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African-American History - HIST191 - Primary Sources

Primary sources available in the library or on the Internet relevant to African-American History.

Resources in Library Catalog

eBooks on this list are only available to RVCC students, faculty, and staff and require a login with your G# and password.

Pre-Colonialization to Reconstruction

Africa and the West : a documentary history from the slave trade to independence

This book presents a range of hard-to-find primary source documents on Africa from the slave trade that started in the early part of the fifteenth century to independence and the problems of the post-colonial period.

The African-American archive : the history of the Black experience in documents

Portrays the stark realities, great moments and fascinating particulars of being black in America, through the minds and pens of those who lived it. Featuring letters, articles, pamphlets and papers of all kinds, every important document is here-the Emancipation Proclamation, the Brown vs. Board of Education decision, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech and scores of enlightening personal documents.

African-American exploration in West Africa : four nineteenth-century diaries

In the 1860s, as America waged civil war, several thousand African Americans sought greater freedom by emigrating to the fledgling nation of Liberia. While some argued that the new black republic represented disposal rather than emancipation, a few intrepid men set out to explore their African home. This book collects the travel diaries of James L. Sims, George L. Seymour, and Benjamin J.K. Anderson, who explored the territory that is now Liberia and Guinea between 1858 and 1874 (eBook).

African American mosaic : a documentary history from the slave trade to the twenty-first century

With the proliferation of courses in African American history, a single collection of primary documents has become essential. This reflects both the recent trends and the enduring political and social themes regarding gender and culture in African American history.

Afro-American history : primary sources

50 complete documents present Afro-American history from colonial times to the 1970's. Includes speeches, articles, reports, and poetry from figures like: Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Langston Hughes, Stokely Carmichael, and Jesse Jackson.

After Africa : extracts from British travel accounts and journals of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries concerning the slaves, their manners, and customs in the British West Indies

This compilation consists of a sampling of early accounts by 72 missionaries, travelers, and planters over 300 years of British colonization in the "New World." The editors' goal is to explore the extent that African traditions, including ceremonies, work, play, and religion, continued in the Americas.

American antislavery writings : colonial beginnings to emancipation

"Published to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, this anthology charts America's long, heroic confrontation with its most poisonous evil.

Army life in a Black regiment

These pages record some of the adventures of the First South Carolinea Volunteers, the first slave regiment mustered into the service of the United States during the Civil War (eBook).

Autobiography of a people : three centuries of African American history told by those who lived it

Contains primary source material from the early 18th to late 20th centuries. Contributors include Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton, Marcus Garvey, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Maya Angelou, Coretta Scott King, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., LL Cool J, and Al Sharpton.

Back to Africa : Benjamin Coates and the colonization movement in America, 1848-1880

Benjamin Coates was one of the best-known white supporters of African colonization in nineteenth-century America. A Quaker businessman from Philadelphia, and a sometime officer of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, he was committed to helping Black Americans relocate to West Africa. At the heart of the volume is a collection of over 150 recently recovered letters, either written by Coates or addressed to him between 1848 and 1880, the years when Coates was most active in racial reform.

The Black abolitionist papers

This five-volume documentary collection--culled from an international archival search that turned up over 14,000 letters, speeches, pamphlets, essays, and newspaper editorials--reveals how black abolitionists represented the core of the antislavery movement. While the first two volumes consider black abolitionists in the British Isles and Canada, the remaining volumes examine the activities and opinions of black abolitionists in the United States from 1830 until the end of the Civil War.

Black protest; history, documents, and analyses, 1619 to the present

A wide selection of documents that provides the historical setting of today's protest thought and actions. Writings by: W.E.B. DuBois, Marcus Garvey, Langston Hughes, John Brown, Tom Hayen, William Bradford Huie, James Farmer, Roy Wilkins, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, and Stokely Carmichael.

The burden of race : a documentary history of Negro-white relations in America

Contains primary source documents spanning American history from slavery to the 1960's.

Burning all illusions : writings from The Nation on race, 1866-2002

Selection of The Nation's (the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States) writing on race from 1865 to 2002.

The causes of the Civil War : with revisions

Juxtaposing articles and speeches by men who lived through the struggle with the interpretations of post-Civil War historians, Kenneth M. Stampp brings face to face spokesmen for the major schools of thought. Was slavery the determinig cause? Can the blame be laid either to 'Black Republican' agitation or to the ruthless machinations of a 'Slave Power' conspiracy? Was the war an 'irrepressible conflict' between an agrarian South and an industrialized North?

