Black History Month
In honor of Black History Month, Brandeis Library is highlighting library resources and collections about Black history.
University Archives and Special Collections
The University Archives holds a number of collections that document Black history, including:
- Rare editions of works by authors such as Richard Wright, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Wallace Thurman
- A photography collection of portraits of African American authors and artists of the Harlem Renaissance
- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s 1957 speech at Brandeis (Online Recording)
- Materials about the Student Occupation of Ford Hall, January 1969
Visit the Archives and Special Collections on Goldfarb Level 2, weekdays between 10 AM - 4 PM.
Library Databases and Online Collections
Among the library databases and online collections for the study of Black History are the HistoryMakers Digital Archive, founded by Brandeis alumna Julieanna L. Richardson ’76. Explore the list of suggested resources below, including the recently added JET Magazine Archive:
- Black Studies Center: A fully cross-searchable gateway to Black Studies covering scholarly essays, periodicals, historical newspaper articles, reference books, and much more. Includes the Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience, the Black Studies Periodicals Database (previously known as International Index to Black Periodicals), and Black Literature Index.
- HistoryMakers Digital Archive: An African American video oral history archive. Provides access to oral history interviews with historically significant African Americans.
- ProQuest Historical Black Newspapers: Search across the New York Amsterdam News (1922-1993), the Norfolk Journal and Guide (1921-2003), Los Angeles Sentinel (1934-2005), Cleveland Call and Post (1934-1991), Atlanta Daily World (1931-2003), Michigan Chronicle (1936 - 2010), and the Baltimore Afro-American (1893-1988). Please note that Brandeis Library also has access to the Chicago Defender newspaper which can be searched separately
- African American Poetry: Contains poems by African American poets of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It provides a comprehensive survey of the early history of African American poetry.
- Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century: Includes records of major civil rights organizations and personal papers of leaders and observers of the 20th-century Black freedom struggle, as well as federal government records. Includes the records of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).
- Ebony Magazine Archive (EBSCO): Ebony is one of the key African American magazines of the 20th century, covering 20th and 21st-Century current events, art, design, politics and culture, literature, advertising, and more. The archive contains the complete archive of the magazine (including Covers and Advertisements) beginning in November 1945 to June 2014.
- Ethnic NewsWatch: Newspapers, magazines, and journals from American ethnic and native communities, covering 1960 to the present.
- JET Magazine Archive: Covers the civil rights movement, politics, education, and other social topics with an African-American focus. The Archive provides a broad view of news, culture, and entertainment from its first issue in 1951 through 2014.
- NAACP Papers: Covers records from the NAACP from 1909-1970. The papers include special reports on a wide range of issues including the Ku Klux Klan, discrimination in public employment, economic equality, the church and civil rights, equal access to education, voting, employment, and housing.