, art history, political thought, social movements, legal history, environmental history, and ideologies of racial inclusion.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X
Call Number: 921 X
Publication Date: 1965
In the searing pages of this classic autobiography, Malcolm X, the Muslim leader, firebrand, and anti-integrationist, tells the extraordinary story of his life and the growth of the Black Muslim movement.
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Call Number: 305.8 COATES
Publication Date: 2015
A powerful new framework for understanding our nation's history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of "race," a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men--bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion
Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist's Memoir of the Jim Crow South by Winfred Rembert
Call Number: 759.13 Rembert
Publication Date: 2021
Winfred Rembert grew up in a family of Georgia field laborers and joined the Civil Rights Movement as a teenager. He was arrested after fleeing a demonstration, survived a near-lynching at the hands of law enforcement, and spent seven years on chain gangs. Vivid, confrontational, revelatory, and complex, Chasing Me to My Grave is a searing memoir in prose and painted leather that celebrates Black life and summons readers to confront painful and urgent realities at the heart of American history and society.
Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting Work War II at Home and Abroad by Matthew F. Delmont
Call Number: 940.54 Delmont
Publication Date: 2022
Over one million Black men and women served in World War II. Black troops were at Normandy, Iwo Jima, and the Battle of the Bulge, serving in segregated units and performing unheralded but vital support jobs, only to be denied housing and educational opportunities on their return home. Without their crucial contributions to the war effort, the United States could not have won the war. And yet the stories of these Black veterans have long been ignored, cast aside in favor of the myth of the "Good War" fought by the "Greatest Generation." In a time when the questions World War II raised regarding race and democracy in America remain troublingly relevant and still unanswered, this meticulously researched retelling makes for urgently necessary reading.
King: A Life by Jonathan Eig
Call Number: 921 King, M.
Publication Date: 2023
The first major biography in decades of the civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.--and the first to include recently declassified FBI files. In this revelatory new portrait of the preacher and activist who shook the world, the bestselling biographer gives us an intimate view of the courageous and often emotionally troubled human being who demanded peaceful protest for his movement but was rarely at peace with himself.
Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom by Ilyon Woo
Call Number: 306.362 WOO
Publication Date: 2023
The remarkable true story of Ellen and William Craft, who escaped slavery through daring, determination, and disguise, with Ellen passing as a wealthy, disabled White man and William posing as "his" slave.
The Movement: The African American Struggle for Civil Rights by Thomas C. Holt
Call Number: 323.1196 Holt
Publication Date: 2021
Provides an informed and nuanced understanding of the origins, character, and objectives of the mid-twentieth-century freedom struggle, privileging the aspirations and initiatives of the ordinary, grassroots people who made it. Holt conveys a sense of these developments as a social movement, one that shaped its participants even as they shaped it.
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
Call Number: 364.973 ALEXANDER
Publication Date: 2010
Despite the triumphant dismantling of the Jim Crow Laws, the system that once forced African Americans into a segregated second-class citizenship still haunts America, the US criminal justice system still unfairly targets black men and an entire segment of the population is deprived of their basic rights.
Policing Black Bodies: How Black Lives Are Surveilled and How to Work for Change by Angela J. Hattery; Earl Smith
Call Number: 364.349 Hattery
Publication Date: 2017
Hattery and Smith make a compelling case that the policing of Black bodies goes far beyond these individual stories of brutality. They connect the regulation of African American people in many settings, including the public education system and the criminal justice system, into a powerful narrative about the myriad ways
The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. Du Bois
Call Number: 323.092 DU BOIS
ISBN: 9780140189988
Publication Date: 1903
When The Souls of Black Folk was first published in 1903, it had a galvanizing effect on the conversation about race in America - and it remains both a touchstone in the literature of African America and a beacon in the fight for civil rights. W. E. B. Du Bois combines history and stirring autobiography to reflect on the magnitude of American racism and to chart a path forward against oppression.
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi
Call Number: 305.8 KENDI
Publication Date: 2016
In this deeply researched and fast-moving narrative, Kendi chronicles the entire story of anti-black racist ideas and their staggering power over the course of American history. He uses the life stories of five major American intellectuals to drive this history: Puritan minister Cotton Mather, Thomas Jefferson, abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, W.E.B. Du Bois, and legendary activist Angela Davis.
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Beverly Daniel Tatum
Call Number: 305.8 TATUM
Publication Date: 1997
Beverly Daniel Tatum, a renowned authority on the psychology of racism, argues that straight talk about our racial identities is essential if we are serious about communicating across racial and ethnic divides and pursuing antiracism. These topics have only become more urgent as the national conversation about race is increasingly acrimonious.
Woke Racism by John McWhorter
Call Number: 305.8 MCWHORTER
Publication Date: 2021
In Woke Racism, McWhorter reveals the workings of the new "woke" religion, from the original sin of "white privilege" and the weaponization of cancel culture to ban heretics, to the evangelical fervor of the "woke mob." He shows how this religion that claims to "dismantle racist structures" is actually harming his fellow Black Americans by infantilizing Black people, setting Black students up for failure, and passing policies that disproportionately damage Black communities.

