Black Studies

African American Poetry
African American poetry texts, from the first recorded poem by an African American to the major poets of the nineteenth century.

African American Newspapers: The Nineteenth Century
This unique collection of African American Newspapers contains a wealth of information about cultural life and history during the 19th century and is rich with first–hand reporting on the major events and issues of the day, including the slavery and abolition, religion and the issue of slavery, the Civil War, Presidential and Congressional addresses, business and commodity markets, the humanities, and world travel. The collection also provides a great number of early biographies, vital statistics, essays and editorials, poetry and prose, and advertisements all of which embody the African-American experience.

Black Drama: 1850 - present
Black Drama - 1850 to Present contains the full text of 1,200 plays by more than 100 playwrights from North America, English-speaking Africa, and the Caribbean, and "includes musical comedies, domestic dramas, folk dramas, history plays, anti-slavery plays, one-act plays, and other works. Some have never before been published or performed."

Black Studies Center
Black Studies Center is a fully cross-searchable gateway to Black Studies including scholarly essays, recent periodicals, historical newspaper articles, reference books and much more.

Black Thought and Culture: African Americans from Colonial Times to the Present
Black Thought and Culture contains 1,303 sources with 1,210 authors, covering the non-fiction published works of leading African Americans. Particular care has been taken to index this material so that it can be searched more thoroughly than ever before. Where possible the complete published non-fiction works are included, as well as interviews, journal articles, speeches, essays, pamplets, letters and other fugitive material. 

Empire Online  
Collection of primary source documents on colonial history, politics, and culture from 1492 to 2007, primarily about the British Empire, especially Africa, the Americas, Australia, Oceania, and South Asia.

Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice, 1490-2007
Collection of materials from libraries and archives on slavery and abolition studies. Covers the varieties of slavery, the legacy of slavery, the social justice perspective and the continued existence of slavery today. Includes images, links to significant online collections, and contextual essays by leading authorities in the field.

Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law
This collection brings together, for the first time, all known legal materials on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world.

Twentieth Century African American Poetry
A database of modern and contemporary African American poetry, featuring almost 9,000 poems by 62 of the most important African American poets of the last century, including Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer, Imamu Amiri Baraka, Audre Lorde and Rita Dove.

Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000
A database consisting of primary sources, books, images and other materials, organized around the topic of American women in social movements. Includes the Black Woman Suffragists collection.

Black Lives Matter: 80 Years of Black Americans’ Public Opinion and How the U.S. Public Views Black America
The Roper Center, an US archive for public opinion polls, has created a guide related to Black Lives Matter: "In addition to describing the sources on national polling on race over the last 80 years, we also highlight polls of Black Americans and provide a primer on doing research on Black public opinion, list some resources on global public opinion of segregation in the US from midcentury, and offer charts from current polls. All data, topline, reports and other materials referenced on these pages are available to Roper members immediately and will be shared freely with non-members by request."