Tag: African American
Primary Sources: Los Angeles Sentinel, 1934-2005
A fairly recent edition to the Library’s collection of ProQuest historical newspapers is the Los Angeles Sentinel, with an almost complete run from 1934-2005. The Sentinel was established in 1933 by Col Leon H. Washington who began his career in newspapers at the The California Eagle, the oldest black newspaper in the state. The Sentinel started out as a free-circulation publication, but within a year readership increased enough for Washington to turn it into a subscription-based publication, soon rivaling The California Eagle in prominence and readership. To to this day the newspaper puts emphasis on issues concerning the African-American community and it’s readers.
Primary Sources: Slavery and the Law
Slavery and the Law is an archival database of petitions on race, slavery, and free blacks that were submitted to state legislatures and county courthouses between 1775 and 1867. These petitions were collected by Loren Schweninger over a four year period from hundreds of courthouses and historical societies in 10 states and the District of Columbia. They document the realities of slavery at the most immediate local level and with amazing candor. Slavery and the Law also includes the important State Slavery Statutes collection, a comprehensive record of the laws governing American slavery from 1789-1865.
Included in this resource:
Judicial Cases Concerning American Slavery and the Negro by Helen Tunnicliff Catterall
Law of Freedom and Bondage in the United States by John Codman Hurd
Race, Slavery, and Free Blacks, Series I: Petitions to Southern Legislatures, 1777-1867
Primary Sources: Baltimore Afro-American newspaper
The Baltimore Afro-American, a digitized newspaper recently added to the Library’s collection of Historical Newspapers from ProQuest, was founded in 1892. After the newspaper failed in 1896, one of its employees, John Henry Murphy, Sr., purchased the printing presses. From 1897-1922 the paper was under his control and it is still run by his descendants.
The newspaper first focused on the internal and external affairs of Baltimore’s black community, including education, politics, social uplift, the promotion of black business, and civil rights. As its circulation broadened along the Atlantic coast, it increasingly addressed these issues on the national stage.
The newspaper can be browsed by issue, searched separately, or searched along with other newspapers that make up the ProQuest database. PDFs of the articles can be saved or printed.
Primary Sources: NAACP Papers: Education, Voting, Housing, Employment
Another purchase of the Law Library gives us access to the NAACP Papers on Education, Voting, Housing, Employment
The Education files in this collection document the NAACP’s systematic assault on segregated education that culminated in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 and subsequent efforts to implement the Brown decision. The 1916–1950 files in this collection document the NAACP’s campaign against the “white primary,” discriminatory registration practices, and the “grandfather clause.” Files from 1956–1965 chronicle the NAACP’s efforts to capitalize on the 1957 Civil Rights Act and the much stronger Voting Rights Act of 1965. This collection also documents the NAACP’s wide-ranging campaign regarding equal employment opportunities. The armed forces portion is an exceptionally rich documentary source on African Americans in the armed forces between 1918 and the early 1950s and includes the complete extant files of the NAACP’s Department of Veterans Affairs.
Primary Sources: NAACP Papers: Education, Voting, Housing, Employment
Another purchase of the Law Library gives us access to the NAACP Papers on Education, Voting, Housing, Employment
The Education files in this collection document the NAACP’s systematic assault on segregated education that culminated in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 and subsequent efforts to implement the Brown decision. The 1916–1950 files in this collection document the NAACP’s campaign against the “white primary,” discriminatory registration practices, and the “grandfather clause.” Files from 1956–1965 chronicle the NAACP’s efforts to capitalize on the 1957 Civil Rights Act and the much stronger Voting Rights Act of 1965. This collection also documents the NAACP’s wide-ranging campaign regarding equal employment opportunities. The armed forces portion is an exceptionally rich documentary source on African Americans in the armed forces between 1918 and the early 1950s and includes the complete extant files of the NAACP’s Department of Veterans Affairs.
Primary Sources: NAACP Papers: The NAACP’s Major Campaigns
Thanks to the Law Library, we now have access to the ProQuest History Vault collection: NAACP Papers: The NAACP’s Major Campaigns–Scottsboro, Anti-Lynching, Criminal Justice, Peonage, Labor, and Segregation and Discrimination Complaints and Responses
The focus of this module is on the NAACP’s efforts to combat lynching, mob violence, discrimination in the criminal justice system, and white resistance to civil rights efforts. A particularly rich set of records in this module is the NAACP file on one of the most celebrated criminal trials of the 20th century—the case of the Scottsboro Boys. These files are supplemented by materials on segregation and discrimination complaints regarding public accommodations and recreational facilities sent to and investigated by the NAACP, and records on discrimination in employment.
Featured Resource: Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619–1895 and Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present
Two online encyclopedias of African American history are included in the online resource, The Oxford African American Studies Center.
The Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619–1895: From the Colonial Period to the Age of Frederick Douglass focuses “on the making of African American society from the arrival of the black explorer Esteban, who came with the Spanish in 1527, to the death of Frederick Douglass in 1895…. Entries examine topics that include the laws creating slavery in the seventeenth century, important slave revolts and the slave trade (African and domestic), the antislavery movement, fugitive slave controversies, and the Civil War and Reconstruction.”
The Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present: From the Age of Segregation to the Twenty-first Century focuses “on the making of African American society from the 1896 “separate but equal” ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson up to the contemporary period… [It] traces the transition from the Reconstruction Era to the age of Jim Crow, the Harlem Renaissance, the Great Migration, the Brown ruling that overturned Plessy, the Civil Rights Movement, and the ascendant influence of African American culture on the American cultural landscape.”
The Oxford African American Studies Center also includes access to thousands of primary source documents, maps, images, and biographical entries, and subject entries from multiple reference resources, including the two listed here. Searching and browsing can be done across the entire site or within the content categories.