African American Culture
Posted by on August 29th, 2010
African American Web Site
Posted by on August 25th, 2010
There are countless books and web sites available to someone who wishes to learn about African American history. The history of blacks in this country is as old as America herself, and the following list of books and web sites can help even the novice historian of African American culture chronicle the plight of blacks in America. This should by no means be taken as an official list of African American history resources; instead it may serve as a starting point for someone wanting to learn more about black history.
Some of the first Africans arrived in Jamestown, the Virginia colony in 1619. Most historical texts confirm that about 20 or so Africans were either sold into slavery or were used as indentured servants. The National Park Service, division within the U.S. Department of the Interior, maintains a web site devoted to the study of the colonial period of American history.
The web site, “African Americans at Jamestown,” gives a brief timeline of the arrival of the first blacks in America, which preceded the institution we would come to know as slavery. This site also includes suggested readings for further study.
http://www.nps.gov/colo/Jthanout/AFRICANS.html
Additionally, the book, Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America by social historian, Lerone Bennett, Jr. traces African American history from its roots in western Africa to America in the 1990s. Themes such as the African Diaspora and Civil Rights initiatives are discussed.
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) has the web site “Africans in America,” which serves as a companion to its “Africans and America” television series. The web site is divided into four parts that correspond with the periods that are covered by the episodes in the show. A good thing about this web site is that its information comes from years of research by the production team, which includes seldom-seen historical documents and interviews.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/home.html
A major part of African American history is slavery and its effects on the larger scale of American culture. A basic internet search for “slavery in America” would return various web sites, but one in particular, http://www.slaveryinamerica.org is well put together with the history, geography, an encyclopedia and teaching tools on the subject.
Authentic slave narratives will also help aid someone learn about the enslavement of African Americans. An American Slave: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass as well as Norman R. Yetman’s Voices of Slavery: 100 Authentic Slave Narratives gives vivid details of slave life compiled from nearly 3000 interviews of ex-slaves in the 1930s.
The period after African American enslavement, or the Reconstruction era, as historians refer to it, was a time of stark racial tension and the African American quest for first-class citizenship. Eventually, America would participate in two World Wars and African Americans would fight in both of them.
And it was also during this time at the turn of the 20th Century that would give rise to the black intellectuals and artists of the Harlem Renaissance, which helped to create an African American community committed to educational, housing and Civil Rights efforts.
A book that has been a definitive history of this period is From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans by lauded historian John Hope Franklin and Alfred A. Moss, Jr. This book contains stunning information about black life after slavery and is objective and well researched.
The Library of Congress maintains a web site, “African American Perspectives, Pamphlets from the A.P. Murray Collection 1818-1907.” The site allows visitors to perform searches on key words about black life in America. For example, a search on the word “slavery” or “Jim Crow” would bring up essays, speeches and articles about that subject from people such as Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington.
http://international.loc.gov/ammem/aap/aaphome.html
In the 1920s, the Harlem Renaissance was the period when African American literature, arts and social commentary flourished in Harlem, an area in New York City. It was an important time in African American culture. Blacks were beginning to be seen as thinkers and intellectuals.
The School of Information at the University of Michigan maintains “Harlem: 1900-1940,” an online exhibit about black activism, community efforts, arts, sports and business in the early 20th Century. The project was originally researched by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the New York Public Library. It includes photographs and write-ups about various people and organizations.
http://www.si.umich.edu/CHICO/Harlem/
Thought provoking books such as The Souls of Black Folks by W.E.B. DuBois talks of the time after the Emancipation Proclamation, where many blacks had jobs as sharecroppers, were illiterate or were lynched by white mobs. Furthermore, it discusses that blacks should not accommodate white racism, and that there is a struggle or double consciousness blacks may feel about being both black and American.
Additionally, The Mis-Education of the Negro by Carter G. Woodson describes how African Americans had been stripped of an identity by slavery and in turn, do not receive adequate education about their history and experiences in America.
After World War II and into the 1950s, African Americans became increasingly more politicized to fight racial injustices outlined by Jim Crow laws, or the system of rules that barred blacks from enjoying the same things as whites, such as equal access to schools, housing, and restaurants. This was a time of “White Only” and “Colored” signs, which separated the races as distinct groups.
