Consult studies and find data related to African Americans in society, published by the Pew Research Center.
While there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of periodicals that have articles relevant to research on African Americans, the ones listed here are of great importance to the field, and every student should get to know them.
Listing here includes at least one database you can use to find articles in that journal. To focus your search to that particular journal, you will need to search in an ADVANCED mode and use one search box to specify you wish to search that journal by entering the journal title in the box and selecting the proper FIELD, using the adjacent pulldown menu. That field could be called: Journal Name, Source, Journal, Publication Title.
Clicking on a specific title will take you to where you can search the largest number of years of that title specifically.
Official publication of the Modern Language Association's Division of Black American Literature & Culture. We have it back to 1990 FULLTEXT in Black Studies Center.
Important journal for African American history & culture. Great illustrations! Searchable FULLTEXT in Black Studies Center from 2001 on.
First published in 1937 (!) by the Association for the Study of African American Life & History and aimed at secondary school educators, this peer-reviewed journal has changed titles a few times, but can be searched most completely in the Black Studies Center. There is an odd gap in coverage anywhere from 1987-1997!
This very scholarly journal has supported interdisciplinary research on all genres and aspects of black music globally considered since 1980. Full coverage is available in JStor from 1980, excluding the most recent 3 years. The most recent years can be searched through Black Studies Center.
This journal was founded during the Black Studies Movement in 1969 and has remained prominent since! Although the focus is the U.S., thematic issues appear on black culture outside the U.S. regularly as well. Can be searched FULLTEXT back to 1991 in Academic Search Complete, but you can search to identify articles back to the first issue in Black Studies Center, and the library has the PRINT journal back to the first issue in the ARS.
This now famous international literary journal was begun by black southern writers in 1976 as a way to get their work published. We have it FULLTEXT in JStor for early years and ProjectMuse for recent years.
This is a scholarly journal examining issues of ethnicity, gender, and culture on communication from Howard University, a historically black college. It goes back to 1988 and is searchable FULLTEXT at the publishers site.
Founded in 1916 by Carter G. Woodson, this is THE premier journal in the field. The link here allows you to search fulltext all the way back to 1916! See the next entry for the journal under its current title.
This continues Journal of Negro History and is searchable from 2002 (when the title changed) until current through JStor, linked here.
Since 1932, this journal has been a major source of scholarship on educational issues relevant to blacks throughout the world, but with a primary focus on African Americans. Link here is to the historic coverage FULLTEXT back to 1932 through JStor. From 1994 to current, search in Black Studies Center or OMNIFILE.
This is one of the oldest African-American periodicals still in print ... founded in 1910 by W.E.B. Du Bois, founding father of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). I has been a "crusading voice for civil rights" and a respected source of thought, opinion, and analysis on issues pertaining to African Americans. Also serves as the official publication of the NAACP.
Legendary weekly African-American newsmagazine published from 1951 until June 2014. This link takes you to issues from 1951 until 2008 and appears complete! Click on an issue and you can choose to SEARCH ALL ISSUES. You can then display results in chronological order. You can access fulltext articles from 1992 forwards in LexisNexis Academic database, accessed through the library's list of databases. The online magazine at http://www.jetmag.com/ appears to be going strong!
Founded by John H. Johnson in 1945, Ebony continues to be the most widely circulated monthly magazine targeted to African American readers. This link takes you to issues from 1945 until 2008,but it does not seem to be quite complete. Click on an issue and you can choose to SEARCH ALL ISSUES by keyword. You can then display results in chronological order. You can get fulltext articles from 1992 forwards in LexisNexis Academic database, accessed through the library's list of databases.
This database provides primary sources including historical newspaper articles, pamphlets, diaries, correspondence, among other documents related to Black Freedom from 1790 to 2000s.
This database provides scholarly essays, journal articles, historic newspapers, fiction, poetry, archival records, and literary reviews in Black Studies. Includes the Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience, the Black Studies Periodicals Database (formerly International Index to Black Periodicals), the Black Literature Index, and historical black newspapers such as the Chicago Defender (1910 - 1975) and and the Daily Defender (1956-1975).
This database provides documents and collections from libraries and archives across the Atlantic world covering a time period from 1490. Topics range from varieties of slavery to the continued existence of slavery today.
