Articles & Databases
Explore our collection of hundreds of online resources and databases. Use our free online content to help with your research, whether it's finding a single article, tracing a family tree, learning a new language, or anything in between.
African American Studies
1-20 of 20 results.Digitized archives and manuscripts collection of the National Negro Congress, which organization was established in 1936 to "secure the right of the Negro people to be free from Jim Crowism, segregation, discrimination, lynching, and mob violence" and "to promote the spirit of unity and cooperation between Negro and white people." 98,600 images dated 1933-1947. Part of Archives Unbound.
Full-text digital resource exploring the history and culture of African Americans, as well as the greater Black Diaspora. Great resource for middle school, high school, and undergraduate users. Browse by type of content and by era.
Documents the history of African American life and religious organizations from materials published between 1829 and 1922. Over 170 titles from 75 different institutions are fully text-searchable.
Hundreds of U.S. newspapers chronicling a century and a half of the African American experience from more than 35 states. A collection feature of America's Historical Newspapers.
Access to this resource has been temporarily expanded to NYPL cardholders working from home, courtesy of Readex/Newsbank.
African American Newspapers: The 19th Century
Searchable full-text of the major African-American newspapers published in the United States during the 19th century.
Searchable full-text and page images of over 170 periodicals, published in 26 states, by and about African Americans. Includes academic and political journals, commercial magazines, institutional newsletters, organizations' bulletins, and annual reports.
Access to this resource has been temporarily expanded to NYPL cardholders working from home, courtesy of Readex/Newsbank.
The American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals Collection provides digital access to American periodicals published between 1684 and 1912. The fifty thematic subsets include digitized images of the pages of American magazines and journals not available from any other source and provide content detailing American history and culture from the mid-18th century through the late-19th century. These specialized collections cover advertising, health, women's issues, science, the history of slavery, industry and professions, religious issues, culture and the arts, and more. See below for collections:
Search full-text early American books, pamphlets, broadsides, government documents and rare printed materials. Combined search of American Broadsides and Ephemera (1760-1900) and Early American Imprints (1639-1819), including supplements from the Library Company of Philadelphia and the American Antiquarian Societiy.
Access to this resource has been temporarily expanded to NYPL cardholders working from home, courtesy of Readex/Newsbank.
Provides biographical information on 650,000+ people from throughout history, around the world, and across all disciplines. For more in-depth biographies of figures from American history, consult American National Biography.
Black Studies Center
This fully cross-searchable gateway to Black Studies includes scholarly essays, periodical literature, historical newspaper articles, reference books, and more. Combines: Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience, International Index of Black Periodicals (IIBP), and The Chicago Defender.
Ebony Magazine Archive covers African-American business, history & politics, education, entertainment, fashion, culture and much more between the years 1945-2014.
Collection of ethnic, minority, and native newspapers, magazines, and journals published in America.
This archive, from the NYPL's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, documents the Civil Rights Congress (CRC) which was established in 1946 to, among other things, "combat all forms of discrimination against…labor, the Negro people and the Jewish people, and racial, political, religious, and national minorities." Dates of inclusion range from 1946-1955. Part of Archives Unbound.
The History Makers database is a video collection of oral histories documenting African American life, history and culture.
Independent Voices is a growing open access digital collection of the magazines, journals, and newspapers of the alternative and small press archives of participating libraries.
Jet Magazine Archive provides access to issues from 1951 through 2014 covering politics, education, and other social topics with an African American focus.
Fully-searchable database of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)'s archives. Contains nearly two million pages of internal memos, legal briefings, and direct action summaries from national, legal, and branch offices. More information about the resource is is available here.
African American historical newspapers throughout the United States. Collections include the Atlanta Daily World 1931-2010, Baltimore Afro-American 1893-2010, Chicago Defender 1910-2010, Cleveland Call and Post 1934-2010, Los Angeles Sentinel 1934-2010, Louisville Defender 1951-2010, Michigan Chronicle 1939-2010, New York Amsterdam News 1922-2010, Norfolk Journal and Guide 1921-2010, Philadelphia Tribune 1912-2010, and Pittsburgh Courier 1911-2010.
Digital library of works written or published in the United States, as well as items printed elsewhere, that document the history of the Americas from 1492 to the mid-1800s. Based on Sabin's Bibliotheca Americana.
A historical archive of several million cross-searchable pages of books, serials, supreme court records and briefs, and key manuscript collections from the United States, Great Britain, and France concerning debates of slavery and abolition, the Transatlantic Slave Trade, the Institution of Slavery, and the Age of Emancipation. Provides a context for further research through links to chronology, biographies, bibliographies, and websites.