African American Studies
*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.
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.
An online music listening service documenting the history of African American music in various genres.
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.
Presents literature and essays by authors from Africa and the African Diaspora.
Full page view of the Chicago Defender from 1905-1975.
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.
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.
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.
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.