In 1954, however, the Supreme Court unanimously agreed in the landmark case, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional, which gave rise to the integration of public schools as well as other aspects of American life. A text of the decision may be found on the web site for the National Center for Public Policy Research.
http://www.nationalcenter.org/brown.html
A year later, Rosa Parks, a seamstress living in Montgomery, Alabama at that time refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a bus, and was jailed for doing so. This sparked a year-long bus boycott by blacks, which was led by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Eventually causing the city bus system to be desegregated.
The book, They Walked To Freedom 1955-1956: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Montgomery Advertiser, is a book written in tribute to Mrs. Parks’ actions with photographs and stories from the Advertiser’s archives.
The pursuit of equal Civil Rights for African Americans during this time was evident by the actions of some of America’s most famous black leaders and activists. Dr. King was arrested and jailed several times for his anti-segregation protests and speeches, most notably in Birmingham, Alabama, where he wrote his famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail. In 1963 he gave his “I Have A Dream” speech, calling for equality for all of America’s people.
Stanford University runs “The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute,” which includes the Papers Project, an effort to publish his papers for scholarly audiences.
http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/institute/
Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years 1954-1965 by Juan Williams is a summary of this tumultuous period of struggle and is also the companion of the PBS-TV series of the same name. Both sources present the events of these years with indelible imagery that will provide the learner with a context of this particular time in African American history.
President Johnson signed several bills during this time including the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which was legislation that prohibited discrimination of all kinds based on race, creed, religion or origin; the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which made it easier for blacks to register to vote, and the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which prohibited the discrimination in the sale, rental or financing of housing.
Harvard University maintains “The Civil Rights Project” web site, which is devoted to providing research for policy makers, organizations activists and journalists. There is a wealth of information available to web site visitors.
http://www.civilrightsproject.harvard.edu
African American history, which has had a tremendous impact on American life is ever-changing. These books and web sites are miniscule in the larger context of black history, but are relevant in understanding the roots of the saga. For further study, below is a list of additional resources that someone who wants to learn more about this subject may find interesting.
Additional Resources
Books
Up From Slavery
By Booker T. Washington
Race Matters
Cornel West
Native Son
Richard Wright
Black Firsts: 4,000 Groundbreaking and Pioneering Historical Events
By Jessie Carney Smith
African American Fraternities and Sororities: The Legacy and the Vision
By Tamara L. Brown, Gregory S. Parks and Clarenda M. Phillips
Stolen Legacy
G.M. James
The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.
By Martin Luther King, Jr. and Clayborne Carson
The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley
By Attallah Shabazz, Malcolm X and Alex Haley
Roots
By Alex Haley
Slavery and the Making of America
By James Oliver Horton and Lois E. Horton
The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow
By Richard Wormser
Web sites
“African American Odyssey: A Quest for Full Citizenship” – The Library of Congress
http://rs6.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aointro.html
“African American Women Writers of the 19th Century”- New York Public Library
http://digital.nypl.org/schomburg/writers_aa19/main.html
“African Americans in Military History”
http://www.au.af.mil/au/aul/bibs/afhist/afbuf.htm
“Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Higher Education Desegregation” – Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education
http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/hq9511.html
“Center for Black Music Research”
http://www.cbmr.org/
“Black Inventors”
http://www.black-collegian.com/african/inventors.shtml
There are countless books and web sites available to someone who wishes to learn about African American history. The history of blacks in this country is as old as America herself, and the following list of books and web sites can help even the novice historian of African American culture chronicle the plight of blacks in America. This should by no means be taken as an official list of African American history resources; instead it may serve as a starting point for someone wanting to learn more about black history.
Some of the first Africans arrived in Jamestown, the Virginia colony in 1619. Most historical texts confirm that about 20 or so Africans were either sold into slavery or were used as indentured servants. The National Park Service, division within the U.S. Department of the Interior, maintains a web site devoted to the study of the colonial period of American history.
The web site, “African Americans at Jamestown,” gives a brief timeline of the arrival of the first blacks in America, which preceded the institution we would come to know as slavery. This site also includes suggested readings for further study.
http://www.nps.gov/colo/Jthanout/AFRICANS.html
Additionally, the book, Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America by social historian, Lerone Bennett, Jr. traces African American history from its roots in western Africa to America in the 1990s. Themes such as the African Diaspora and Civil Rights initiatives are discussed.