Civil rights and the American negro : a documentary history

Sturdy documentary evidence of the deep-rooted schism in American racial views, from the record of the first slave cargo in 1619 to the Summary of the Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders.

Civil rights since 1787 : a reader on the Black struggle

Featuring the voices and philosophies of orators, activists, and politicians, this anthology emphasizes the role of those ignored by history, as well as the part that education and religion have played in the movement. Civil Rights Since 1787 serves up an informative mix of primary documents and secondary analysis and includes the work of such figures as Frederick Douglass, W. E. B. DuBois, Jesse Jackson, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King.

The Columbia documentary history of race and ethnicity in America

This invaluable resource documents all eras of the American past, including black/white interactions and the broad spectrum of American attitudes and reactions concerning Native Americans, Irish Catholics, Mexican Americans, Jewish Americans, and other groups. Each of the eight chronological chapters contains a survey essay, an annotated bibliography, and 20 to 30 related public and private primary source documents, including manifestos, speeches, court cases, letters, memoirs, and much more (eBook).

"Dear Master" : letters of a slave family

A rare firsthand look at the values, self-perception, and private life of the black American slave. The fullest known record left by an American slave family, this collection of more than two hundred letters reveals the relationship of two generations of the Skipwith family with the Virginia planter John Hartwell Cocke.

Defining Documents in American History: Dissent & protest (1635-2017)

This collection of historical documents gathers a wide variety of examples of dissent and protest throughout American history. It is divided into two volumes: From Colonies to Nation and Slavery and Abolition. Also available as an eBook.

Documents in world history

V.1. The great traditions: from ancient times to 1500 -- V.2. The modern centuries: from 1500 to the present. Documents in World History is a thematically organized, authoritative collection of original sources that highlight political, social, cultural and economic issues in world history. The text also provides documents on the hot topics of gender and cultural history (Reference books must be used in the library).

Eyewitness; the Negro in American history

Illuminates the contributions of African Americans in every period of our history: from the early explorers to today's champions of true equality and civil rights. Clear narratives of every period set the stage for eyewitness accounts drawn from letters, army records, travel accounts, magazines, and other authentic sources of the times.

Frederick Douglass in Brooklyn

A fascinating collection of Frederick Douglass's always-controversial speeches in Brooklyn, New York (eBook).

Free at last : a documentary history of slavery, freedom, and the Civil War

Gathers first hand accounts of slavery and the efforts of Black Americans to transform the Civil War into a war to end slavery.

Free Negro owners of slaves in the United States in 1830, together with Absentee ownership of slaves in the United States in 1830

This statistical report on the free Negro ownership of slaves was made possible in 1921 when the Director of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History obtained from the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial an appropriation for the support of research into certain neglected aspects of Negro History.

Freedom on my mind : the Columbia documentary history of the African American experience

Chronicles the experiences of African-Americans from the Colonial era to the present, using personal letters, slave narratives, autobiographies, leaflets, speeches, oral histories, and political manifestos to recount African-Americans' efforts to pursue freedom in the U.S.

Freedom on my mind : a history of African Americans, with documents

This book weaves together narrative and a wealth of carefully selected primary sources. The narrative focuses on the diversity of black experience, on culture, and on the impact of African Americans on the nation as a whole. Every chapter contains two themed sets of written documents and a visual source essay.

A Grand army of Black men : letters from African-American soldiers in the Union Army, 1861-1865

The 176 letters in this collection were written by black soldiers in the Union army during the Civil War to black and abolitionist newspapers. They provide a unique expression of the black voice that was meant for a public forum. The letters tell of the men's experiences, their fears and their hopes.

Great speeches by African Americans : Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Barack Obama, Jr., and others

Tracing the struggle for freedom and civil rights across a century and a half, this anthology features speeches by Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, W.E.B. DuBois, Martin Luther King, Jr., Barack Obama, and other influential figures in the history of African-American culture and politics.

The human record : sources of global history

V.1 - to 1500 -- V.2 - Since 1500.
THE HUMAN RECORD is the leading primary source reader for the World History course, providing balanced coverage of the global past. Each volume contains a blend of visual and textual sources which are often paired or grouped together for comparison.

I belong to South Carolina : South Carolina slave narratives

This collection restores to print seven slave narratives documenting the lived realities of slavery as it existed across the Palmetto State's upcountry, midlands, and lowcountry, from plantation culture to urban servitude (eBook).

