African American History
Discover a rich Houston history by exploring thousands of stories, photographs, documents, databases, and much much more.
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Databases
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African American Biographical Database The largest electronic collection of biographical information on African Americans from 1790 to 1950.
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African American Heritage 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.
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African American Music Reference 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.
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African American Reference E-book Titles Search multiple reference titles related to African American culture, history, and literature simultaneously.
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Atlanta Daily World Historical Archive 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 full text from 1931 to 2003.
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Black Drama 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.
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Black Short Fiction and Folklore 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.
Staff Picks
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African American Intellectual History Society A scholarly organization that aims to foster dialogue about researching, writing, and teaching black thought and culture.
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Black Studies Center Black Studies Center is a fully cross-searchable gateway to Black Studies including scholarly essays, recent periodicals, historical newspaper articles, and much more. Includes scholarly journals, commissioned overview essays by top scholars in Black Studies, historic indexes, and the full-text of The Chicago Defender newspaper from 1910-1975.
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Black Thought and Culture An electronic collection of non-fiction writings by major Black American leaders covering 250 years of history including letters, speeches, prefatory essays, political leaflets, interviews, periodicals, and trial transcripts.
Print Collection
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Newspapers and Journals
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Vertical Files (In-house use only)
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Yearbook Collection