* These resources require a Houston Public Library Power Card for access from your home or office.
The largest electronic collection of biographical information on African Americans from 1790 to1950.*
A groundbreaking digital resource exclusively devoted to African American family history research. This collection was created in partnership with leading African American genealogists to develop a comprehensive mix of resources, records, and tools specifically pertaining to African Americans.
This comprehensive database includes subject entries, primary sources, images and videos, general and topic-specific timelines, biographies, maps and charts, and more.*
Contains comprehensive coverage of blues, jazz, spirituals, civil rights songs, slave songs, minstrelsy, rhythm and blues, gospel, and other forms of black American musical expression chronicling the rich history of this music through 1970.*
Search over 25 reference titles related to African American culture, history, and literature simultaneously.*
The Atlanta Daily World had the first black White House correspondent and was the first black daily in the nation in the 20th century. Search fulltext from 1931 to 2003.*
Employment and career information for students and professionals of color. Resume posting available.
Contains the full text of plays written from the mid-1800s to the present by playwrights from North America, English-speaking Africa, the Caribbean, and other African diaspora countries.*
Short fiction produced by writers from Africa and the African Diaspora from the earliest times to the present compiled from early literary magazines, archives, and the personal collections of the authors.*
Black Studies Center is a fully cross-searchable gateway to Black Studies including scholarly essays, recent periodicals, historical newspaper articles, and much more.*
An electronic collection of non-fiction writings by major American black leaders covering 250 years of history including letters, speeches, prefatory essays, political leaflets, interviews, periodicals, and trail transcripts.*
An online reference e-book that celebrates the remarkable achievements of black women throughout history and highlights their ongoing contributions in America today by looking at women such as Venus and Serena Williams, Condoleezza Rice, Carol Moseley Braun, Ruth Simmons, and Ann Fudge who have become household names for their remarkable contributions to sports, politics, academia, and business.
Presents literature and essays by authors from Africa and the African Diaspora.*
Full page view of the Chicago Defender from 1910-1975.*
Includes the fulltext of 6 regional newspapers from all sides of the conflict from 1840-1865 as well as 2,000 slavery, anti-slavery and Civil War pamphlets.*
An online reference book tracing the transition from the Reconstruction Era to the age of Jim Crow, the Harlem Renaissance, the Civil Rights Movement, and including the 2008 election of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States.
Full-text reference books on topics including biography, business, the environment, history, law, social sciences, medicine, religion, the sciences, and multicultural studies.*
A leading Black newspaper of the 20th century, especially the 1940s. Search fulltext from 1922 to 1993.*
Includes articles, maps, and timelines about African Americans.*
Includes documents, newspaper collections, and books from the United States, Europe, and other parts of the world published in the antebellum.*
This is a digital collection of over 600 documents: personal narratives, pamphlets, political speeches, sermons, plays, songs, poetic and fictional works published between the 17th and late 19th centuries.*
The Voyages Database contains records of nearly 35,000 separate slaving voyages between 1514 and 1866, gleaned from original documents and historical publications located in archives, libraries, and other institutions throughout the world.
For more information please see the History and Social Sciences webpage.
For more information, search in the databases listed under Magazines, Scholarly Journals and Publications.