African American Studies

UC Berkeley's African American Studies Collections are concentrated in the humanities and social sciences, housed in the Gardner (Main) Stacks of the Doe Library. More specialized materials can be found in over 20 subject specialty libraries on campus, including Moffitt, Education-Psychology, Environmental Design, Public Health, Social Welfare, Music, and Law Libraries. In addition, the Bancroft Library’s holdings include manuscripts, photographs, and many first editions. The Collections are very strong in microfilm editions of important research materials, including the personal papers of prominent African Americans and other records, particularly those of organizations, such as the NAACP and CORE. For these holdings please see African American Microform Collections in the UC Berkeley Library - A Bibliography.

You can suggest items that the Library should consider purchasing. Use the Purchase Recommendation form to submit your suggestion.

Department of African American Studies

Center for Race & Gender

African American Student Development

OskiCat
Finds materials related to your topic including books, government publications, and audio and video recordings in the libraries of UC Berkeley. OskiCat will show you the location and availability of the items that we own.  Does not include Law Library holdings.

Melvyl
Locates titles found at other campuses in the UC system. Melvyl also allows you to expand your search to libraries worldwide. Clicking on the REQUEST button in the detailed view of a catalog record prompt you to fill out a form to request the item through our Interlibrary Loan office. Requires Proxy login for when accessing off-campus.

WorldCat on FirstSearch
Another catalog to access records of materials in libraries worldwide.  It can be used for interlibrary loan requests.  Good for advanced researchers.

• ebrary
  A database of more than 37,000 complete e-books covering 16 key subject areas including: business and economics, computers and IT, literature and linguistics, history, political science, and more.
  
• Google Book Search
  Searches the full text of books on many subjects, including some from the University of California libraries. The full text of a book can be displayed only if the book is out of copyright (generally, published before 1923) or if the copyright holder has given permission. Includes some important African American periodicals including the NAACP's The Crisis, Ebony, and Jet among others.
  
• HathiTrust
  Pronounced "hah-tee", this cooperative system contains millions of books scanned from UC and other major research libraries, including those digitized by Google and the Internet Archive. Search on information about the book (such as author or title), or words in the text. Full text is available for items that are not protected by copyright. Items in the HathiTrust catalog can be grouped into collections and shared online. For details, see the FAQ page.
  
• Dissertations and Theses (Dissertation Abstracts)
  Indexes graduate dissertations from over 1,000 North American, and selected European, graduate schools and universities. Dissertations published since 1980, and master's theses since 1988, include brief abstracts written by the authors. Offers full text of most of the dissertations added since 1997.
  
• eScholarship: University of California, Berkeley
  eScholarship provides a suite of open access, scholarly publishing services to the University of California and delivers a dynamic research platform to scholars worldwide
  
• UC Press E-Books Collection (eScholarship Editions)
  1,400 online titles from the University of California Press covering a wide range of subjects. About 30% of the UC Press books, both in print and out-of-print are represented in this collection.
  

• Black Studies Center (BSC)
  Includes three modules: The Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience which includes interdisciplinary essays on the Black Experience; International Index to Black Periodicals (IIBP), a database covering some 150 scholarly and popular Black Studies journals, many of them in full text; and the full text backfile of the influential black newspaper The Chicago Defender (1905-1975).
  
• JSTOR
  Includes over 1,000 scholarly journals with access to more than 2 million articles. JSTOR is an archive which means that current issues (generally the most recent 3-5 years) of the journals are not yet available in full-text.
  
• Academic Search Complete
  A multidisciplinary index to articles in more than 10,900 journals and other publications in English, Spanish, German, French, Italian and Portuguese; full-text is available for over 5300 journals.
  
• America: History and Life
  Indexes over 2,000 journals published worldwide on the history of the US and Canada from prehistory to the present. Includes all key English language historical journals; selected historical journals from major countries, state, and local history journals; and a targeted selection of hundreds of journals in the social sciences and humanities.
  
• ERIC
  Indexes books, journals, reports, proceedings, statistical data, tests, dissertations, audiovisual materials, and ERIC documents on education research and practice.
  
• Sociological Abstracts
  Indexes over 1,900 journals, books, dissertations, and reviews in the social sciences on sociological topics as well as selected anthropology, criminology, demography, law, social psychology, and urban development.(Search all CSA/Illumina Social Sciences databases.)
  
• Ethnic News Watch
  Indexes over 200 ethnic, minority, and native press publications. Contains news, culture, and history searchable in both English and Spanish. Also includes a backfile of titles (1960-1989).
  
