LibGuides: HIST 341: The Long Civil Rights Movement: Databases

Databases - Civil Rights Movement

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All CNU Databases
A list of every database available at CNU.

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
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Subsciber: VIVAA comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database; indexing & abstracting; content going back as far as 1887
Accessible Archives This link opens in a new window
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Provides diverse primary source materials reflecting broad views across American history and culture. Collections Include: African American Newspapers (late 1800s-early 1900s); African American Newspapers in the South, 1870-1926; The AMAROC News: America’s Occupation of the Rhineland, 1919-1923; America and World War I: American Military Camp Newspapers; American County Histories; Anatomy of Protest in America Series (1701-1928); The Civil War; Women’s Suffrage Collection and more!
African Americans and Jim Crow: Repression and Protest, 1883-1922 This link opens in a new window
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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.
African Americans and Reconstruction: Hope and Struggle, 1865-1883 This link opens in a new window
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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
America: History & Life (with Full-Text) This link opens in a new window
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Subscriber: VIVA/CNUFull text articles, article abstracts and bibliographic citations of reviews and dissertations on the history and culture of the United States and Canada from prehistoric times to the present. Includes links to some full-text articles in other databases such as JSTOR.
American Decades This link opens in a new window
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Subscriber: CNUA source for researchers who need to document and analyze periods of contemporary American social history (1900-1999).
American Decades: Primary Sources This link opens in a new window
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Subscriber: CNUCross-disciplinary source spanning the 20th century (1900-1999.) Each volume in the set includes full or excerpted primary sources representing the seminal issues, themes, movements and events from a decade. Includes oral histories, songs, speeches, advertisements, TV, play and movie scripts, letters, laws, legal decisions, newspaper articles, cartoons, recipes, and more.
American History in Video This link opens in a new window
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Subscriber:VIVAAllows students and researchers to analyze historical events, and their presentation over time, through commercial and governmental newsreels, archival footage, public affairs footage, and important documentaries.
Civil Rights and Social Justice via HeinOnline This link opens in a new window
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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.
HeinOnline This link opens in a new window
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Subscriber: CNUAn online image-based collection of law and law-related materials. It includes law journals, the CFR, English Reports, Federal Register, Treaties and Agreements, Legislative history, a US Presidential Library and more.
HistoryMakers Digital Archive, The This link opens in a new window
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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.
Legal Collection This link opens in a new window
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Subscriber: VIVAA collection of respected, scholarly peer-reviewed publications including law journals, documents, and case studies. Provides the full-text for more than 250 of the world’s best law journals. Disciplines covered include: law, criminal justice, organized crime, ethics and more. Some of the full-text information dates as far back as 1965.
LGBT Magazine Archive (1954 - 2015) This link opens in a new window
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Archival runs of 26 of the most influential, longest-running serial publications covering LGBT interests. Includes the pre-eminent US and UK titles – The Advocate and Gay Times, respectively. Chronicles more than six decades of the history and culture of the LGBT community. In addition to LGBT/gender/sexuality studies, this material also serves related disciplines such as sociology, political science, psychology, health, and the arts. Some publications may contain explicit content.
LGBTQ+ Rights via HeinOnline This link opens in a new window
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LGBTQ+ Rights charts the gay rights movement in America, showing the civil rights codified into law in the 20th and 21st centuries, as well as the inequalities that still exist today. Topics covered include the Defense of Marriage Act, the AIDS crisis, military service by gay and transgender service members, "bathroom bills," and more. A separate subcollection presents historical texts whose views some readers may find offensive today, showing the prejudicial beliefs that permeated society and helped form the laws of their time.
LGBTQ History Since 1940, Parts I and II This link opens in a new window
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With material drawn from hundreds of institutions and organizations, including both major international activist organizations and local, grassroots groups, the documents in this collection present important aspects of LGBTQ life in the second half of the twentieth century and beyond. The archive illuminates the experiences not just of the LGBTQ community as a whole, but of individuals of different races, ethnicities, ages, religions, political orientations, and geographical locations that constitute this community. Historical records of political and social organizations founded by LGBTQ individuals are featured, as well as publications by and for lesbians and gays, and extensive coverage of governmental responses to the AIDS crisis. The archive also contains personal correspondence and interviews with numerous LGBTQ individuals, among others. The archive includes gay and lesbian newspapers from more than 35 countries, reports, policy statements, and other documents related to gay rights and health, including the worldwide impact of AIDS, materials tracing LGBTQ activism in Britain from 1950 through 1980, and more.
Milestone Documents (Primary Sources) This link opens in a new window
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Subscriber: CNUAmerican and world history, world religions, and American leaders - primary source material, full text.
ProQuest This link opens in a new window
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ProQuest Tutorial
Searches a variety of databases covering a wide range of topics. It provides access to full-text/image of many journals, as well as other data.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: U.S. Major Dailies This link opens in a new window
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Includes Historical Issues from: Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. Coverage dates vary by paper.
Salem Press Online This link opens in a new window
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Subscriber: CNUContains the full text of Salem Press e-books available to CNU. Includes primary sources, literature criticism, encyclopedias and more!
Women and Social Movements In the United States Scholar's edition 1600-2000 This link opens in a new window
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"... brings together innovative scholarship, primary documents, books, images, essays, book and Web site reviews, teaching tools, and more. It combines the analytic power of a database with the new scholarly insights of a peer-reviewed journal. Published twice a year since 2004, the database/journal is edited by Kathryn Kish Sklar and Thomas Dublin of the State University of New York at Binghamton, with an editorial board of leading scholars from around the country."

