Research Guides: AAAS/FA-75B : History of African American Art: Historical newspapers & other primary sources for African and African American Studies

Librarian for African and African American Studies

she/her/hers

Contact:

lhibbler@brandeis.edu

781-736-4656

Subjects: African and African American Studies, Asian Studies and Asian American and Pacific Islander Studies, History

Search Tips for Historical Sources

If you are using a database with an Advanced Search form, try using the Advanced Search features to refine your search.

Think about what terms that might have been used to describe your topic during the time period. For example: the name of a specific person or organization or even a term that wouldn't be used today.

In addition to searching, try browsing these collections to learn about sources that you wouldn't have necessarily thought of searching for.

Historical newspaper and magazine collections

When looking for historical newspaper articles, remember to look for articles published during the historical time period under study.

ProQuest Historical Black Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Search across the New York Amsterdam News (1922-1993), the Norfolk Journal and Guide (1921-2003), Los Angeles Sentinel (1934-2005), Cleveland Call and Post (1934-1991), Atlanta Daily World (1931-2003), Michigan Chronicle‎ (1936 - 2010), and the Baltimore Afro-American (1893-1988). Please note that Brandeis Library also has access to the Chicago Defender newspaper which can be searched separately
ProQuest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Includes the American Hebrew & Jewish Messenger (1857-1922), American Israelite (1854-2000), Atlanta Constitution (1868-1945), Atlanta Daily World‎ (1931-2010), Baltimore Afro-American (1893-1988), Baltimore Sun‎ (1837-1996), Boston Globe (1872-1990), Chicago Tribune (1849-1998), Chinese Newspapers Collection (1832-1953), Cleveland Call and Post‎ (1934-2010), Communist Historical Newspaper Collection‎ (1919-2013), Jerusalem Post (1932-2008), Jewish Advocate (1905-1990), Jewish Exponent (1887-1990), Korea Times‎ (1956-2016), Leftist Newspapers and Periodicals (1845-2015), Los Angeles Sentinel (1934-2005), Los Angeles Times (1881-1997), Michigan Chronicle‎ (1939-2010), Minneapolis Star Tribune‎ (1867-2001), New York Amsterdam News (1922-1993), New York Times (1851-2018), Norfolk Journal and Guide (1916-2010), Philadelphia Tribune (1912-2010), Pittsburgh Courier (1911-2010), St. Petersburg Times/Tampa Bay Times (1901-2009), Times of India (1838-2010), Wall Street Journal (1889-2010), and Washington Post (1877-2006)
Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new window
Newspapers, magazines, and journals from American ethnic and native communities, covering 1960 to the present.

Negro Digest/Black World, 1961-1976
Magazine which served as important source for individuals involved in the civil rights movement. Negro Digest was founded 1943 and later changed its name to Black World. Issues published between 1961-1976 are freely available through Google Books.
Jet Magazine, 1951-2008
Covers the civil rights movement, politics, education, and other social topics with an African-American focus. It includes over 3,000 issues providing a broad view of news, culture, and entertainment from its first issue in 1951 through 2014.
Ebony (1959-2008)
Crisis (1910-1960)
Influential publication published by the NAACP. HathiTrust digitally preserves the first issue, from November, 1910, as well as issues published through 1998. Log in as a Brandeis user in the upper right to access all volumes.
California Eagle (1879-1964)
The oldest African American newspaper in the Western US. This Los Angeles newspaper was started to provide African Americans settling in the area with information about housing and work.

Additional primary source collections

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.
Black Thought and Culture This link opens in a new window
Covers the non-fiction published works by major American Black leaders. Where possible, the complete published non-fiction works are included, as well as interviews, journal articles, speeches, essays, pamphlets, and letters.
Database available through at least May 31, 2024, as part of ProQuest's Evidence-Based Acquisition Program.
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).
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.

Digital Public Library of America
Digitized materials from libraries, archives and museums around the country.
W.E.B. Du Bois Papers
"Includes over 100,000 items of correspondence (more than three quarters of the papers), speeches, articles, newspaper columns, nonfiction books, research materials, book reviews, pamphlets and leaflets, petitions, novels, essays, forewords, student papers, manuscripts of pageants, plays, short stories and fables, poetry, photographs, newspaper clippings, memorabilia, videotapes, audiotapes, and miscellaneous materials. Scholar, writer, editor of The Crisis and other journals, co-founder of the Niagara Movement, the NAACP, and the Pan African Congresses, international spokesperson for peace and for the rights of oppressed minorities, W.E.B. Du Bois was a son of Massachusetts who articulated the strivings of African Americans and developed a trenchant analysis of the problem of the color line in the twentieth century." (UMASS Amherst Special Collections)

Sixties: Primary Documents and Personal Narratives, 1960-1974 This link opens in a new window
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 includes materials digitized from collections in Brandeis University Archives & Special Collections, including materials on student activism and radical politics.

Slavery & Anti-slavery
Digitized primary sources for the study of the history of slavery. Sources include manuscripts, books, pamphlets, newspapers. You will need a Boston Public Library eCard to access this database.

Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law (HeinOnline) This link opens in a new window
This collection brings together significant legal materials on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world. This includes every statute passed by every colony and state on slavery, every federal statute dealing with slavery, and all reported state and federal cases on slavery.

Class exercise #1

Skim the following resource to learn more about Edmonia Lewis' life and work:

Edmonia Lewis -- Smithsonian American Museum

In pairs, conduct a biographical search on Edmonia Lewis (1844-1911) in two different ways:

Working in pairs, one member of each pair should search ProQuest Historical Black Newspapers, while the other searches ProQuest Historical Newspapers. You’ll have a chance to compare your results.

In each database, search for articles about Edmonia Lewis and find one source from the artist’s lifetime and one posthumous source.

ProQuest Historical Black Newspapers This link opens in a new window
ProQuest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window

Please note: When searching in ProQuest Historical Newspapers, exclude articles African American news outlets so that you and your partner can make a comparison. The following are the African American news outlets: the Chicago Defender, New York Amsterdam News, the Norfolk Journal and Guide, Los Angeles Sentinel, Cleveland Call and Post, Atlanta Daily World, and the Baltimore Afro-American.

Compare how each news outlet characterizes the artist. Pay attention to the following questions to guide your analysis:

In what context is she mentioned? What is the article headline?
How does the newspaper describe her? Specific words or adjectives?
How is she positioned in relation to African Americans?
How is she positioned in relation to other artists?