This database provides primary source documents from archives all over the world covering the history of the slave trade from 1492-1888.
This database provides biographies, articles, maps, documents, images, timelines and charts and tables of African-American life, history and culture including the Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895; the Encyclopedia of African-American History, 1896 to the Present.
This database provides access to the most nationally circulated Black newspaper, The Courier (1910-2002) challenged the misrepresentation of African-Americans in the national media and advocated social reforms to advance the cause of civil rights.
This database covers the history and culture of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. With selective indexing for 1,700 journals from 1964 to the present, this database also provides full-text coverage of more than 196 journals and more than 92 books.
A collection containing over 120 dictionaries and reference titles covering a broad spectrum of subjects from general reference and language to science and medicine, and from humanities and social sciences to business and professional.
This database contains two collections: 1) A current collection (1990-present) of full- text newspapers, magazines, and journals from ethnic and minority presses. 2) A History collection (1959-1989) of full-text newspapers, magazines and journals, focusing on African American, Hispanic American, and Native American presses.
Digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. It includes approximately 16,000 books and 50,000 journal articles published in the 19th century, searchable by subject.
American Periodicals Series Online (APS Online) includes digitized images of the pages of American magazines and journals published from colonial days to the dawn of the 20th century. Titles range from Benjamin Franklin's General Magazine and America's first scientific journal, Medical Repository; popular magazines such as Vanity Fair and Ladies' Home Journal; regional and niche publications; and groundbreaking journals like The Dial, Puck, and McClure's.
The authoritative and comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic conditions of the United States. The original source is provided so you know where to look for more in-depth data. 2013-present. The Library has the 1878-2012 editions in print.
A collection of three full-text databases, namely GenderWatch, Ethnic NewsWatch, and Alt-PressWatch. GenderWatch enhances gender and women's studies, and gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) research by providing authoritative perspectives from 1970 to present. GenderWatch provides access to over 300 titles, with more than 250 in full-text, from an array of academic, radical, community and independent presses. Ethnic NewsWatch is a comprehensive full-text database of the newspapers, magazines, journals and newsletters of the ethnic, minority and native presses as well as many journals concerned with issues of race and ethnicity, with archival material back to 1985. Alt-PressWatch includes over 1.5M articles from more than 300 small sources including unique, independent voices from respected and cited grassroots newspapers, magazines, and journals covering the arts and all viewpoints across the social and political spectrum from 1970 to present.
Below are the research encyclopedias that all students doing research on African Americans should know about. You should always begin your research in them. Some are online (notice the notation) and some are in the library, but all are excellent sources.
ISBN: 0195170555
Publication Date: 2005
Ninety years after W.E.B. Du Bois first articulated the need for "the equivalent of a black Encyclopedia Britannica," Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates Jr., realized his vision by publishing Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience in 1999. This new, greatly expanded 2nd edition ... with More than 4,000 articles cover prominent individuals, events, trends, places, political movements, art forms, business and trade, religion, ethnic groups, organizations and countries on both sides of the Atlantic. African American history and culture in the present-day United States receive a strong emphasis, but African American history and culture throughout the rest of the Americas and their origins in African itself have an equally strong presence. (Publisher)
ISBN: 0195160193
Publication Date: 2008-02-18
The African American National Biography presents history through a mosaic of the lives of thousands of individuals, illuminating the abiding influence of persons of African descent on the life of this nation from the arrival of Esteban in Spanish Florida in 1529 through to notable black citizens of the present day ... starting with 4000 entries written and signed by distinguished scholars, the AANB continues to grow ... includes a wide range of African Americans from all time periods and all walks of life, both famous and nearly-forgotten. In the words of AANB editor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., "These stories, long buried in the dusty archives of history, will never be lost again. And that is what scholarship in the field of African American Studies should be all about." (Publisher)
ISBN: 0313357161
ISBN: 0275989224
Publication Date: 2008
