Primary Source Spotlight: Black American History & Heritage
Primary source sets with teacher guides
- Baseball: Across a Changing Nation
- The Civil Rights Movement
- Civil War Images: Depictions of African Americans in the War Effort
- Harlem Renaissance
- Jim Crow in America
- The NAACP: A Century in the Fight for Freedom
- Rosa Parks
- Veterans’ Stories: Struggles for Participation
Story maps
Curated resource sets – primary sources & secondary too
Individuals
- Marian Anderson
- James Baldwin
- Mathematician & Astronomer Benjamin Banneker
- Constance Baker Motley
- Bill “Bojangles” Robinson & Tap Dancing
- Gwendolyn Brooks
- Ralph Bunche
- George Washington Carver & Tuskegee Institute
- Shirley Chisholm
- Henry Creamer & Turner Layton
- Paul Laurence Dunbar
- Katherine Dunham
- James Reese Europe
- Ella Fitzgerald
- Althea Gibson & Tennis
- Dizzy Gillespie
- W.C. Handy & the Blues
- Billie Holiday
- Langston Hughes
- Zora Neale Hurston
- Mahalia Jackson
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
- John Lewis
- Thurgood Marshall
- Mary McLeod Bethune
- Toni Morrison
- Barack Obama
- Satchel Paige
- Rosa Parks Arrested
- Gordon Parks
- Harriet Powers & Quilting
- Leontyne Price
- A. Philip Randolph
- Jackie Robinson
- Patricia Smith
- Tracy K. Smith
- Mary Church Terrell
- Natasha Trethewey
- Sojourner Truth
- Harriet Tubman
- Booker T. Washington
- Ida B. Wells
- Phyllis Wheatley
Groups
- 25th Infantry Bicycle Corps
- African Americans and the Gold Rush
- Artists’ Portraits
- The Black Guides of Mammoth Cave
- Black Women’s Clubs
- Catalyzing Chemists – African Americans in the Sciences
- Harlem Hellfighters
- Howard University
- Little Rock Nine
- NAACP
- Tuskegee Airmen
Topics
- Abolition
- Abolition in D.C.
- Civil Rights
- Orson Welles’ First Macbeth
- First March from Selma
- Fisk University
- Fugitive Slave Law
- Great Migration
- Harlem Renaissance
- Juneteenth
- Liberia
- Lynching
- New York 1949-1967
- Plessy v. Ferguson
- Race Riots/Protests
- Slave Auction
- Slavery (U.S.)
- The Stono Rebellion
- Voting Rights Act of 1965
- Works by Civil War Era African American Women
African American Studies Research Guides
- African American Studies Research Guides Offer a Gateway to Primary and Secondary Sources Teaching with the Library of Congress
- African-American Band Music & Recordings 1883 to 1923
- African American Perspectives: Materials Selected from the Rare Book Collection 1822-1909
- African American Photographs Assembled for 1900 Paris Exposition
- Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project 1936-1938
- Collection Spotlight: All American News 1942-45
- Collection Spotlight: Civil Rights History Project
- The Frederick Douglass Papers 1862-1895
- William A. Gladstone Afro-American Military Collection
- The Zora Neale Hurston Plays 1925-1944
- Maps of Liberia 1830-1870
- Now What a Time: Blues, Gospel, and the Fort Valley Music Festivals 1938 to 1943
- By Popular Demand: Jackie Robinson and Other Baseball Highlights 1860s-1960s
- Slaves and the Court 1740-1860
- Voices from the Days of Slavery: Former Slaves Tell Their Stories 1932-1975
Additional collections outside the Library
- African-American Experience in Ohio 1850-1920 Ohio History Connection
- African-American Sheet Music 1850-1920 Brown University Center for Digital Scholarship
- The Church in the Southern Black Community Documenting the American South, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- First-Person Narratives of the American South Documenting the American South, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Online exhibitions
- The African-American Mosaic: African-American Culture and History
- The African American Odyssey: A Quest for Full Citizenship
- With an Even Hand: Brown v. Board at Fifty
- Creative Space: Fifty Years of Robert Blackburn’s Printmaking Workshop
- Voices of Civil Rights
- African Americans: The Next Generation
- African American Pioneers
- African-Americans at War: Fighting Two Battles
- Buffalo Soldiers: The 92nd in Italy
- Veterans’ Stories: Struggles for Participation
Spotlights, features & special presentations
- African American History and Culture
- African-American Odyssey: A Quest for Full Citizenship
- Brown v. Board of Education timeline & related materials
