GSU Library Research Guides: Africana Studies: Subject Guide: Primary Sources

Digital Collections available at GSU

These primary-source databases are available to GSU affiliates.

If you are accessing them from off campus, you will be asked to sign in with your Campus ID and password.

African American Newspapers, Parts I - VIII This link opens in a new window
Selection of African-American newspapers published during the 19th century
Archives Unbound This link opens in a new window
Includes numerous collections on civil rights and 20th-century African-American history.
Atlanta Daily World, 1931 - 2003 (ProQuest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window
Historical African-American newspaper
Black Thought and Culture This link opens in a new window
The collection, which also includes biographic details, is designed for research in black studies, political science, American history, music, literature, and art.
Chicago Defender, 1910 - 1975 (ProQuest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window
historical African-American newspaper
Ebony Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window
NEW! 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. Their editorial philosophy is to “showcase the best and brightest as well as highlighting the disparities in Black life in the United States and worldwide”. The Ebony Magazine Archive contains indexing, abstracting and full text for the complete archive (including Covers and Advertisements) beginning in November 1945 to June 2014.
History Vault: Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century This link opens in a new window
Primary sources related to 20th-century African American history and the Civil Rights Movement, including federal government records, organizational records, and personal papers.
New York Times, 1851 - 2017 (ProQuest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window
Coverage from 1851-2012.
Readers' Guide Retrospective: 1890 - 1982 (H.W. Wilson) This link opens in a new window
Articles in popular magazines from 1890-1982. For post-1982 articles, see paper version.
Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice This link opens in a new window
Includes thousands of manuscripts, pamphlets, books, paintings, maps, and images from 1490 to 2007.

African American Newspapers

African American Newspapers @ GSU

Click above to access the African American Newspapers page on GSU's Newspapers Research Guide.

Finding Images

Zora Neale Hurston, Rochelle French, and Gabriel Brown, Eatonville, Florida

Photograph by Alan Lomax, June 1935.

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

These websites are good sources for finding historical images of African-Americans:

Digital Library of Georgia
Africa and the African Diaspora
One of the New York Public Library Digital Gallery's collections. Images relating to African-American history from the 16th century to the present.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice This link opens in a new window
A portal for slavery studies bringing together documents and collections covering an extensive time period spanning six centuries from libraries and archives across the Atlantic world. Information about participating libraries available here. **Access for GSU affiliaties only.

Evaluating Primary-Source Sites

Many libraries and organizations are making digital materials available online.

To find these collections, use a search string with terms relevant to your topic in Google or another search engine. For example:

digital collection site:edu "african methodist episcopal church"

You can also try the same search limiting to site:org rather than site:edu BUT:

Be careful!

EDU = educational institution
ORG = organization, which can mean almost ANY kind of noncorporate organization. If you aren't familiar with the organization, do some research on it! Who are they? What do they promote? Are they reliable?

* * * * * *

Questions to ask when you are assessing online primary-source collections:

Who is the author or creator of the page/site? Is there an institution involved? What is the name of the institution?
What are the credentials of the author or institution (what qualifies the author or institution to present these sources objectively? Do they represent a university? A library? An individual?)
Who sponsors the site? Is there information about funding?

Use Google, Wikipedia, & other sources to research the authors, organizations, or institutions responsible for the page and its funding.

Don't just trust the About page!

What is the purpose of the site - To inform? To entertain? To sell you something? To argue for a certain point of view?
Who is the intended audience?
Are the sources cited? Where did the author(s) get the information?
Can the information on the page be verified with other sources?
How current is the information? How recently has the website been updated?**
(**This question may be less important for historians looking for historical primary sources)