In their own words; a history of the American Negro

A history of Black people in the United States, as told through letters, speeches, articles, eyewitness accounts, and other documents. This is a collection of personal accounts of the experiences of African Americans. There are excerpts from the memoirs of slaves, from educator Charlotte Forten while observing a regiment of young freedmen, from Fannie Lou Hamer during unofficial hearings on brutality in Mississippi, & from Maya Angelou on being a black female artist. Issues from slavery to the Ku Klux Klan, to marches, boycotts, & political power, are presented.

Interpreting a continent : voices from colonial America

This reader provides students with key documents from colonial American history, including new English translations of non-English documents. The documents in this collection take the reader beyond the traditional story of the English colonies. Readers explore the Spanish, French, Dutch, Russian, German, and even Icelandic colonial efforts throughout North America, including California, New Mexico, Texas, the Great Plains, Louisiana, Florida, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New England. Throughout, the collection provides not only the perspectives of Europeans but also of Native Americans and Africans (eBook).

Jim Crow New York : a documentary history of race and citizenship, 1777-1877

Jim Crow New York provides readers with both scholarly analysis and access to a series of extraordinary documents, including extensive excerpts from the resonant speeches made at New York’s 1821 constitutional convention and additional documents which recover a diversity of voices, from lawmakers to African-American community leaders, from newspaper editors to activists. The text is further enhanced by extensive introductory essays and headnotes, maps, illustrations, and a detailed bibliographic essay.

Let nobody turn us around : voices of resistance, reform, and renewal : an African American anthology

This anthology of black writers traces the evolution of African-American perspectives throughout American history, from the early years of slavery to the end of the 20th century. The essays, manifestos, interviews, and documents assembled here, contextualized with critical commentaries from the editors, introduce the reader to the character and important controversies of each period of black history (also available as an eBook).

Liberian dreams : back-to-Africa narratives from the 1850s

In the early nineteenth century, the American Colonization Society was formed for the purpose of encouraging emigration of free blacks to Africa. This collection of historic documents illuminates the debate on emigration through the narratives of four black men who in 1853 traveled to the new black nation of Liberia. Their accounts offer surprisingly different views and insights on the young country and provide both endorsements and condemnations of the colonization effort.

Lincoln on Race and Slavery

Generations of Americans have debated the meaning of Abraham Lincoln's views on race and slavery. He issued the Emancipation Proclamation and supported a constitutional amendment to outlaw slavery, yet he also harbored grave doubts about the intellectual capacity of African Americans, publicly used the n-word until at least 1862, and favored permanent racial segregation. In this book, readers can explore these contradictions through Lincoln's own words (eBook).

The map of Africa by treaty

V.1: British Colonies, Protectorates and possessions in Africa. V.2: Abyssinia to Great Britain and France. Contained in these volumes are treaties between European and African nations and maps of how they affected the continent.

Memories of the enslaved : voices from the slave narratives

This book offers a first-person perspective on the institution of slavery in America, providing powerful, engaging interviews from the WPA slave narrative collection that enable readers to gain a true sense of the experience of enslavement.

Milestone documents in American history : exploring the primary sources that shaped America

Contains thirty-two full-text primary source documents that helped to shape American society from 1763 to 1823 including the Proclamation of 1763, Treaty of Fort Pitt, the Bill of Rights, the Missouri Compromise, and the Monroe Doctrine (eBook) .

Milestone documents in world history : exploring the primary sources that shaped the world

V. 1. 2350 BCE-1058 CE -- v. 2. 1082-1833 -- v. 3. 1839-1941 -- v. 4. 1942-2000.
Key documents from all important world cultures are included, from the ancient Near East and ancient Egypt to the Greek and Roman Empires, medieval Islam, Renaissance Europe, and modern Africa and Asia. Constitutions, speeches, letters, acts, treaties, and legal cases are all covered (Reference books must be used in the library).

The Mississippi civil rights movement and the Kennedy administration, 1960-1964 : a history in documents

This annotated document reader is a selection of interviews conducted in the South and Washington, D.C.; New York; Boston; and New Haven, Connecticut, in 1965-66, along with documents collected from 1960 to 1964 in the South and 1963 to 1966 in New York, and documents from the Kennedy administration examined at the John F. Kennedy Library National Archives.

