E. H. Butler Library: Black Lives Matter: Library Databases

African American History Databases

Adam Matthew - Race Relations in America
Documenting three pivotal decades in the fight for civil rights, this resource showcases the speeches, reports, surveys and analyses produced by the Race Relations Department and annual Institute of Fisk University, including Charles S. Johnson, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Thurgood Marshall.
African American Experience
Developed with the guidance of African American librarians and subject specialists, The African American Experience is the widest ranging and easiest-to-use online database collection on African American history and culture.
African American Newspapers, 1827-1998
Provide access to U.S. newspapers chronicling a century and a half of the African American experience, including many rare and historically significant 19th century titles.
Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century: Federal Government Records
A website focused on Black Freedom, featuring select primary source documents related to critical people and events in African American history. Our intention is to support a wide range of students (see examples for using in teaching and learning), as well independent researchers and anyone interested in learning more about the foundation of ongoing racial injustice in the U.S. – and the fights against it.

The documents presented here represent a selection of primary sources available in several ProQuest databases. The databases represented in this website include American Periodicals, Black Abolitionist Papers, ProQuest History Vault, ProQuest Congressional, Supreme Court Insight and Alexander Street’s Black Thought and Culture.
The goal of this website is to provide a selection of primary source documents that may be used by a wide range of students, from middle and high school students to college students and independent scholars. Examples of assignments may include National History Day projects or research papers about Black Freedom.