The Library of Virginia provides access to additional resources that might be useful.

Links are provided below.

From the main LVA page you will want to click on the For Researchers Section and you will see a variety of resources, some highlights are listed below.

Register for a Library Account (you must be a Virginia resident to get an online account)

The account will let you access selected materials through their website

Databases and Ebooks (you'll need the LVA account to access these)

Many of these are the same ones you can access here through the A-Z list, but some are unique to LVA such as the Black Newspaper Collection, Civil War in Words and Deeds, and Plantation Records

Research Guides provide helpful information on a variety of topics

Including some about African Americans, Asian Pacific Islander Desi American, and Virginia History

Virginia Memory provides access to a variety of free digital resources related to Virginia

Collections include Equal Suffrage League of Virginia Records, 1908-1938; Lynching and Racial Violence Collection; Virginia Untold: The African American Narrative, numerous photographic collections and more.

The Library of Virginia!

Library of Virginia
Contact the LVA for information on access.
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The LVA is located in Richmond. It contains a vast array of materials that would be useful in the study of Virginia History, among other things. The website provides information about a number of the collections available in the Library. Some of these collections are available online, but be aware that not all of the collections are indexed or made available online. It is possible to contact the Library to see if they would have information of use before making plans to visit.
Virginia Memory
Digital collections available from the Library of Virginia.
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"Virginia Memory is part of the online presence of the Library of Virginia, the state archives and reference library at the seat of government for the Commonwealth of Virginia. Established in 1823, the Library maintains vast and varied collections of print materials, manuscripts, archival records, newspapers, photographs and ephemera, maps and atlases, rare books, and fine art that tell the history of the commonwealth and its people. Since the mid-1990s, the Library has digitized parts of the collections in an effort to make our materials more widely available to our online users."
Virginia Chronicle
"The Virginia Newspaper Project (VNP), established in 1993, has worked to locate, describe, inventory, preserve, and provide public access to United States imprint newspapers housed not only at the Library of Virginia but throughout the commonwealth. This collection contains 90,813 issues comprising 652,665 pages and 122,203 articles."
Virginia Untold - The African American Narrative
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The Library of Virginia’s collections are rich with records documenting the lives of African Americans in Virginia. However, access to those materials dating from before the American Civil War is limited at best. These limitations are the result of period perspectives on the identities of enslaved and disenfranchised populations, as well as sheer volume. Due to this, the individual stories form a narrative of a people that has not been fully told.

The Library’s African American Narrative project aims to provide greater accessibility to pre-1865 African American history and genealogy found in the rich primary sources in its holdings. Traditional description, indexing, transcription, and digitization are major parts of this effort. However, and perhaps more importantly, this project seeks to encourage conversation and engagement around the records, providing opportunities for a more grassroots and diverse narrative of the history of Virginia’s African American people.
Ancestry for Virginians
Contact the Library of Virginia for more information.
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Through an agreement with Ancestry.com, the commonwealth's citizens can access digitized and indexed records and materials that would otherwise require a paid Ancestry.com subscription.
Virginia African American Newspapers at the LVA
Please contact the LVA for detailed information on access and use policies.
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A list of holdings of Virginia African American Newspapers at the Library of Virginia.