Proceedings in the Ku Klux trials at Columbia, S.C., in the United States Circuit Court, November term, 1871

"Printed from government copy." Reprint of the 1872 edition

Race and racism in the United States : an encyclopedia of the American mosaic

This book provide readers with comprehensive content supplemented by historical backgrounds, relevant examples from primary documents, and first-hand accounts. To access primary source documents, click List of Primary Documents under Contents. Not all primary sources on this list are available online (eBook).

Redress for historical injustices in the United States : on reparations for slavery, Jim Crow, and their legacies

Comprehensive reader brings together primary and secondary documents related to efforts to redress historical wrongs against African Americans. Written by activists and scholars of law, political science, African American studies, philosophy, economics, and history, the twenty-six essays include both previously published articles and pieces written specifically for this volume.

Remembering slavery : African Americans talk about their personal experiences of slavery and emancipation

This book includes chapters on aspects of slave life, including relationships with owners, work, family culture, the Civil War, and Emancipation; complete transcript of live recordings and dramatic readings of interviews with former slaves; and little-known period photographs.

The rise of aggressive abolitionism : addresses to the slaves

In the early 1840s three leading abolitionists presented provocative speeches that, for the first time, addressed the slaves directly rather than aiming rebukes at white owners. This book includes the full text of each address, as well as related documents, and presents a detailed study of their historical context, the reactions they provoked, and their lasting impact on U.S. history - primary documents can be found at the end of the book (eBook).

Slave testimony : two centuries of letters, speeches, interviews, and autobiographies

Written and oral testimony to the conditions and experiences of slavery reveal the everyday lives and extraordinary culture of black slaves.

Slavery

This book traces the conflicting views on the issue of slavery through speeches by John C. Calhoun, Jefferson Davis, Alexander H. Stephens, William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, and Abraham Lincoln.

Slavery

Seventeen primary documents reflect various aspects of slavery, especially concerning the slave trade, foreign perspectives on America's peculiar institution, the slave's experience, slave resistance, and abolitionism. Offering the perspectives of Southern gentlemen, foreign visitors (including soldiers and revolutionaries), abolitionists, and especially the slaves themselves, particular chapters discuss slave auctions, plantation life, the status of women, punishment, religion, rebellion, escape, the economic role of slavery, the comparison to wage-slavery in the north, and abolitionist strategies.

Trial of Pedro de Zulueta, Jun., on a charge of slave trading, on Friday the 27th, Saturday the 28th, and Monday the 30th of October, 1843, at the Central Criminal Court, Old Bailey, London

Pedro José de Zulueta was put on trial at the Old Bailey for the crime of slave trading in 1843 and, after he was acquitted, he published a monumental tome about his trial in order to exonerate himself further in the eyes of the London merchant community. This dense work offers a valuable window on Spanish involvement in the trans-Atlantic slave trade and British attempts at its suppression.

With pen and voice : a critical anthology of nineteenth-century African-American women

Here―in the only collection of speeches by nineteenth-century African-American women―is the battle of words these brave women waged to address the social ills of their century. In this chronological anthology, Shirley Wilson Logan highlights the public addresses of these women, beginning with Maria W. Stewart’s speech at Franklin Hall in 1832, believed to be the first delivered to an audience of men and women by an American-born woman.

Witness for freedom : African American voices on race, slavery, and emancipation

This documentary history of the African American struggle for freedom and equality collects eighty-nine documents that represent the best of the recently published five-volume Black abolitionist papers. In these texts, African Americans tell their own stories of the struggle to end slavery and claim their rights as American citizens, of the battle against colonization and the "back to Africa" movement, and of their troubled relationship with the federal government.

Women and slavery in America : a documentary history

Women and Slavery offers readers an opportunity to examine the establishment, growth, and evolution of slavery in the United States as it impacted women-enslaved and free, African American and white, wealthy and poor, northern and southern. The primary documents-including newspaper articles, broadsides, cartoons, pamphlets, speeches, photographs, memoirs, and editorials-are organized thematically and represent cultural, political, religious, economic, and social perspectives on this dark and complex period in American history (eBook).

Women writing Africa: the Eastern region

Focuses on the daily lives of women, who have crafted descriptions of personal sufferings and triumphs, parliamentary speeches, fiction, poetry and songs, and the roles of women in creating an educated people in nations free from colonial rule. Spans from the 18th to 21st centuries.

World History in Documents

Covers key events that have altered world history and promotes the ability to study history with primary sources and the ability to compare aspects of major societies (Reference books must be used in the library).

