Research Guides: MKTYP 5: Social Science: Primary Sources

Suggested resources

HistoryMakers Digital Archive This link opens in a new window
An African American video oral history archive. Provides access to oral history interviews with historically significant African Americans.

Digital Public Library of America
Digitized materials from libraries, archives and museums around the country.

NAACP Papers This link opens in a new window
Covers records from the NAACP from 1909-1970. The papers include special reports on a wide range of issues including the Ku Klux Klan, discrimination in public employment, economic equality, the church and civil rights, equal access to education, voting, employment, and housing.
Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century This link opens in a new window
Includes records of major civil rights organizations and personal papers of leaders and observers of the 20th century Black freedom struggle, as well as federal government records. Includes the records of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).
Federal Surveillance of African Americans, 1920-1984 This link opens in a new window
Contains reproductions of hundreds of FBI files documenting the federal scrutiny, harassment, and prosecution to which black Americans of all political persuasions were subjected. Covers 1920-1984.

1964 Freedom Summer Project
Freedom Summer was an effort by civil rights activists to integrate Mississippi's segregated political system.
Black Panthers
Documents by and about the Black Panthers, 1968-1970s.
MLK Jr. Papers Project
The Sixties: Primary Documents and Personal Narratives 1960 - 1974
Includes diaries, letters, autobiographies and other memoirs, written and oral histories, manifestos, government documents, memorabilia, newspapers, press, underground press, alternative publications, and scholarly commentary. This collection is useful to those studying American history, society, culture, and politics, and includes materials digitized from collections in Brandeis University Archives & Special Collections, including materials on student activism and radical politics.
African Activist Archive Project
Records of activism in the United States that support "the struggle of African peoples against colonialism, apartheid, and social injustice from the 1950s through the 1990s."

Women and Social Movements in the United States (1600-2000) This link opens in a new window
A collection of document projects--comprised of essays with supporting documents, images, and web links--focused on the history of women in social movements in the U.S. between 1600 and 2000