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) has the web site “Africans in America,” which serves as a companion to its “Africans and America” television series. The web site is divided into four parts that correspond with the periods that are covered by the episodes in the show. A good thing about this web site is that its information comes from years of research by the production team, which includes seldom-seen historical documents and interviews.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/home.html
A major part of African American history is slavery and its effects on the larger scale of American culture. A basic internet search for “slavery in America” would return various web sites, but one in particular, http://www.slaveryinamerica.org is well put together with the history, geography, an encyclopedia and teaching tools on the subject.
Authentic slave narratives will also help aid someone learn about the enslavement of African Americans. An American Slave: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass as well as Norman R. Yetman’s Voices of Slavery: 100 Authentic Slave Narratives gives vivid details of slave life compiled from nearly 3000 interviews of ex-slaves in the 1930s.
The period after African American enslavement, or the Reconstruction era, as historians refer to it, was a time of stark racial tension and the African American quest for first-class citizenship. Eventually, America would participate in two World Wars and African Americans would fight in both of them.
And it was also during this time at the turn of the 20th Century that would give rise to the black intellectuals and artists of the Harlem Renaissance, which helped to create an African American community committed to educational, housing and Civil Rights efforts.
A book that has been a definitive history of this period is From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans by lauded historian John Hope Franklin and Alfred A. Moss, Jr. This book contains stunning information about black life after slavery and is objective and well researched.
The Library of Congress maintains a web site, “African American Perspectives, Pamphlets from the A.P. Murray Collection 1818-1907.” The site allows visitors to perform searches on key words about black life in America. For example, a search on the word “slavery” or “Jim Crow” would bring up essays, speeches and articles about that subject from people such as Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington.
http://international.loc.gov/ammem/aap/aaphome.html
In the 1920s, the Harlem Renaissance was the period when African American literature, arts and social commentary flourished in Harlem, an area in New York City. It was an important time in African American culture. Blacks were beginning to be seen as thinkers and intellectuals.
The School of Information at the University of Michigan maintains “Harlem: 1900-1940,” an online exhibit about black activism, community efforts, arts, sports and business in the early 20th Century. The project was originally researched by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the New York Public Library. It includes photographs and write-ups about various people and organizations.
http://www.si.umich.edu/CHICO/Harlem/
Thought provoking books such as The Souls of Black Folks by W.E.B. DuBois talks of the time after the Emancipation Proclamation, where many blacks had jobs as sharecroppers, were illiterate or were lynched by white mobs. Furthermore, it discusses that blacks should not accommodate white racism, and that there is a struggle or double consciousness blacks may feel about being both black and American.
Additionally, The Mis-Education of the Negro by Carter G. Woodson describes how African Americans had been stripped of an identity by slavery and in turn, do not receive adequate education about their history and experiences in America.
After World War II and into the 1950s, African Americans became increasingly more politicized to fight racial injustices outlined by Jim Crow laws, or the system of rules that barred blacks from enjoying the same things as whites, such as equal access to schools, housing, and restaurants. This was a time of “White Only” and “Colored” signs, which separated the races as distinct groups.
In 1954, however, the Supreme Court unanimously agreed in the landmark case, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional, which gave rise to the integration of public schools as well as other aspects of American life. A text of the decision may be found on the web site for the National Center for Public Policy Research.
http://www.nationalcenter.org/brown.html
A year later, Rosa Parks, a seamstress living in Montgomery, Alabama at that time refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a bus, and was jailed for doing so. This sparked a year-long bus boycott by blacks, which was led by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Eventually causing the city bus system to be desegregated.
The book, They Walked To Freedom 1955-1956: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Montgomery Advertiser, is a book written in tribute to Mrs. Parks’ actions with photographs and stories from the Advertiser’s archives.
The pursuit of equal Civil Rights for African Americans during this time was evident by the actions of some of America’s most famous black leaders and activists. Dr. King was arrested and jailed several times for his anti-segregation protests and speeches, most notably in Birmingham, Alabama, where he wrote his famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail. In 1963 he gave his “I Have A Dream” speech, calling for equality for all of America’s people.