Late nineteenth century to present

A-train : memoirs of a Tuskegee Airman

A-Train is the story of one of the black Americans who, during World War II, graduated from Tuskegee Army Flying School and served as a pilot in the 99th Pursuit Squadron. Charles W. Dryden has prepared an honest, fast-paced, balanced, vividly written, and very personal account.

The African-American archive : the history of the Black experience in documents

African American mosaic : a documentary history from the slave trade to the twenty-first century

African American political thought, 1890-1930 : Washington, Du Bois, Garvey, and Randolph

A collection of essays, letters, speeches, and editorials produced by four prominent African American civil rights leaders in the late 19th century.

African women writing resistance : an anthology of contemporary voices

The anthology brings together personal narratives, testimony, interviews, short stories, poetry, performance scripts, folktales, and lyrics. Thematically organized, it presents women's writing on such issues as intertribal and interethnic conflicts, the degradation of the environment, polygamy, domestic abuse, the controversial traditional practice of female genital cutting, Sharia law, intergenerational tensions, and emigration and exile.

Afro-American history : primary sources

Autobiography of a people : three centuries of African American history told by those who lived it

Contains primary source material from the early 18th to late 20th centuries.

Black man in a white coat : a doctor's reflections on race and medicine

Black Man in a White Coat examines the complex ways in which both black doctors and patients must navigate the difficult and often contradictory terrain of race and medicine.

Black protest and the great migration : a brief history with documents

Documents taken from newspapers, periodicals, journals, and trade publications that highlight a variety of perspectives related to the Great Migration of African Americans from southern to northern states during the World War I era.

Black protest; history, documents, and analyses, 1619 to the present

Bloods, an oral history of the Vietnam War

This book tells the truth about Vietnam from the black soldiers' perspective. An oral history, it features twenty black men who tell the story of how members of their race were sent off in disproportionate numbers and the special test of patriotism they faced. This work puts the Vietnam experience in historical, cultural, and political perspective.

The burden of race : a documentary history of Negro-white relations in America

Contains primary source documents spanning American history from slavery to the 1960's.

Burning all illusions : writings from The Nation on race, 1866-2002

Selection of The Nation's (the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States) writing on race from 1865 to 2002.

Can anything beat white? : a Black family's letters

Ann Petry (1908-1997) was a prominent African American writer during a period in which few black women were published with regularity in America. Perry's ancestors, the James family, served as inspiration for much of her fiction. This collection of more than four hundred family letters, edited by the daughter of Ann Perry, is an engaging portrait of black family life from the 1890s to the early twentieth century, a period not often documented by African American voices.

Civil rights and the American negro : a documentary history

Civil rights since 1787 : a reader on the Black struggle

The civil rights reader : basic documents of the civil rights movement

A collection of documents and writings from the civil rights movement.

The Columbia documentary history of race and ethnicity in America

Conversations with myself

Nelson Mandela is widely considered to be one of the most inspiring and iconic figures of our age. Now, after a lifetime of taking pen to paper to record thoughts and events, hardships and victories, he has opened his personal archive, which offers an unprecedented insight into his remarkable life and offers a unique access to the private world of an incomparable world leader. Journals, notebooks, diaries, private recorded conversations, speeches, and correspondence are brought together in this narrative.

Creating equal : my fight against race preferences

A story of the author's life and his struggles with "America's racial divide." As a member of the University of California Board of Regents, the author was drawn into the controversy surrounding affirmative action and "finally concluded ... that this phrase was merely a polite euphemism for an entrenched system of race preferences that psychologically damages its alleged beneficiaries and unjustly discriminates against its real victims."

Defining Documents in American History: Dissent & protest (1635-2017)

Diary of a sit-in

This book tells the first published story by one of its leaders of the day-by-day happenings of a sit-in. With warm compassion, scholarly care, keen insight in to the motives and concerns of people, and lively understanding of a historic democratic movement, Professor Proudfoot shares with the reader what went on in the community, the stores and in the minds and hearts of those who took part.

Documents in world history

Early African-American classics

A collection of autobiographical literature by some of America's most influential black writers includes pieces by Booker T. Washington, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Jacobs.

Education as my agenda : Gertrude Williams, race, and the Baltimore Public Schools

When Gertrude Williams retired in 1998, after forty-nine years in the Baltimore public schools, The Baltimore Sun called her "the most powerful of principals" who "tangled with two superintendents and beat them both." In this oral memoir, Williams identifies the essential elements of sound education and describes the battles she waged to secure those elements, first as teacher, then a counselor, and, for twenty-five years, as principal (eBook).

