Pathfinder: African-American Studies

Scope|Subject Headings|Overview Sources|Biographical Sources|Chronologies|Introductory Texts|Circulating Books|Periodicals, Journals &Trade Publications|Videos|Web Sites

* See also the library's pathfinders on:

SCOPE: African-Americans have made many significant contributions to society. As early as the Civil War (1861-1865) Blacks played a role in the military and continued to do so throughout the War years of World War I, II, and the Korean War. In business, literature, the arts, politics, law, and medicine enduring contributions to society have been made. This pathfinder will serve as a guideline for the student in locating resources in the subject area of African-Americans, which will provide an in-depth analysis of this topic.

Books dealing with the topic of African Americans are listed in the Baddour Library's online catalog under the following subject headings:

SUBJECT HEADINGS

Afro-Americans
Blacks
United States Race relations

There are sources in the Reference Section of the Baddour Library that give a general overview or summary of the topic you are researching. The following is a list of some of the sources available in the library.

OVERVIEW SOURCES

REF E185.C55 2001 Atlas of African-American History
REF E185.E77 2000 The African American Almanac
REF E 185.61.H359 1999 Distinguished African American Political and Governmental Leaders
REF E 185.61 E54 1992 Encyclopedia of African American Civil Rights
REF E 185.R44 1994 Reference Library of Black America

BIOGRAPHICAL SOURCES

REF E 185.96 B545 Black Writers: A Selection of Sketches from Contemporary Authors

CHRONOLOGIES

REF E 185.H64 1991 Chronology of African-American History

INTRODUCTORY TEXTS:

Bell, Derrick A. Faces at the Bottom of the Well:  The Permanence of Racism. New York: Basic Books, 1992.

Gates, Henry Louis. Loose Canons: Notes on the Culture Wars. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1992.

Huggins, Nathan Irwin. Revelations: American History, American Myths. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1995.

Levine, Lawrence W. The Unpredictable Past: Explorations in American Cultural History. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1993.

Powledge, Fred. Free at last?: The Civil Rights Movement and the People Who Made It. Boston: Little, Brown, 1991.

Seagal, Ronald. The Black Diaspora. New York: Gale Research, 1994.

Thernstrom, Stephan. America in Black and White: One Nation, Indivisible. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997.

Weisbrot, Robert. Freedom Bound: A History of Americas Civil Rights Movement. New York: Norton, 1990.

Webster, Yehudi. O. The Racialization of America. New York: St. Martins Press, 1992.

Some representative books from the Circulating Collection that are located upstairs in the library are:

CIRCULATING BOOKS

Hoberman, John M. Darwins Athletes: How Sport Has Damaged Black America and Preserved the Myth of Race. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co; 1997.

Kelly, Robin D.G. Race Rebels: Culture, Politics, and the Black Working Class. New York: Free Press, 1994.

Loving, Neal V. Lovings Love: A Black Americans Experience in Aviation. Washington, D.C: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994.

OMeally, Robert G. The Jazz Cadence of American Culture. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998.

Ovington, Mary White. Black and White Sat Down Together: The Reminiscences of an NAACP Founder. New York: Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 1995.

Quarles, Benjamin. The Negro in the American Revolution. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996.

Scott, Lawrence P. Double V: The Civil Rights Struggle of the Tuskegee Airmen. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1994.

Some of the specific periodicals that the library subscribes to that focus on the topic of Afro-Americans are:

PERIODICALS, JOURNALS & TRADE PUBLICATIONS

Click the link for a list of full text journals available through our databases in:

• Ethnic & Race Studies

Open Access Journals in Anthropology

Open Access Journals in Ethnology

VIDEOS

D790 .A37 1995 African-Americans in WWII
E185.61 .E9 1995 Eyes on the Prize: Americas Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965
E185.615 .E931 1990 Eyes on the Prize II:  America at the Racial Crossroads
E449 .D75 F7 1985 Frederick Douglass, an American Life
E185 .I45 1999 I'll Make Me a World
E185.97 .K5 I5 1996 In Remembrance of Martin
E97 .I67 1991 In the White Mans Image
PN1998.3 .M353 1993 The True Malcolm X Speaks
E513.5 54th .T7 1991 The True Story of Glory Continues

WEB SITES

African American Archaeology, History, and Cultures
http://www.anthro.uiuc.edu/faculty/cfennell/bookmark3.html
This site, created by University of Illinois anthropologist Chris Fennell, features links to resources on the African American past including culture, slavery, abolition.

African American Odyssey
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/aohome.html
From the Library of Congress digital library this site contains collections, photographs, recordings, and films. Lesson plans are included for instructors.

The Red Hot Jazz Archive
http://www.redhotjazz.com/b.html
This site includes 1,000 recordings available in audio format of some of the great men and women of jazz like Bessie Smith, Duke Ellington, and Louis Armstrong. Biographies and some film references are included.