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Black History

Selected Books - Websites

Selected Books

For additional books, browse the library catalog under the subject heading African Americans -- History
African Americans -- Pennsylvania -- History
African Americans -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh -- History.

The WPA History of the Negro in Pittsburgh The WPA History of the Negro in Pittsburgh
A work of the American Guide Series, published by the Federal Writers' Project, "The Negro in Pittsburgh," lay dormant in the Pennsylvania State Library until it was microfilmed in 1970. The WPA History of the Negro in Pittsburgh marks the first publication of this rich body of information. This unique historical study of the city's black population features articles on civil rights, social class, lifestyle, culture, folklore, and institutions from colonial times through the 1930s. Published by the University of Pittsburgh Press.
African Americans in Pennsylvania African Americans in Pennsylvania, Shifting Historical Perspectives
This 1997 book from the Pennsylvania State University Press, edited by Joe W. Trotter Jr. & Eric Ledell Smith; contains a few chapters on Pittsburgh.

Websites

Pittsburgh Region

Pennsylvania

  • African American Museum in Philadelphia
    http://www.aampmuseum.org/
    Founded in 1976, The African American Museum in Philadelphia (AAMP) is dedicated to collecting preserving and interpreting the material and intellectual culture of African Americans in Philadelphia, the Delaware Valley, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the Americas.

  • Pennsylvania Humanities Council: Commonwealth Speakers: The African American Experience
    http://www.pahumanities.org/resources/cs_topics/african.php
    This website provides information on speakers who give presentations on the African American Experience.

  • Slavery in Pennsylvania
    http://www.afrolumens.org/slavery/
    An independent site by George F. Nagle that is a compilation of information on the slaveholders and slaves who lived in and around Dauphin County, Pennsylvania in the 18th and 19th centuries.

United States

  • Afrigeneas
    http://www.afrigeneas.com/
    At first a mailing list focused on genealogical research and now a web page pointing to African ancestry resources. This page serves as a focal point for information about African-ancestored families and for pointers to genealogical sources worldwide

  • Afro.com: The Black History Museum
    http://www.afro.com/history/
    Online exhibits on various topics of Black history from the Afro-American Newspaper Company of Baltimore, Inc., including Black Resistance - Slavery in the United States, The Tuskegee Airmen, Jackie Robinson, The Black Panther Party, Black or White, The Million Man March, The Scottsboro Boys, This Is Our War.

  • Association for the Study of African American Life and History
    http://www.asalh.org/
    Headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland, ASALH sets the annual theme for Black History Month; sponsors an annual convention to celebrate and study Africana life and history; and publishes the Journal of African American History (formerly the Journal of Negro History), and the Black History Bulletin (formerly the Negro History Bulletin).

  • Biography.com: Black History
    http://www.biography.com/black_history/
    Offers approximately 60 biographies of African Americans in various fields. Content for the Black History Month feature on Biography.com is provided in part by the Gale Group, publisher of reference materials.

  • Documenting the American South
    http://docsouth.unc.edu/
    Documenting the American South (DAS) is a collection of sources on Southern history, literature and culture from the colonial period through the first decades of the 20th century. From the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries. Includes North American Slave Narratives and The Church in the Southern Black Community.

  • Dred Scott Exhibit
    http://library.wustl.edu/vlib/dredscott/
    Historical documents relating to the famous court case in which the slaves Dred Scott and his wife Harriet filed suit for their freedom in the St. Louis Circuit. The historic US Supreme Court decision against them in which they were declared to be slaves was one of the events leading up to the US Civil War. The exhibit is part of Washington University in St. Louis.

  • Education First: Black History Activities
    Exploring African American Issues on The Web. From At&T Knowledge Network Explorer. Very good links.

  • The Encyclopaedia Britannica Guide to Black History
    http://search.eb.com/blackhistory/
    an Encyclopedia Britannica feature for Black History Month. Entries divided into five US time periods from 1619 to 1997. The Harlem Renaissance is the feature for 1999.

  • Gale Research: Black History
    http://www.gale.com/free_resources/bhm/
    Biographies, quiz, featured titles, timeline, activities, literature, links.

  • The Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition
    http://www.yale.edu/glc/
    A division of the Yale Center for International and Area Studies, the Gilder Lehrman Center is dedicated to the investigation and dissemination of information concerning all aspects of the Atlantic slave system and its destruction.

  • Harlem Renaissance: Carl Van Vechten Photographs 1932-1964
    http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/vanvechten/
    The Carl Van Vechten Photographs Collection at the Library of Congress consists of 1,395 photographs taken by American photographer Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964) between 1932 and 1964. The bulk of the collection consists of portrait photographs of celebrities, including many figures from the Harlem Renaissance.