Eyewitness; the Negro in American history

Freedom on my mind : the Columbia documentary history of the African American experience

Freedom on my mind : a history of African Americans, with documents

Give us each day : the diary of Alice Dunbar-Nelson

Alice Ruth Moore Dunbar Nelson (July 19, 1875 – September 18, 1935) was an American poet, journalist, and political activist. Among the first generation born free in the South after the Civil War, she was one of the prominent African Americans involved in the artistic flourishing of the Harlem Renaissance.

Great speeches by African Americans : Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Barack Obama, Jr., and others

Homeless, friendless, and penniless : the WPA interviews with former slaves living in Indiana

Includes interviews of 134 former slaves conducted in the 1930s by fieldworkers of the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration.

The human record : sources of global history

In search of democracy : the NAACP writings of James Weldon Johnson, Walter White, and Roy Wilkins (1920-1977)

In this engrossing collection of editorials, petitions, reports and speeches, archivist Sondra Kathryn Wilson delineates fifty-seven years of the NAACP's program under the successive direction of James Weldon Johnson, Walter White, and Roy Wilkins. By gathering the public writings of these heroic figures, she has created a narrative that spans more than half a century of racial conflict and civil rights history.

In their own words; a history of the American Negro

Kennedy, Johnson, and the quest for justice : the civil rights tapes

This book includes actual transcripts of the secret recordings that Presidents Kennedy and Johnson made of their meetings and telephone conversations between the fall of 1962 and the groundbreaking passage of the Civil Rights Act in the summer of 1964. By setting these transcripts in an historical narrative, the authors present a seamless account of two tumultuous years in America's struggle for racial justice and highlight the pivotal role played by Kennedy and Johnson in ending legal segregation.

Klan-destine relationships : a black man's odyssey in the Ku Klux Klan

Finding that the Klan is entrenched not only in the Deep South but in his own neighborhood, Davis sets out to meet Roger Kelly, Imperial Wizard of the Invincible Empire Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. After a cathartic first encounter at the end of which Kelly poses for pictures, as long as "we don't have to stand with our arms around each other," the two slowly form as close a friendship as a Black man and a Klansman can.

Let nobody turn us around : voices of resistance, reform, and renewal : an African American anthology

A long way gone : memoirs of a boy soldier

This is how wars are fought now: by children, hopped-up on drugs and wielding AK-47s. Child soldiers have been profiled by journalists, and novelists have struggled to imagine their lives. But until now, there has not been a first-person account from someone who came through this hell and survived. Ishmael Beah, now 25 years old, tells how at the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, he'd been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts.

The lynching of Emmett Till : a documentary narrative

On August 28, 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Till was abducted from his great-uncle's cabin in Money, Mississippi, and killed. With a collection of more than 100 documents, Metress retells Till's story in a unique and daring way--juxtaposing news accounts and investigative journalism with memoirs, poetry, and fiction.

Marching as to war : personal narratives of African American women's experiences in the Gulf wars

Seen through the eyes of eleven African American servicewomen, this book explores issues such as health care, child care, sexism/sexual harassment, racism, religion, career advancement, and serving in combat zones. Their stories illuminate the types of experiences black servicewomen have encountered during their time in the Gulf Wars (eBook).

Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and the civil rights struggle of the 1950s and 1960s : a brief history with documents

This work brings together some of the best primary sources on Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. Through their writings and speeches, we can appreciate the roles they played in the freedom crusade of the 1950s and 1960s. We not only get a good summary of their essential teachings but we also get insight into their individual styles and personalities.

Mary McLeod Bethune : building a better world : essays and selected documents

Examines the career of African-American leader Mary McLeod Bethune through a collection of seventy-five documents she created or contributed to, covering a period that ranges from 1902 to 1955; and includes a chronology, as well as a biographical and historical assessment of Bethune and her legacy.

Memorable memoirs

George Watson (1915 – March 8, 1943) was a private in the United States Army who was killed in action during World War II. He was one of seven African-American soldiers to receive the Medal of Honor for their actions during World War II, and the only one of the seven to earn his medal while serving in the Pacific Theater.