Stanford University runs “The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute,” which includes the Papers Project, an effort to publish his papers for scholarly audiences.
http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/institute/
Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years 1954-1965 by Juan Williams is a summary of this tumultuous period of struggle and is also the companion of the PBS-TV series of the same name. Both sources present the events of these years with indelible imagery that will provide the learner with a context of this particular time in African American history.
President Johnson signed several bills during this time including the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which was legislation that prohibited discrimination of all kinds based on race, creed, religion or origin; the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which made it easier for blacks to register to vote, and the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which prohibited the discrimination in the sale, rental or financing of housing.
Harvard University maintains “The Civil Rights Project” web site, which is devoted to providing research for policy makers, organizations activists and journalists. There is a wealth of information available to web site visitors.
http://www.civilrightsproject.harvard.edu
African American history, which has had a tremendous impact on American life is ever-changing. These books and web sites are miniscule in the larger context of black history, but are relevant in understanding the roots of the saga. For further study, below is a list of additional resources that someone who wants to learn more about this subject may find interesting.
Additional Resources
Books
Up From Slavery
By Booker T. Washington
Race Matters
Cornel West
Native Son
Richard Wright
Black Firsts: 4,000 Groundbreaking and Pioneering Historical Events
By Jessie Carney Smith
African American Fraternities and Sororities: The Legacy and the Vision
By Tamara L. Brown, Gregory S. Parks and Clarenda M. Phillips
Stolen Legacy
G.M. James
The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.
By Martin Luther King, Jr. and Clayborne Carson
The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley
By Attallah Shabazz, Malcolm X and Alex Haley
Roots
By Alex Haley
Slavery and the Making of America
By James Oliver Horton and Lois E. Horton
The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow
By Richard Wormser
Web sites
“African American Odyssey: A Quest for Full Citizenship” – The Library of Congress
http://rs6.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aointro.html
“African American Women Writers of the 19th Century”- New York Public Library
http://digital.nypl.org/schomburg/writers_aa19/main.html
“African Americans in Military History”
http://www.au.af.mil/au/aul/bibs/afhist/afbuf.htm
“Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Higher Education Desegregation” – Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education
http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/hq9511.html
“Center for Black Music Research”
http://www.cbmr.org/
“Black Inventors”
http://www.black-collegian.com/african/inventors.shtml
Some of the first Africans arrived in Jamestown, the Virginia colony in 1619. Most historical texts confirm that about 20 or so Africans were either sold into slavery or were used as indentured servants. The National Park Service, division within the U.S. Department of the Interior, maintains a web site devoted to the study of the colonial period of American history.
The web site, “African Americans at Jamestown,” gives a brief timeline of the arrival of the first blacks in America, which preceded the institution we would come to know as slavery. This site also includes suggested readings for further study.
http://www.nps.gov/colo/Jthanout/AFRICANS.html
Additionally, the book, Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America by social historian, Lerone Bennett, Jr. traces African American history from its roots in western Africa to America in the 1990s. Themes such as the African Diaspora and Civil Rights initiatives are discussed.
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) has the web site “Africans in America,” which serves as a companion to its “Africans and America” television series. The web site is divided into four parts that correspond with the periods that are covered by the episodes in the show. A good thing about this web site is that its information comes from years of research by the production team, which includes seldom-seen historical documents and interviews.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/home.html
A major part of African American history is slavery and its effects on the larger scale of American culture. A basic internet search for “slavery in America” would return various web sites, but one in particular, http://www.slaveryinamerica.org is well put together with the history, geography, an encyclopedia and teaching tools on the subject.
Authentic slave narratives will also help aid someone learn about the enslavement of African Americans. An American Slave: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass as well as Norman R. Yetman’s Voices of Slavery: 100 Authentic Slave Narratives gives vivid details of slave life compiled from nearly 3000 interviews of ex-slaves in the 1930s.
The period after African American enslavement, or the Reconstruction era, as historians refer to it, was a time of stark racial tension and the African American quest for first-class citizenship. Eventually, America would participate in two World Wars and African Americans would fight in both of them.
And it was also during this time at the turn of the 20th Century that would give rise to the black intellectuals and artists of the Harlem Renaissance, which helped to create an African American community committed to educational, housing and Civil Rights efforts.