  • Harper's Weekly Reports on Black America, 1857-1874
    http://www.blackhistory.harpweek.com/
    Material from Harper's Weekly presented in order to give a true historical picture of the leading 19th-century newspaper’s view of black Americans

  • Harvard College Library Research Guides: African American Studies: Newspaper Research
    This selective research guide is intended to highlight a variety of print and electronic resources essential to research that involves African American newspapers and journalism.

  • Library of Congress: African-American Mosaic
    http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/intro.html
    A Resource Guide for the Study of Black History and Culture. "Covering the nearly 500 years of the black experience in the Western hemisphere, the Mosaic surveys the full range size, and variety of the Library's collections, including books, periodicals, prints, photographs, music, film, and recorded sound."

  • Library of Congress American Memory Project
    http://memory.loc.gov/
    From the main page you can click on African American History to pull up all related collections.

  • Malcolm X: A Research Site
    http://www.brothermalcolm.net/
    Historical information and resources on Malcolm X from Africana Studies Program at the University of Toledo, Ohio and Twenty-first Century Books.

  • Malcolm X Project at Colombia University
    http://www.columbia.edu/cu/ccbh/mxp/
    Look here for oral history interviews with key associates of Malcolm X.

  • New York Public Library: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
    http://www.nypl.org/research/sc/sc.html
    Digital library collections of photographs and online exhibits, including links to other websites.

  • PBS: African American World
    http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aaworld/
    This website is a collage of different moments in African American history, arts & culture, race and society. The Reference Room has links to articles in the Encyclopedia Britannica, to National Public Radio interviews, and to PBS Programs dealing with African American issues. It also includes a bibliography.
  • PBS: Africans in America
    http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/
    The companion website for a landmark PBS historical documentary series of four, 90-minute television programs that bring to life our nation's early history from Jamestown in 1607 to the start of the Civil War in 1861, showing the dramatic impact of the struggle over slavery and freedom in shaping our country. Africans in America is produced for PBS by WGBH Boston.

  • PBS: The Black Press: Soldiers without Swords
    http://www.pbs.org/blackpress/
    The companion website to a documentary film by Stanley Nelson that provides an in-depth examination of the history and contributions of African American newspapers, including the Pittsburgh Courier. 1999.

  • PBS: Scottsboro: An American Tragedy
    http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/scottsboro/
    The companion website to a PBS documentary about the 1931 alleged rape of two young white women by 9 young black men and the ensuing trial.

  • PBS: Slavery and the Making of America
    http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/
    This is the companion website to Slavery and the Making of America, a four-part series documenting the history of American slavery from its beginnings in the British colonies to its end in the Southern states and the years of post-Civil War Reconstruction. Includes transcripts.

  • PBS: This Far by Faith: African-American Spiritual Journeys
    http://www.pbs.org/thisfarbyfaith/
    This is the companion website to a 6 part documentary series tracing the history of the African American religious experience over three centuries. "This Far by Faith: African-American Spiritual Journeys" is a co-production of Blackside Inc. and The Faith Project, Inc. in association with the Independent Television Service.

  • Slavery and Abolition
    http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~amerstu/smc/abolition.html
    Links from the American Social Movements page of the American Studies Program at Washington State University, Pullman, Washington.

  • The Sojourn Project
    http://www.sojournproject.org/
    A civil rights education project that takes high school students from around the nation to historical civil rights landmarks throughout the South.

  • Underground Railroad (National Geographic)
    http://www.nationalgeographic.com/features/99/railroad/
    Experience the journey of a runaway slave in a "choose your own adventure" type site from National Geographic.

  • (National) Underground Railroad Freedom Center
    http://www.freedomcenter.org/
    Educates the public about the historic struggle to abolish human enslavement and secure freedom for all people. Site developed by the Cincinnati Enquirer.

  • "We Shall Overcome"
    http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/civilrights/
    Historic places of the Civil Rights Movement. A travel itinerary prepared as a cooperative project between the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, and the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration.

  • Williamsburg: African American Experience
    http://www.history.org/Almanack/people/african/aahdr.cfm
    from colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. During the 18th century, half of Williamsburg's population was black.

  • Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute: The Negro Holocaust: Lynching and Race Riots in the United States 1880-1950, by Robert A. Gibson
    http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/guides/1979/2/79.02.04.x.html
    Designed as part of an elective course in Afro-American History for high school students, grades 10-12, these lesson plans examine anti-Black violence from the 1880s to the 1950s, covering the phenomenon of lynching and the major race riots of this period. (1979)

Last updated Monday February 18 2008.