- Faces and Voices of Slavery
- From Slavery to Civil Rights
- “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” anthem for African Americans
- Susie King Taylor: The Courage of an African American Nurse and Teacher
- African American images across the Library
- American Cartoon Prints, 1766-1876: African Americans
- Black Lives Matter, 2020-21
- Civil War Photographs: African Americans
- Civil War Documentary Drawings: African Americans
- Detroit Publishing Company, 1885-1930: African Americans
- Farm Security Administration (daily life 1939-1944, color): African Americans
- Farm Security Administration (daily life 1935-1944, black and white): African Americans
- Featured Image: Frederick Douglass lithograph
- First Negro Troops in the Civil War Were from the South
- Images of African-American Slavery and Freedom
- Minstrel Show Posters
- Performing Arts Poster Collection: African Americans
- Photographs from the Golden Age of Jazz
- Primary Sources for “Saving American Beach: The Biography of African American Environmentalist MaVynee Betsch”
- Work Projects Administration Posters: African Americans
Historic African-American newspapers
- Article: African American Song
- African American Band Music & Recordings 1883-1923
- Blues music primary sources
- Blues music streaming audio
- Jazz Music
- Ragtime sheet music, audio, video
- Ragtime & jazz songs streaming audio
- Aubrey Ghent & Friends: Sacred Lap Steel Guitar webcast
- Now What a Time: Blues, Gospel, and the Fort Valley Music Festivals, 1938-1943 sound recordings
- William P. Gottlieb: Photographs from the Golden Age of Jazz 1938-1948 images
- Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater: 50 Years Cultural Ambassador to the World multiformat
- Bill “Bojangles” Robinson & Tap Dancing
- Katherine Dunham Selections
- Apologizing to Lynching Victims and Their Descendants Senate 2004-09-29
- Justice for Victims of Lynching Act of 2019 Senate 2019-03-22
- Is Racism Alive House 615, Feb. 27, 2002 (p. 53)
- Recognizing the African American Spiritual as a National Treasure Senate 2007-02-17
- Honoring the Tuskegee Airmen for their bravery in fighting for our freedom in World War II, and for their contribution in creating an integrated United States Air Force H.Con.Res.26 2005
- Celebrating Black History Month Congressional Record Vol. 165, No. 18, January 29, 2019
- Select Legislative & Executive Branch documents related to African American History Month
- Library of Congress Blog: African American
- Folklife Today: African Americans
- Headlines & Heroes: African American History Newspapers & Comics
- Inside Adams: African American History Science, Technology, Business
- In the Muse: African American History Performing Arts
- In Custodia Legis: African American History Law
- Unfolding History: African Americans Manuscripts
- The Art of Healing: A Nostalgic Ode to Black Hair Braiding Copyright: Creativity at Work
- Captain Hugh Mulzac and the SS Booker T. Washington Now See Hear!
- Remembering Sidney Poitier Through the National Film Registry Now See Hear!
- Visualizing Injustice: Early NAACP Cartographers and Racial Inequality in America Worlds Revealed: Geography & Maps
- The Autobiography of John Hope Franklin
- Breaking the Color Barrier: The U.S. Naval Academy’s First Black Midshipmen and the Struggle for Racial Equality
- Early African American Life
- Ethel Payne, First Lady of the Black Press
- Federal Discrimination & the Decline of National Black Politics in the Early 20th Century
- John Lewis: Civil Rights Activist, Author, U.S. Congressman
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Brothers in Arms
- Kevin Clash: My Life as a Furry Red Monster
- Langston Hughes and His Poetry
- Literature to Life: Zora! (Zora Neale Hurston)
- Lyndon Baines Johnson, Martin Luther King Jr. & Laws That Changed America
- A Matter of Law: A Memoir of Struggle in the Cause of Equal Rights
- Michael Harper Reads His Poetry
- The NAACP: Reflections on the First 100 Years
- A New Challenge to the Congressional Black Caucus
- One Tenth of a Nation: The Arts
- Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey
- Shelia Moses: Poet, Author, Playwright
Primary Source Learning: Black American History & Heritage teaching resources