A book that has been a definitive history of this period is From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans by lauded historian John Hope Franklin and Alfred A. Moss, Jr. This book contains stunning information about black life after slavery and is objective and well researched.
The Library of Congress maintains a web site, “African American Perspectives, Pamphlets from the A.P. Murray Collection 1818-1907.” The site allows visitors to perform searches on key words about black life in America. For example, a search on the word “slavery” or “Jim Crow” would bring up essays, speeches and articles about that subject from people such as Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington.
http://international.loc.gov/ammem/aap/aaphome.html
In the 1920s, the Harlem Renaissance was the period when African American literature, arts and social commentary flourished in Harlem, an area in New York City. It was an important time in African American culture. Blacks were beginning to be seen as thinkers and intellectuals.
The School of Information at the University of Michigan maintains “Harlem: 1900-1940,” an online exhibit about black activism, community efforts, arts, sports and business in the early 20th Century. The project was originally researched by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the New York Public Library. It includes photographs and write-ups about various people and organizations.
http://www.si.umich.edu/CHICO/Harlem/
Thought provoking books such as The Souls of Black Folks by W.E.B. DuBois talks of the time after the Emancipation Proclamation, where many blacks had jobs as sharecroppers, were illiterate or were lynched by white mobs. Furthermore, it discusses that blacks should not accommodate white racism, and that there is a struggle or double consciousness blacks may feel about being both black and American.
Additionally, The Mis-Education of the Negro by Carter G. Woodson describes how African Americans had been stripped of an identity by slavery and in turn, do not receive adequate education about their history and experiences in America.
After World War II and into the 1950s, African Americans became increasingly more politicized to fight racial injustices outlined by Jim Crow laws, or the system of rules that barred blacks from enjoying the same things as whites, such as equal access to schools, housing, and restaurants. This was a time of “White Only” and “Colored” signs, which separated the races as distinct groups.
In 1954, however, the Supreme Court unanimously agreed in the landmark case, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional, which gave rise to the integration of public schools as well as other aspects of American life. A text of the decision may be found on the web site for the National Center for Public Policy Research.
http://www.nationalcenter.org/brown.html
A year later, Rosa Parks, a seamstress living in Montgomery, Alabama at that time refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a bus, and was jailed for doing so. This sparked a year-long bus boycott by blacks, which was led by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Eventually causing the city bus system to be desegregated.
The book, They Walked To Freedom 1955-1956: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Montgomery Advertiser, is a book written in tribute to Mrs. Parks’ actions with photographs and stories from the Advertiser’s archives.
The pursuit of equal Civil Rights for African Americans during this time was evident by the actions of some of America’s most famous black leaders and activists. Dr. King was arrested and jailed several times for his anti-segregation protests and speeches, most notably in Birmingham, Alabama, where he wrote his famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail. In 1963 he gave his “I Have A Dream” speech, calling for equality for all of America’s people.
Stanford University runs “The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute,” which includes the Papers Project, an effort to publish his papers for scholarly audiences.
http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/institute/
Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years 1954-1965 by Juan Williams is a summary of this tumultuous period of struggle and is also the companion of the PBS-TV series of the same name. Both sources present the events of these years with indelible imagery that will provide the learner with a context of this particular time in African American history.
President Johnson signed several bills during this time including the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which was legislation that prohibited discrimination of all kinds based on race, creed, religion or origin; the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which made it easier for blacks to register to vote, and the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which prohibited the discrimination in the sale, rental or financing of housing.
Harvard University maintains “The Civil Rights Project” web site, which is devoted to providing research for policy makers, organizations activists and journalists. There is a wealth of information available to web site visitors.
http://www.civilrightsproject.harvard.edu
African American history, which has had a tremendous impact on American life is ever-changing. These books and web sites are miniscule in the larger context of black history, but are relevant in understanding the roots of the saga. For further study, below is a list of additional resources that someone who wants to learn more about this subject may find interesting.
Additional Resources
Books
Up From Slavery
By Booker T. Washington
Race Matters
Cornel West
Native Son
Richard Wright
Black Firsts: 4,000 Groundbreaking and Pioneering Historical Events
By Jessie Carney Smith
African American Fraternities and Sororities: The Legacy and the Vision
By Tamara L. Brown, Gregory S. Parks and Clarenda M. Phillips
Stolen Legacy
G.M. James
The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.