Beloved by Toni Morrison
Call Number: FIC MORRISON
Publication Date: 1987
Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. Sethe has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. And Sethe's new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved.
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Call Number: FIC MORRISON
Publication Date: 1970
Pecola Breedlove--an 11-year-old Black girl in an America whose love for its blond, blue-eyed children can devastate all others--prays for her eyes to turn blue: so that she will be beautiful, so that people will look at her, so that her world will be different.
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Call Number: FIC WALKER
Publication Date: 1982
Separated as girls, sisters Celie and Nettie sustain their loyalty to and hope in each other across time, distance, and silence. Through a series of letters spanning nearly thirty years, first from Celie to God, then from the sisters to each other, the novel draws readers into a rich and memorable portrayal of Black women--their pain and struggle, companionship and growth, resilience and bravery.
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Call Number: PZ7.1.T4567 2017
Publication Date: 2017
Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer.
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Call Number: FIC ELLISON
Publication Date: 1952
The nameless narrator of the novel describes growing up in a black community in the South, attending a Negro college from which he is expelled, moving to New York and becoming the chief spokesman of the Harlem branch of "the Brotherhood", and retreating amid violence and confusion to the basement lair of the Invisible Man he imagines himself to be.
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Call Number: FIC HURSTON
Publication Date: 1937
Janie Crawford, an African-American woman in her forties, returns to her old town after a year-long absence, and recounts her life story along with the time she'd been gone to her friend Pheoby.
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Call Number: FIC WHITEHEAD
Publication Date: 2016
A magnificent tour de force chronicling a young slave's adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South.

Recommended Databases:

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
A scholarly, multi-disciplinary database providing indexing and abstracts for thousands of journals and other publications. Academic Search Complete includes full-text access to peer-reviewed journals, as well as indexing and abstracts for magazines, monographs, reports, and conference proceedings.
America: History and Life This link opens in a new window
Covers the history and culture of the United States and Canada, from prehistory to the present.
Ethnic Diversity Source This link opens in a new window
This full-text database is a dedicated resource covering the culture, traditions, social treatment and lived experiences of different ethnic groups in America. It provides full text from a growing list of sources including peer-reviewed journals, magazines, e-books, biographies and primary source documents.
Ethnic Diversity Source covers culture, traditions, social treatment and lived experiences of:
African Americans
Arab Americans
Asian Americans
European Americans
Jewish Americans
Latinx Americans
Native Americans
Multiracial Americans
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Includes core journals in economics, history, political science, and sociology, as well as in other key fields in the humanities and social sciences. *ArtSTOR has merged with JSTOR. All content available in ArtSTOR is now accessible through JSTOR.

Recommended Journals:

Journal of African American History
"Publishes original scholarly articles and book reviews on all aspects of the African American experience."
Journal of African American Studies
"Dedicated to publishing original research on social transformations impacting people of African descent."
Journal of Black Studies
"Source for dynamic, innovative, and creative research on the Black experience."

Recommended Databases:

CREDO Reference This link opens in a new window
CREDO contains all kinds of reference books including encyclopedias, dictionaries, quotations, and subject-specific titles from some of the top university presses in the United States. It also includes over 200,000 images and audio files and over 1200 videos.
EBSCO eBook Collections This link opens in a new window
EBSCO's eBook collection provides access to over 200,000 digitized books, including academic titles.

