Purdue Libraries and School of Information Studies News

Beyond Black History Month: Libraries Resources on the Black Experience in America

February 28th, 2023

In honor of Black History Month, and in recognition that Black history, culture, and inclusion matter all year long, Purdue University Libraries and School of Information Studies is highlighting its collection of resources that focus on the Black Experience in America.

These resources are part of several dozen databases that support the learning, research, and teaching of equity, inclusion, and belonging on campus. They cover a range of topics including slavery in the United States, literature, the civil rights movement, Black studies, women’s studies, sexuality and gender, the disabled, and indigenous peoples. 

The complete collection of diversity, equity, and inclusion resources can be found via a filtered list on the Libraries’ A to Z database list, or through the Library Search service on the Libraries’ home page. 

Libraries Resources on the Black Experience in America

• African American Communities 
• African American Newspapers: The 19th Century
• African American Periodicals
• African American Poetry
• African American Police League Records
• African Diaspora, 1860–present
• Afro-Americana Imprints
• Black Abolitionist Papers
• Black Drama
• Black Studies Center
• Black Studies in Video
• Black Studies Periodicals
• Black Thought and Culture
• Historical African American Newspapers: Atlanta Daily World, Baltimore Afro-American, Chicago Defender, Louisville Defender, Philadelphia Tribune, Pittsburgh Courier
• HistoryMakers Digital Archive
• History Vault: Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century series: Federal Government Records and Supplement; Organizational Records and Personal Papers, Parts 1 and 2
• History Vault: NAACP Papers series: Board of Directors, Annual Conferences, Major Speeches, and National Staff Files; Branch Department, Branch Files, and Youth Department Files; NAACP’s Major Campaigns: Education, Voting, Housing, Employment, Armed Forces; NAACP’s Major Campaigns: Legal Department Files; NAACP’s Major Campaigns: Scottsboro, Anti-Lynching, Criminal Justice, Peonage, Labor, and Segregation and Discrimination Complaints and Responses; Special Subjects
• History Vault: Slavery, Southern Life, Civil War series: Confederate Military Manuscripts and Records of Union Generals and the Union Army; Slavery and the Law; Slavery in Antebellum Southern Industries; Slavery, Southern Life, Civil War: Reconstruction and Military Government after the Civil War; Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Law and Order in 19th Century America; Southern Life and African American History, 1775–1915, Plantations Records, Parts 1 and 2
• Music Online: African American Music Reference
• Race Relations in America
• Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice
• Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law