• Project MUSE
  250 scholarly journals in the humanities and social sciences covered. Topics include literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, economics and many others.
  

• Oxford African American Studies Center
  More than 7,500 full text articles from major reference works, including the Encyclopedia of African American History, Black Women in America, African American National Biography, the Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature, and more. Also includes images, maps, charts, tables, timelines, and primary source documents.
  
• Black Drama
  Contains the full text of 1,200 plays written from the mid-1800s to the present by more than by more 100 playwrights from North America, English-speaking Africa, the Caribbean, and other African diaspora countries. The database is includes drama of the Harlem Renaissance and drama, the Black Arts Movement and 20th century African and Caribbean drama.
  
• Black Drama, 2nd edition
  Covers almost 1,500 plays by more than 200 playwrights. Includes information on related productions, theaters, production companies, and more. Also includes selected playbills, production photographs and other ephemera related to the plays. The plays have been selected using leading bibliographies and with the editorial advice of James V. Hatch, co-author with Errol G. Hill of A History of African American Theatre. Complements the other Alexander Street Press database Black Drama,(first edition).
  
• Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896-present
  Has approximately 1,200 references covering the transition from the Reconstruction Era to the age of Jim Crow, the Harlem Renaissance, the Civil Rights Movement up through the election of Barack Obama.
  
• American Song
  Includes approximately 50,000 digital music tracks documenting genres such as jazz, blues, gospel, ragtime, folk songs, and other forms of African American musical expression. Part of Alexander Street Press's Music Online.
  
• Twentieth-Century African American Poetry
  Nearly 9,000 poems by 62 African American poets of the twentieth century, including Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer, Imamu Amiri Baraka, Audre Lorde and Rita Dove included. Part of the Literature Online collection.
  

• American Slave: A Composite Autobiography
  A digitized collection of over 2,300 narratives of former slaves. Interviews were conducted by writers and journalists as part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in the 1930s.
  
• Historical Newspapers (ProQuest)
  Indexes articles from Chicago Defender (1905-1975), Chicago Tribune (1849-1986), Los Angeles Times (1881-1986), New York Times (1851-2004), San Francisco Chronicle (1865-1922), Wall Street Journal (1889-1990), and Washington Post (1877-1991).
  
• Ethnic News Watch
  Indexes over 200 ethnic, minority, and native press publications. Contains news, culture, and history searchable in both English and Spanish. Also includes a retrospective backfile of titles (1960-1989).
  
• Sixties: Primary Documents and Personal Narratives
  Documents the key events, trends, and movements in 1960s America. Includes 70,000 pages of letters, diaries, and oral histories; more than 30,000 pages of posters, broadsides, pamphlets, advertisements, and rare audio and video materials.
  
• Slavery and Anti-Slavery
  Includes more than 1.5 million pages, 7000+ books, 80+ serials, 15 manuscript collections as well as court records and reference materials documents related to the antebellum era.
  
• Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database (Voyages)
  Primary resource documenting the African slave trade. Includes detailed information concerning over 35,000 voyages from 1514 to 1866 with names, statistics, images and other information.
  
• American Memory: Historical Collections for the National Digital Library
  Consists of more than 7 million digital items from more than 100 historical Library of Congress collections. The primary source and archival materials relating in the project cover topics from art and architecture to performing arts to technology and applied sciences.
  
• North American Women's Letters and Diaries
  Include approximately 150,000 pages of published letters and diaries by more than 1000 women. Represented are all age groups and life stages, all ethnicities, many geographical regions. Also includes biographies and an extensive annotated bibliography.
  
• Online Archive of California (OAC)
  A searchable and browseable resource that brings together historical materials from a variety of California institutions, including museums, historical societies, and archives.
  
• Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 (WASM)
  Collects and analyzes more than 1,000 documents and almost 400 images on the history of women and social movements in the United States between 1600 and 2000. Also includes links to other websites and a dictionary of social movements and organizations.
  

Find Dissertations by searching Dissertations and Theses (Dissertation Abstracts) Full Text, which includes full-text of most dissertations since 1997. It indexes over 1.5 million dissertations completed in North American (including UC) and European universities from 1861 to the present. Listings after 1980 include abstracts, and some feature 24-page excerpts. 

Consult the comprehensive list of African American Theses and Dissertations, 1907-2002 at UCB. Also see Find Dissertations and Theses for other specialized sources, and dissertations completed at a UC campus can also be found in Library catalogs, which have limit to dissertations/theses search options:

Other Full-text Access: Online full-text of UC dissertations (from 1996) can be found by searching Dissertations & Theses @ University of California and also appear in Library catalog search results. UC Berkeley dissertations in print prior to 1996 may be found by searching the Library catalogs. Dissertations done at other UC campuses prior to 1996 or ouside the UC system must be obtained through Interlibrary Loan or using the "Request" option in Melvyl.