Editor Boyd (critical studies, cinema and television, U. of Southern California) and contributors describe how African Americans changed theater, film, television, sports and popular music, especially in the civil rights era. They analyze the impact of television on civil rights and vice versa, the politics of representation, early cinema in the Black community, African American women in film and sports, the breaking of the color barrier in baseball and tennis, urban cinema, contemporary independent filmmakers, the rise of the Black superstars and the influence of the African-American coach. Particularly interesting are the essays on Black influences in popular music such as jazz and blues, and a very perceptive essay on the influence of standup comics on the integration of African Americans into popular culture. Although the essays cover people, events and ideas that have been examined before, each takes a unique approach that fully explains the melding of Black and white cultures. (Publisher)
ISBN: 0313341125
Publication Date: 2011
...documents the history of African Americans in each US state chronologically from the origins of slavery in the colonial period to the present. Each state chapter includes a timeline, historical overview, biographical sketches of notable African Americans who were born or active in the state and their contributions, and specific traditions or activities that contributed to the black experience. The introduction describes the historiography of African American history from its beginnings in the nineteenth century to current debates. (Publisher)
ISBN: 0195156773
Publication Date: 2005
Winner of the Dartmouth Medal for Outstanding Reference Publication of 1994, the first edition of Black Women in America broke ground—pulling together for the first time all of the research in this vast but underrepresented field to provide one of the strongest building blocks of Black Women's Studies...In nearly 600 entries, Black Women in America celebrates the remarkable achievements of black women throughout history, highlights their ongoing contributions in America today, and represents the new research the first edition helped to generate. (Publisher)
ISBN: 0028658167
Publication Date: 2006
Impressively comprehensive, this 2nd edition... contains 1,300 entries, two-thirds of which are revised, rewritten, or newly added; and half the remainder have updated bibliographies. Many of the new articles are thematic, for example, those on the African diaspora, anti-colonial movements, economic condition, and military experience. Several new entries are devoted to topics in the Caribbean. The central focus is on the experience of African-Americans throughout North and South America, although the people, concepts, and events associated with the U.S. predominate (due to the larger amount of scholarship). Biographical entries profile political and public figures as well as artists, writers, and musicians. (Publisher)
ISBN: 0195167775
Publication Date: 2006
It is impossible to understand America without understanding the history of African Americans. In nearly seven hundred entries, the Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895 documents the full range of the African American experience during that period - from the arrival of the first slave ship to the death of Frederick Douglass - and shows how all aspects of American culture, history, and national identity have been profoundly influenced by the experience of African Americans. (Publisher)
ISBN: 0195167791
Publication Date: 2009
Focusing on the making of African American society from the 1896 "separate but equal" ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson up to the contemporary period, this encyclopedia 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. (Publisher)
ISBN: 076192762X
Publication Date: 2004
More than a chronicle of black culture or black people, this encyclopedia deals with the emergence and maturity of an intellectual field over the past four decades. Beginning with the protests at San Francisco State College in 1967 that led to the first degree-granting department of Black Studies, the field's rapid growth over time necessitates an authoritative account of the discipline. More than ever scholars and students need a clear conception of what the evolutionary processes have been in the creation and maintenance of the discipline.
The Encyclopedia of Black Studies is the leading reference source for dynamic and innovative research on the Black Experience. The concept for the encyclopedia was developed from the successful Journal of Black Studies (SAGE) and contains a full analysis of the economic, political, sociological, historical, literary, and philosophical issues related to Americans of African descent. This single-volume reference is the vanguard of the recent explosive growth in quality scholarship in the field. (Publisher)
ISBN: 1851097007
Publication Date: 2008
Written by some 400 international academics and independent scholars, the 500-plus entries will assist readers in understanding what connects such a diverse group of people and wide-ranging locations across time and space, how they have affected and been affected by their environments, and how they have created and re-created cultural forms and movements. Each cross-referenced entry includes a list of resources for further reading. Each volume contains an A-Z listing of all entries in the set, a detailed introductory essay, a selection of maps, and a complete subject index for the set. Illustrated with b&w photographs. (Publisher)
ISBN: 0313352038
Publication Date: 2011
...24 in-depth yet accessible entries on 12 major figures and 12 major themes, works, genres, and literary movements of African American literature. Entries are written in chapter format and vary in length from 5,000 to 10,000 words, and each entry opens with a b&w photo. In addition to the bibliographies and lists of further reading in all entries, many entries also offer lists of films, videos, and audio recordings. Authors profiled include Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and Langston Hughes. Works examined include Invisible Man, Native Son, and A Raisin in the Sun. Other entry topics are the jazz aesthetic, the slave narrative, the Harlem Renaissance, and the Black Arts Movement. (Publisher)