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Black Studies: Digital Primary Sources

ProQuest History Vault

ProQuest History Vault
Under the history tab, there are entire sections of black history primary documents that cover a wide array of topics such as NAACP, abolitionists, Black freedom movements and more.

Digital Sources - Newspapers

Chicago Defender (1909-2010): ProQuest Historical Newspapers
Historical archives of the Chicago Defender digitized cover-to-cover from 1909 to 2010.
Atlanta Daily World (1931-2003): ProQuest Historical Newspapers
Historical archives of the Atlanta Daily World digitized cover-to-cover from 1931 to 2003.
Los Angeles Sentinel (1934-2005): ProQuest Historical Newspapers
Historical archives of the Los Angeles Sentinel digitized cover-to-cover from 1934 to 2005.
Pittsburgh Courier (1911-2002): ProQuest Historical Newspapers
Historical archives of the Pittsburgh Courier digitized cover-to-cover from 1911 to 2002.
Pittsburgh Courier (1911-2002): ProQuest Historical Newspapers
Historical archives of the Pittsburgh Courier digitized cover-to-cover from 1911 to 2002.

Digital Sources - Archives, Books, and Videos

African American Communities
African-American Communities includes digitized archival records from UIC’s Special Collection and the Newberry Library, documenting African-Americans in Chicago from the mid-nineteenth to late twentieth century. In addition, there are materials from important repositories in Atlanta, Chapel Hill-North Carolina, St. Louis, and Brooklyn.
Ebony Magazine Archive
Ebony Magazine Archive covers civil rights, education, entrepreneurship and other social topics with an African-American focus. It includes more than 800 issues providing a broad view of African-American culture from its first issue in 1945 through 2014.
Our EBSCOhost databases will be moving to a new user interface starting Monday, May 19th, 2025 with the exception of CINAHL which will transition on August 1st.
For additional information about searching and managing results, please visit the EBSCOhost Transition Center.
Please send additional queries or comments to: ask@uic.libanswers.com
Black Studies in Video (North America)
Features award-winning documentaries, newsreels, interviews and archival footage surveying the evolution of black culture in the United States. Includes captions and transcripts.
In partnership with California Newsreel, the database provides unique access to their African American Classics collection, and includes films covering history, politics, art and culture, family structure, social and economic pressures, and gender relations.

This current release includes 218 videos totaling 173 hours.
Black Thought and Culture
Non-fiction published works of leading African Americans, as well as interviews, speeches, essays, pamphlets, letters, etc. Includes the Black Panther Party newspaper.
Black Thought & Culture covers the non-fiction published works of leading African Americans, as well as interviews, journal articles, speeches, essays, pamplets, letters and other fugitive material. BT&C includes the only complete run of the Black Panther Party newspaper available in digital format.
HistoryMakers
The HistoryMakers is the largest African American video oral history archive in the world. Currently, it offers access to more than 2,800 full-length oral-history video interviews, with more than 9000 hours with African Americans in a variety of fields including business, medicine, the arts, education, entertainment, politics, sports, and more. Includes captions and transcripts.
The HistoryMakers, founded in 1999, is a non-profit educational institution committed to preserving and making widely accessible the untold personal stories of both well-known and unsung African Americans. The archive is searchable by names, gender, birth year, job type, as well as themes, subjects, and historical context. Transcripts for the interviews are also available and searchable.

Schomburg Syllabus
The #SchomburgSyllabus archives Black-authored and Black-related online educational resources to document Black studies, movements, and experiences in the 21st century. In connecting these web-archived resources to the Schomburg Center’s own unique materials, the project honors and recognizes the source and strength of Black self-education practices, collective study, and librarianship. The #SchomburgSyllabus is curated by Schomburg Center staff and organized into 27 themes to foster a greater understanding of the Black experience.