Guides: Anti-Racism Guide: Library Research Databases

Research Databases available through DePaul University Library

Current News and Newspapers

Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new window
Indexes US ethnic and minority publications; with full text.
Dates Covered: 1960-present.
Independent Voices This link opens in a new window
Independent Voices is a digital collection of alternative press newspapers, magazines and journals, drawn from the special collections of participating libraries. These periodicals were produced by feminists, dissident GIs, campus radicals, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Hispanics, LGBT activists, the extreme right-wing press and alternative literary magazines during the latter half of the 20th century.
Access note: Freely available to the public.
Alternative Press Index & Archive This link opens in a new window
Bibliographic database of journal, newspaper, and magazine articles from international alternative, radical, and left periodicals.
Dates Covered: 1969 - Present

Encyclopedias

Encyclopedia of African American Society
Reference work covering the basics of African American Society.
Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present
Focuses on the making of African American society from the 1896 "separate but equal" ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson up to the contemporary period. The years 1619-1895, from the colonial period to the age of Frederick Douglass, are covered in a print encyclopedia, Lincoln Park Reference, call number R. 973.0496073 E56f2006.

Oxford African American Studies Center This link opens in a new window
Contains the Encyclopedia of African American History 1619-1895; Encyclopedia of African American History 1896-present; Black Women in America, 2nd ed.; the Africana, 2nd ed.; the African American National Biography Project; Encyclopedia of African American Art and Architecture; the Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature; and selected articles from other reference works.
Access note: Limited to 3 simultaneous users.

Encyclopedia of African-American Writing
Covers the role and influence of African-American cultural leaders, from all walks of life, from the 17th century to the present.

Historical Research

African American Communities This link opens in a new window
Focusing on Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis, New York, and North Carolina this collection presents multiple aspects of the African American community through pamphlets, newspapers and periodicals, correspondence, official records and in-depth oral histories, revealing the prevalent challenges of racism, discrimination and integration, and a unique African American culture and identity.
African American Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Provides indexing and full-text coverage of newspapers from the 1800s and early 1900s. Includes information on black history and culture, including first-hand reports of the major events and issues of the day.
African American Newspapers, 1827-1998 This link opens in a new window
This resource provides online access to approximately 270 U.S. newspapers published by or for African Americans between 1827-1998. This collection features papers from more than 35 states, and was created from the most extensive African American newspaper archives in the United States: Those of the Wisconsin Historical Society, Kansas State Historical Society and the Library of Congress.

Black Panther (via Black Thought and Culture)
Provides full text access to a digital replica of the Black Panther from 1967-1980.

Black Thought and Culture This link opens in a new window
Database focusing on the study of the historical development of black culture. Includes monographs, essays, articles, speeches, and interviews written by leaders within the black community.
Dates Covered: 1841-present.
Chicago Defender - Historical Edition This link opens in a new window
Provides full page and article images with searchable full text of this historically important African American newspaper from 2010 back to the first issue.
Dates Covered: 1910-2010.
ProQuest History Vault: NAACP Papers This link opens in a new window
Primary source material pertaining to the civil rights movement and to U.S. foreign policy during the Vietnam War era consisting of the NAACP Papers and federal government records, organizational records, and personal papers regarding the Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century.
Race Relations in America This link opens in a new window
Sourced from the records of the Race Relations Department of the United Church Board for Homeland Ministries, this resource provides access to documents highlighting different responses to the challenges of overcoming prejudice, segregation and racial tensions.
Slavery & Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive This link opens in a new window
Collection of primary source documents focusing on the abolitionist movement and the conflicts within it, the anti- and pro-slavery arguments of the period, and the debates on the subject of colonization. Explores the various components of the debate with a focus on economic, gender, legal, religious, and government issues. Also includes bibliographies, biographies, chronologies and scholarly essays.

Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database
Contains records of 27,233 trans-Atlantic slave ship voyages made between 1595 and 1866. Format allows users to track information by time period and geographic region, and includes interactive maps that allow viewers to chart the trans-Atlantic connections. The accompanying data contains materials about people on board, owners and captains, ships’ characteristics, and the geographic trajectory of each voyage.

Literature

Twentieth-Century African American Poetry This link opens in a new window
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.

Oral History

HistoryMakers Digital Archive This link opens in a new window
The HistoryMakers Digital Archive is an extensive online database of over 9,000 hours of full-text and video interviews with African-Americans distinguished in the fields of science, culture, politics, the arts, and public life.

Academic Research

America: History and Life This link opens in a new window
Indexes journals, books and dissertations on North American history, covering the United States and Canada. (For other countries or regions, use the database Historical Abstracts.) "Dates covered" refers to publication dates included; all historic eras are addressed, from B.C. to present day.
Dates Covered: 1964-present
Sociological Abstracts (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Abstracts and indexes the international literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. The database provides abstracts of journal articles and citations to book reviews drawn from thousands of serials publications, and also provides abstracts of books, book chapters, dissertations, and conference papers. Includes Social Services Abstracts, and forms part of the Sociology Collection.
Dates Covered: 1952-present.