The Media Resources Center (MRC) at Moffitt Library is the UC Berkeley Library's primary collection of materials in electronic non-print (audio and visual) formats. These formats include: videocassettes, DVDs; compact audio discs; audiocassettes; and online (streamed) audio and video. Materials in the MRC collection may be used on-site in the Center by current UC Berkeley students and staff. Links to selected African American cinema and documentary films at the MRC below:

• The Movies, Race & Ethnicity: African Americans
• African Americans in the Movies: A Bibliography

African American historical and current newspapers are also available electronically through subscription databases from UC Berkeley.  More are available through general U.S. current and historical newspaper databases.

• Chicago Defender (Historical Newspapers, 1910-1975)
• Ethnic Newswatch (1960-current)
• 19th Century U.S. Newspapers

The Library's Newspaper & Microforms Room holds a number of primary source African American newspapers from throughout the U.S. Papers on microfilm are shelved in title order by state.  Currently received print titles are shelved by title.  Some titles are also available in the Bancroft Library.  See selected titles in the UC Berkeley collection below.  Click on newspaper titles below to link to its OskiCat record.

The California Voice (Oakland, 1920-1998) Location: News/Micro NEWSFILM-1 (separate issues)

Flatlands (Oakland, 1966-67) Location:  News/Micro MICROFILM 78777, Bancroft BANC NMP 6764:2:3

The Oakland Post (1963- )Location: News/Micro NEWSPRINT-1

The Sacramento Observer (Sacramento, 1962- ) Location: News/Micro NEWSFILM-1 

The Sun-Reporter (San Francisco, 1943- )Location: News/Micro NEWSFILM-1

The Peninsula Bulletin (East Palo Alto, 1967-1979) Location:  News/Micro NEWSFILM-1

Los Angeles Tribune (Los Angeles, 1941-1960) Location:  library only has selected issues, mainly from 1947-1952 in News/Micro NEWSFILM-1

The California Eagle (Los Angeles, 1897-1966) Location:  library has 1913-1930, 1944-53 in News/Micro NEWSFILM-1

Atlanta Daily World (Atlanta, GA 1932-  ) Location: News/Micro NEWSFILM-1, library lack some issues

Baltimore Afro American (Baltimore, MD 1915-1987) Location: NRLF, library lacks some issues, issues for 1892-1898 in 19th U.S. Newspapers database.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, VA 1901-1975) Location: NRLF, library lack some issues.

The Michigan Chronicle (Detroit, MI 1936- )Location: News/Micro NEWSFILM-1 (1943-1974)

Pittsburgh Courier (Pittsburgh, PA, 1923-1950, 1955-1966) Location: News/Micro NEWSFILM-1, library lacks some issues

Richmond Afro American (Richmond, VA, 1938-68) Location: NRLF, Library lacks same issues

The Stanford Library has one of the largest collection of newspapers in print and mircofilm in the United States.  They are available for on-site viewing by UCB afilliated persons.The Center for Research Libraries lends newspapers on microfilm to UCB patrons.  Many titles are listed on the Melvyl Catalog where you can request film by sent to UCB for use.

 

The UC Berkeley Libraries has extensive microform (microfilm and microfiche) collections, containing valuable information for researchers. The following lists of African American microform holdings include much primary source material.

• African American Studies Microform Collections
• Caribbean Microform Collections
• Guide to NAACP Microfilm Collection

 

The Newspapers and Microforms Room(40 Doe Library) has machines that read, print, and scan images from microfilm and microfiche.

Microfilm and microfiche owned by the UC Berkeley Libraries can be found through OskiCat; use Advanced Keyword Search to limit your search to "All Microforms." In the News/Micro collection, microfilm rolls and microfiche cards are shelved with their own numbering system; click here for a PDF of the collection's floorplan.

Black Past: Remembered & Reclaimed
A reference center to primary and secondary resources on the African and African American experience in the United State and worldwide. Includes three modules: African American History, African American History in the West, and Global African History with links and encyclopedic entries on topics related to Africana history.

eBlack Studies
Resources recording all aspects of the history of African American thought and culture.

Stone Center Library for Black Culture and History Guide to the Web (UNC)
Guide to online primary and secondary African American Studies resources.

African American Faculty and Senior Staff Oral History Project, Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley
Includes oral history transcripts from a pioneer Berkeley African American faculty and staff members.