By Martin Luther King, Jr. and Clayborne Carson
The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley
By Attallah Shabazz, Malcolm X and Alex Haley
Roots
By Alex Haley
Slavery and the Making of America
By James Oliver Horton and Lois E. Horton
The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow
By Richard Wormser
Web sites
“African American Odyssey: A Quest for Full Citizenship” – The Library of Congress
http://rs6.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aointro.html
“African American Women Writers of the 19th Century”- New York Public Library
http://digital.nypl.org/schomburg/writers_aa19/main.html
“African Americans in Military History”
http://www.au.af.mil/au/aul/bibs/afhist/afbuf.htm
“Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Higher Education Desegregation” – Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education
http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/hq9511.html
“Center for Black Music Research”
http://www.cbmr.org/
“Black Inventors”
http://www.black-collegian.com/african/inventors.shtml
There are countless books and web sites available to someone who wishes to learn about African American history. The history of blacks in this country is as old as America herself, and the following list of books and web sites can help even the novice historian of African American culture chronicle the plight of blacks in America. This should by no means be taken as an official list of African American history resources; instead it may serve as a starting point for someone wanting to learn more about black history.
Some of the first Africans arrived in Jamestown, the Virginia colony in 1619. Most historical texts confirm that about 20 or so Africans were either sold into slavery or were used as indentured servants. The National Park Service, division within the U.S. Department of the Interior, maintains a web site devoted to the study of the colonial period of American history.
The web site, “African Americans at Jamestown,” gives a brief timeline of the arrival of the first blacks in America, which preceded the institution we would come to know as slavery. This site also includes suggested readings for further study.
http://www.nps.gov/colo/Jthanout/AFRICANS.html
Additionally, the book, Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America by social historian, Lerone Bennett, Jr. traces African American history from its roots in western Africa to America in the 1990s. Themes such as the African Diaspora and Civil Rights initiatives are discussed.
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) has the web site “Africans in America,” which serves as a companion to its “Africans and America” television series. The web site is divided into four parts that correspond with the periods that are covered by the episodes in the show. A good thing about this web site is that its information comes from years of research by the production team, which includes seldom-seen historical documents and interviews.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/home.html
A major part of African American history is slavery and its effects on the larger scale of American culture. A basic internet search for “slavery in America” would return various web sites, but one in particular, http://www.slaveryinamerica.org is well put together with the history, geography, an encyclopedia and teaching tools on the subject.
Authentic slave narratives will also help aid someone learn about the enslavement of African Americans. An American Slave: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass as well as Norman R. Yetman’s Voices of Slavery: 100 Authentic Slave Narratives gives vivid details of slave life compiled from nearly 3000 interviews of ex-slaves in the 1930s.
The period after African American enslavement, or the Reconstruction era, as historians refer to it, was a time of stark racial tension and the African American quest for first-class citizenship. Eventually, America would participate in two World Wars and African Americans would fight in both of them.
And it was also during this time at the turn of the 20th Century that would give rise to the black intellectuals and artists of the Harlem Renaissance, which helped to create an African American community committed to educational, housing and Civil Rights efforts.
A book that has been a definitive history of this period is From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans by lauded historian John Hope Franklin and Alfred A. Moss, Jr. This book contains stunning information about black life after slavery and is objective and well researched.
The Library of Congress maintains a web site, “African American Perspectives, Pamphlets from the A.P. Murray Collection 1818-1907.” The site allows visitors to perform searches on key words about black life in America. For example, a search on the word “slavery” or “Jim Crow” would bring up essays, speeches and articles about that subject from people such as Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington.
http://international.loc.gov/ammem/aap/aaphome.html
In the 1920s, the Harlem Renaissance was the period when African American literature, arts and social commentary flourished in Harlem, an area in New York City. It was an important time in African American culture. Blacks were beginning to be seen as thinkers and intellectuals.
