Primary Sources: Civil Rights in America: General - Online Sources

Access crucial documents covering the lives of African Americans during the rise of segregation and Jim Crow. This collection covers many topical categories such as the growing body of work by African-American writers; the portrayal of African-Americans in art and literature; religion; race; early histories of slavery; the Civil War; Reconstruction; and others. This archive contains varied perspectives on subjects including but not limited to: African-American Civil Rights; African-American Women; Political Restoration of the South; Social Conditions in the South; Separate but Equal; The Race 'Problem'; Theorizing the Origins of Race; Minstrel Shows and Satire; Race Relations and Southern States; White Supremacy Movements and Groups; Back-to-Africa Movement; Suffrage/Right to Vote; and Lynching. And on organizations such as: African Methodist Episcopal Church; Baptist Associations; Ku Klux Klan; and Presbyterian Church.

Access crucial documents covering the lives of African Americans in the years following the Civil War. This collection covers many topical categories such as Reconstruction by state; works by African-American writers on race, slavery, and civil rights; the portrayal of African Americans in the Arts; early histories of the Civil War and slavery; and others. This archive contains varied perspectives on subjects including but not limited to: African-American Activism; Causes of the Civil War; Political Restoration of the South; Legal Status of African Americans; Congress and Radical Reconstruction; Discrimination and Segregation; Theorizing the Origins of Race; Minstrel Show Music, Scripts, etc.; Education in the South; African-Americans in Office; Back-to-Africa Movement; Suffrage/Right to Vote; Lynchings and Massacres; And on organizations such as: Baptist Church; Freedmen's Bureau; Ku Klux Klan; Presbyterian Church; The Confederacy; Republican Party

HeinOnline’s Civil Rights and Social Justice database brings together a diverse offering of publications covering civil rights in the United States as their legal protections and definitions are expanded to cover more and more Americans. Containing links to more than 500 scholarly articles, hearings and committee prints, legislative histories on the landmark legislation, CRS and GAO reports, briefs from major Supreme Court cases, and publications from the Commission on Civil Rights, this database allows users to educate themselves on the ways our civil rights have been strengthened and expanded over time, as well as how these legal protections can go further still. A varied collection of books on many civil rights topics and a list of prominent civil rights organizations help take the research beyond HeinOnline.

A collection of 2,800 full-length African American videotaped oral histories that is continually growing. It includes video and fully searchable transcripts created by The HistoryMakers through their interviews with African American leaders across a broad range of disciplines and subject areas, including Art, Civics, Education, Law, Religion, STEM, and more. These testimonies illuminate the stories of African American men and women living in the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries who have made important contributions to America and the world.

UNDER THE LEADERSHIP of P.B. Young, the “Dean of the Negro Press,” The Norfolk Journal and Guide became one of the best researched and written newspapers of its era, with a circulation of more than 80,000 by the 1940s. It argued against restrictive covenants, rallied against lynching, encouraged blacks
to vote, supported improvements to city streets and water systems, and more. In contrast to other black newspapers, such as the Chicago Defender, this newspaper campaigned against The Great Migration of Southern laborers to the North. It was one of only a few black newspapers to provide on-the-scene coverage of the 1930s Scottsboro trial, and helped raise legal funds for the nine young black defendants.
This Southern-based newspaper had to use a factual, unemotional tone in expressing opinions on social injustice. This approach attracted advertising from local and national white-owned businesses — such as Goodrich, Pillsbury, and Ford — that other black newspapers didn’t receive. Let these articles,
advertisements, editorials, and so much more bring history to life for your researchers.