African American Studies Diaspora Bibliography: UCB Holdings 1970-2003
UC Berkeley print holdings on diaspora studies for African American Studies.

Amistad Research Center (Tulane University)
Archives specializing on the modern Civil Rights Movement, history of slavery, race relations, and African American community development.

Auburn Avenue Research Library (Atlanta Public Library)
A special library of the Atlanta-Fulton County Library System. It is the first public library of its kind in the southeast offering specialized reference and archival collections for the study and research of African cultures.

Birmingham Civil Rights Institute Archives Division
Collections focus on documents relating to events that occurred during the civil rights struggle of the 1950's and 1960's in Birmingham and throughout the United States.

Emory University African American History and Culture Manuscript Collection
Guide to African American collections at Emory University's Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library (MARBL).

John Hope Franklin Collection for African and African American Documentation (Duke University)
Repository for African and African American studies documentation housed at the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library at Duke University.

Martin Luther King Jr. Papers Project (Stanford)
The King Papers Project's principal mission is to publish a definitive fourteen-volume edition of King's most significant correspondence, sermons, speeches, published writings, and unpublished manuscripts.

Moorland-Springarn Research Center (Howard University)
Collections include more than 175,000 bound volumes and tens of thousands of journals, periodicals, and newspapers; more than 17,000 feet of manuscript and archival collections; nearly 1000 audio tapes; hundreds of artifacts; 100,000 prints, photographs, maps, and other graphic items.

Morehouse College Martin Luther King Jr. Collection
Morehouse College Martin Luther King Jr. papers housed at the Robert W. Woodruff Atlanta University Center Library.

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is a national research library devoted to collecting, preserving and providing access to resources documenting the experiences of peoples of African descent throughout the world.

Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
The NMAAHC is scheduled open in Washington D.C. in 2015. The collection is currently located in the National Museum of American History.

African Americans in California (UC Berkeley)
An online exhibit from the Bancroft Library that highlights the library's archival, print and digital collections relating to the history of African Americans in the West, including the NAACP Western Regional Archive, and the papers of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters union.

Black Panther Party Legacy
Numerous photos, films, and documents archiving the history and legacy of the BPP.

Marcus Garvey and UNIA Papers Project (UCLA)
Includes documents, photos, and sound recordings from the Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers.

New York Historical Society : Manuscript Collections Relating to Slavery
The New York Historical Society has placed its fourteen most important manuscript collections relating to slavery online. The collection includes diaries, account books, letter books, ships’ logs, indentures, bills of sale, personal papers, and records of institutions.

W.E.B. DuBois Papers (University of Massachusetts)
Includes papers, manuscripts, letters and nearly 900 photographs of the life and work of W.E.B. DuBois.

AFAS: African American Studies Librarians Section, Association of College & Research Libraries, American Library Association

Association for the Study of African American Life & History (ASALH)

National Council for Black Studies (NCBS)

 

 

African American Studies collections at UC Berkeley are one of the strongest in the nation. The collection supports research throughout the campus including the Africana Ph.D. program in the Department of African American Studies.  Your help will insure this fine collection continues to grow and support African American Studies at Berkeley.

The following types of gifts are available:

Cash Gifts for Book Purchases
Cash contributions of any amount are welcomed as they will support the purchase of new books supporting the African American Studies.

Book Donations 
Gifts of scholarly materials and the results of research have historically represented a significant element in the development of Berkeley's outstanding research collections. We welcome individual gifts, but due to space and staff limitations, we must be judicious in accepting large contributions. Donations of recently published books are welcomed. New book purchases will be checked to ensure titles aren’t already on order.

Please contact Frank Carothers to discuss your donation of books.

Memorial and Honorific Gifts
Contributions given in memory or in honor of a person are welcomed. For a gift of $1,000 or more, a named memorial book fund can be established. A special book plate will be created and placed in each book.

Named Endowment
An endowed fund is established in perpetuity and has a continuing impact on creating a strong African American Studies collection. A named endowment requires a minimum gift of $50,000. The donor may specify an area of interest, e.g., African American history, Black Arts Movement, etc. The University invests its endowments carefully to achieve a healthy rate of return that provides for both current needs and long-term growth. A special book plate will be placed in each book.

Contribute Online
Donations can be made online using the Library Fund Online Gift Form and by designating that your gift is for the African American Studies Collection at the bottom of the form.

Contribue By Mail
All checks should be made payable to the UC Regents (specify it is for the African American Studies Collection) and mailed to:

Jason Schultz
Librarian for Africana Collections
438 Doe Library
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720-6000

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