The School of Information at the University of Michigan maintains “Harlem: 1900-1940,” an online exhibit about black activism, community efforts, arts, sports and business in the early 20th Century. The project was originally researched by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the New York Public Library. It includes photographs and write-ups about various people and organizations.
http://www.si.umich.edu/CHICO/Harlem/
Thought provoking books such as The Souls of Black Folks by W.E.B. DuBois talks of the time after the Emancipation Proclamation, where many blacks had jobs as sharecroppers, were illiterate or were lynched by white mobs. Furthermore, it discusses that blacks should not accommodate white racism, and that there is a struggle or double consciousness blacks may feel about being both black and American.
Additionally, The Mis-Education of the Negro by Carter G. Woodson describes how African Americans had been stripped of an identity by slavery and in turn, do not receive adequate education about their history and experiences in America.
After World War II and into the 1950s, African Americans became increasingly more politicized to fight racial injustices outlined by Jim Crow laws, or the system of rules that barred blacks from enjoying the same things as whites, such as equal access to schools, housing, and restaurants. This was a time of “White Only” and “Colored” signs, which separated the races as distinct groups.
In 1954, however, the Supreme Court unanimously agreed in the landmark case, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional, which gave rise to the integration of public schools as well as other aspects of American life. A text of the decision may be found on the web site for the National Center for Public Policy Research.
http://www.nationalcenter.org/brown.html
A year later, Rosa Parks, a seamstress living in Montgomery, Alabama at that time refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a bus, and was jailed for doing so. This sparked a year-long bus boycott by blacks, which was led by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Eventually causing the city bus system to be desegregated.
The book, They Walked To Freedom 1955-1956: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Montgomery Advertiser, is a book written in tribute to Mrs. Parks’ actions with photographs and stories from the Advertiser’s archives.
The pursuit of equal Civil Rights for African Americans during this time was evident by the actions of some of America’s most famous black leaders and activists. Dr. King was arrested and jailed several times for his anti-segregation protests and speeches, most notably in Birmingham, Alabama, where he wrote his famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail. In 1963 he gave his “I Have A Dream” speech, calling for equality for all of America’s people.
Stanford University runs “The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute,” which includes the Papers Project, an effort to publish his papers for scholarly audiences.
http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/institute/
Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years 1954-1965 by Juan Williams is a summary of this tumultuous period of struggle and is also the companion of the PBS-TV series of the same name. Both sources present the events of these years with indelible imagery that will provide the learner with a context of this particular time in African American history.
President Johnson signed several bills during this time including the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which was legislation that prohibited discrimination of all kinds based on race, creed, religion or origin; the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which made it easier for blacks to register to vote, and the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which prohibited the discrimination in the sale, rental or financing of housing.
Harvard University maintains “The Civil Rights Project” web site, which is devoted to providing research for policy makers, organizations activists and journalists. There is a wealth of information available to web site visitors.
http://www.civilrightsproject.harvard.edu
African American history, which has had a tremendous impact on American life is ever-changing. These books and web sites are miniscule in the larger context of black history, but are relevant in understanding the roots of the saga. For further study, below is a list of additional resources that someone who wants to learn more about this subject may find interesting.
Additional Resources
Books
Up From Slavery
By Booker T. Washington
Race Matters
Cornel West
Native Son
Richard Wright
Black Firsts: 4,000 Groundbreaking and Pioneering Historical Events
By Jessie Carney Smith
African American Fraternities and Sororities: The Legacy and the Vision
By Tamara L. Brown, Gregory S. Parks and Clarenda M. Phillips
Stolen Legacy
G.M. James
The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.
By Martin Luther King, Jr. and Clayborne Carson
The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley
By Attallah Shabazz, Malcolm X and Alex Haley
Roots
By Alex Haley
Slavery and the Making of America
By James Oliver Horton and Lois E. Horton
The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow
By Richard Wormser
Web sites
“African American Odyssey: A Quest for Full Citizenship” – The Library of Congress
http://rs6.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aointro.html
“African American Women Writers of the 19th Century”- New York Public Library
http://digital.nypl.org/schomburg/writers_aa19/main.html
“African Americans in Military History”
http://www.au.af.mil/au/aul/bibs/afhist/afbuf.htm
“Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Higher Education Desegregation” – Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education
http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/hq9511.html
“Center for Black Music Research”
http://www.cbmr.org/
“Black Inventors”
http://www.black-collegian.com/african/inventors.shtml
