Ethnic Studies Specialized Databases
Key Journals to Consult
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.
- African American Review/ Black American Literature ForumOfficial publication of the Modern Language Association's Division of Black American Literature & Culture. We have it back to 1990 FULLTEXT in Black Studies Center.
- American LegacyImportant journal for African American history & culture. Great illustrations! Searchable FULLTEXT in Black Studies Center from 2001 on.
- Black History BulletinFirst 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!
- Black Music Research JournalThis 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.
- Black ScholarThis 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.
- CallalooThis 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.
- Howard Journal of CommunicationThis 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.
- Journal of Negro History (now Journal of African American History)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.
- Journal of African American HistoryThis continues Journal of Negro History and is searchable from 2002 (when the title changed) until current through JStor, linked here.
- Journal of Negro EducationSince 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.
- The CrisisThis 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.
- JetLegendary 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!
- EbonyFounded 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.
Recommended Think Tank to Consult
- Pew Research Center - African AmericansConsult studies and find data related to African Americans in society, published by the Pew Research Center.
Alternatives and Augmentations to Wikipedia
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.
Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience by ISBN: 0195170555Publication Date: 2005Ninety 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)
African American National Biography by ISBN: 0195160193Publication Date: 2008-02-18The 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)
African Americans and Criminal Justice by ISBN: 0313357161African Americans and Criminal Justice: An Encyclopedia comprises descriptive essays documenting the ways in which people of African descent have been victimized by oppressive laws enacted by local, state, and federal authorities in the United States. The entries also describe how Blacks became disproportionately represented in national crime statistics, largely through their efforts to resist legalized oppression in early American history, and present biographies of famous and infamous Black criminal suspects and victims throughout early American history and in contemporary times.
Providing coverage of law and criminal justice practices from the precolonial period, including the introduction of African slaves, up to practices in modern-day America, this encyclopedia presents a frank and comprehensive view of how Americans of African descent have come to be viewed as synonymous with criminality. (Publisher)
African Americans and Popular Culture by ISBN: 0275989224Publication Date: 2008Editor 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)
Black America: a state-by-state historical encyclopedia by ISBN: 0313341125Publication 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)
Black Women in America, Second Edition by ISBN: 0195156773Publication Date: 2005Winner 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)
Encyclopedia of African American Culture and HistoryISBN: 0028658167Publication Date: 2006Impressively 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)
Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895 by ISBN: 0195167775Publication Date: 2006It 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)
Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present by ISBN: 0195167791Publication Date: 2009Focusing 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)
Encyclopedia of Black Studies by ISBN: 076192762XPublication Date: 2004More 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)
Encyclopedia of the African Diaspora by ISBN: 1851097007Publication Date: 2008Written 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)
Icons of African American Literature by ISBN: 0313352038Publication 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)
Jim Crow by ISBN: 1610696638Publication Date: 2014This encyclopedia chronicle the Jim Crow era through a diverse array of themes and topics. Each entry offers a concise, yet full account of its subject matter. Entries include Little Rock Nine, Passing, Humor and Comedic Traditions, Civilian Conservation Corps, and many more. Each entry ends with further reading suggestions and a list of related entries. The book also contains several excerpts of primary source material from places such as The Southern Manifesto, and The Civil Rights Act of 1964. An introduction summarizes the era as well as important points in the text. (Publisher)
Which Database Should You Use?
Ethnic Studies is such an interdisciplinary field that you need to really think about the specific topic you are researching carefully to decide the best database to use. Read the descriptions here carefully and decide which database you wish to search.
African-American studies has a unique database, Black Studies Center. It is really several databases that can be searched simultaneously or individually:
- Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience includes interdisciplinary essays from prominent scholars in the field.
- International Index to Black Periodicals indexes hundreds of journals in the field, popular as well as scholarly, including many fulltext articles. This is particularly useful for its HISTORICAL coverage.
- Chicago Defender newspaper from 1910-1975 and Daily Defender from 1956-1975.
- Black Literature Index is a unique historical tool for fiction, poetry and literary reviews published in 110 black periodicals and newspapers between 1827-1940. It is NOT fulltext, so you will need to take extra steps to actually get the fulltext -- good time to meet a librarian!
Click the link below to print a short guide to searching this unique database.
For current issues type information and to search the ethnic PRESS (mostly magazines whose audience is people in a specific ethnic group), Ethnic Newswatch is the way to go!
If you are just beginning to explore your topic, a good database to explore in is Omnifile.
If your research has a historical angle or cultural life of America angle, you should be sure to explore America: History & Life.
Many, many aspects of ethnic studies research are SOCIOLOGICAL ("... the science of society, social institutions, and social relationships..." according to www.merrian-webster.com/dictionary) in nature or perspective. There is a huge sociology database called, suprisingly, Sociological Abstracts.
And, if your topic has to do with women in particular, you need to search Women's Studies International.
If you researching an author or literature, then you will need to tackle the MLA Bibliography.
Does your research have anything to do with Art? Then you will need Art Index and maybe Artbibliographies Modern.