Recommended Reference Books:

The African American Almanac by Lean'tin Bracks
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 1578593239
Publication Date: 2011-11-04
Provides insights on the influence, inspiration, and impact of African Americans on U.S. society and culture. A legacy of pride, struggle, and triumph is presented through a fascinating mix of biographies--including 750 influential figures--little-known or misunderstood historical facts, enlightening essays on significant legislation and movements, and 445 rare photographs and illustrations.
Black Firsts: 500 Years of Trailblazing Achievements and Ground-Breaking Events by Jessie Carney Smith
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2021
Remarkable people, places, and events in black history are gathered in Black Firsts: 500 Years of Trailblazing Achievements and Ground-Breaking Events.
Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History by Colin A. Palmer (Editor)
Call Number: REF 973.0496 Encyclopedia
Publication Date: 2005
Users looking for authoritative and comprehensive information about black history, figures and accomplishments now have a defining and current reference to address their needs. Readers can find comparative analyses of social movements, languages, religions and family structures in the context of an interdisciplinary framework that fills a substantial gap in studies of this genre.
Encyclopedia of African-American Politics by Robert Smith
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2021
This A-to-Z volume examines the role of African Americans in the political process from the early days of the American Revolution to the present. Focusing on basic political ideas, court cases, laws, concepts, ideologies, institutions, and political processes, this book covers all facets of African Americans in American government.
The Encyclopedia of African-American Writing by Grey House Publishing
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2018
A timely survey of an important sector of American letters, The Encyclopedia of African-American Writing covers the role and influence of African American cultural leaders, from all walks of life, from the 18th century to the present. Readers will explore what inspired various African-American writers to create poems, plays, short stories, novels, essays, opinion pieces and numerous other works, and how those writings contributed to culture in America today.
Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895 by Paul Finkelman (Editor)
Call Number: REF 973.049 ENCYCLOPEDIA
Publication Date: 2006
Documents the full range of the African American experience during that period-from the arrival of the first slave ship to the death of Frederick Douglass-and shows how all aspects of American culture, history, and national identity have been profoundly influenced by the experience of African Americans.
Freedom Facts and Firsts by Jessie Carney Smith; Linda T. Wynn
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2009
Profiles more than 400 people, places, and events that have shaped the history of the black struggle for freedom. Covering such mainstay figures as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Rosa Parks as well as delving into how lesser known figures contributed to and shaped the history of civil rights, Freedom Facts and Firsts chronicles the breadth and passion of an entire people's quest for freedom.
Keywords for African American Studies by New York University Press
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2018
Introduces key terms, interdisciplinary research, debates, and histories for African American Studies As the longest-standing interdisciplinary field, African American Studies has laid the foundation for critically analyzing issues of race, ethnicity, and culture within the academy and beyond. This volume assembles the keywords of this field for the first time, exploring not only the history of those categories but their continued relevance in the contemporary moment.
The Schlager Anthology of Black America: A Student's Guide to Essential Primary Sources by Dan Royles (Editor)
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2021
The Schlager Anthology of Black America offers a modern, original sourcebook covering Black history from the 1500s to the present.

Recommended Databases:

Films on Demand This link opens in a new window
Over 40,000 streaming titles covering a broad range of topics.
Kanopy* This link opens in a new window
*Requires a library card to access. More than 30,000 feature films, documentaries, foreign language, and training videos, including the Great Courses, the Frontline series, and international films.

Recommended Videos:

1000% Me: Growing Up Mixed by HBO
Publication Date: 2023
With humor and sensitivity, filmmaker and comedian W. Kamau Bell tackles the joys and challenges of growing up mixed-race through conversations with kids and families in the San Francisco Bay Area, including his own.
The Big Payback by PBS
Publication Date: 2023
Evanston, Illinois Alderwoman Robin Rue Simmons leads the passage of the first tax-funded reparations bill in U.S. history for Black Americans.
Driving While Black: Race, Space and Mobility in America by PBS
Publication Date: 2020
Chronicling the history and personal experiences of African Americans on the road from the advent of the automobile through the seismic changes of the 1960s and beyond.
How Black Women Fought Racism and Sexism for the Right to Vote by Retro Report
Publication Date: 2020
African American women played a significant and sometimes overlooked role in the struggle to gain the vote.
Making Black America (Series) by PBS
Publication Date: 2022
This four-hour series, hosted by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., chronicles the vast social networks and organizations created by and for Black people-beyond the reach of the “White gaze.” Gates takes viewers into an extraordinary world that showcases Black people’s ability to collectively prosper, defy white supremacy and define Blackness in ways that transformed America itself.
South to Black Power by HBO
Publication Date: 2023
Charles M. Blow sets off across the country on a personal journey. Along the way, he meets with politicians, historians, community activists, colleagues, friends, and family members to test his theory on Black Liberation, which involves a daring strategy for Black Americans to move to southern states to control legislatures and gain greater political power.
Talking Black in America (Series) by NC State University
Publication Date: 2019
This documentary series explores the most controversial and misunderstood language variety in the United States: African American Language (AAL).