Milestone documents in American history : exploring the primary sources that shaped America

Milestone documents in world history : exploring the primary sources that shaped the world

Milestones along the march : twelve historic Civil Rights documents, from World War II to Selma

Contains documents related to Civil Rights, including Executive Orders from FDR and Truman, court statutes, letters, speeches, and the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

No one can stop the rain : a chronicle of two foreign aid workers during the Angolan Civil War

Set in central Angola during the final stages of the country's thirty-year civil war, No One Can Stop the Rain is the true story of two ordinary Médecins Sans Frontières volunteers — a surgeon and his wife, leaving behind their comfortable lives in mid-career. Based on correspondence and diary entries, the book chronicles the couple's journey to Kuito, deep in the heart of Angola (eBook).

Open wide the freedom gates : a memoir

Height marched at major civil rights rallies, sat through tense White House meetings, and witnessed every significant victory in the struggle for racial equality. Yet as the sole woman among powerful, charismatic men, and as someone whose personal ambition was always secondary to her passion for her cause, she has received little mainstream recognition ... In this memoir, she reflects on a life of service and leadership.

The papers of Clarence Mitchell, Jr. Volume 1 : 1942-1943

Clarence Maurice Mitchell Jr. (March 8, 1911 – March 19, 1984) was a civil rights activist and was the chief lobbyist for the NAACP for nearly 30 years (eBook).

The papers of Clarence Mitchell, Jr. Volume 2 : 1944-1946

Clarence Maurice Mitchell Jr. (March 8, 1911 – March 19, 1984) was a civil rights activist and was the chief lobbyist for the NAACP for nearly 30 years (eBook).

Phantom Africa

In 1930, Michel Leiris was an aspiring poet drifting away from the orbit of the Surrealist movement in Paris when the anthropologist Marcel Griaule invited him to serve as the "secretary-archivist" for the Mission Dakar-Djibouti, a major collecting and ethnographic journey that traversed the African continent between May 1931 and February 1933. Upon returning to France, rather than compiling a more conventional report or ethnographic study, Leiris decided simply to publish his diary, almost entirely untouched aside from minor corrections and a smattering of footnotes.

Race and racism in the United States : an encyclopedia of the American mosaic

Red Tail captured, Red Tail free : memoirs of a Tuskegee airman and POW

This book is a rare and important gift. One of the few memoirs of combat in World War II by a distinguished African-American flier, it is also perhaps the only account of the African-American experience in a German prison camp. Alexander Jefferson was one of 32 Tuskegee Airmen from the 332nd Fighter Group to be shot down defending a country that considered them to be second-class citizens (eBook).

Redress for historical injustices in the United States : on reparations for slavery, Jim Crow, and their legacies

Say it plain : a century of great African American speeches

Spanning the 20th century, this collection is a vivid account of how African Americans sounded the charge against racial injustice, exhorting the country to live up to its democratic principles. Includes accompanying CDs that have digitally remastered recordings of the original speeches.

Story of the riot

Statement and proofs written and compiled by Frank Moss and issued by the Citizens' Protective League regarding persecution of African-Americans by "roughs" and policemen, in the city of New York, August, 1900.

Taps for a Jim Crow army : letters from black soldiers in World War II

Taps for a Jim Crow Army is a powerful collection of letters written by black soldiers in the 1940s to various government and nongovernment officials. The soldiers expressed their disillusionment, rage, and anguish over the discrimination and segregation they experienced in the Army.

Three lives for Mississippi

On June 21, 1964 Mississippi, one of the last bastions of segregation in America and a bloody battleground in the fight for civil rights, reached the low point in its history. On that steamy night three young activists were abducted and murdered in Neshoba County. William Bradford Huie was sent by the New York Herald Tribune to cover the breaking story. Probing for answers and conducting interviews, he wrote this documentary account in the heat of the dangerous and dramatic moment.

The US Army's first, last, and only all-black rangers : the 2d Ranger Infantry Company (Airborne) in the Korean War, 1950-1951

This book covers the first eight months of 2d Airborne Ranger Company's experiences during the Korean conflict. The 2d Ranger Infantry Company (Airborne) was the first and only all-black Ranger unit in the history of the United States Army. Its ten-month lifespan included selection, training, and seven months of combat deployment in Korea, after which the unit was deactivated (eBook).

Under fire : reporting from the front lines of the Trump White House

In Under Fire, Ryan takes us inside the confusion and chaos of the Trump White House to understand how she and other reporters adjusted to the new normal.

We Cannot Forget : Interviews with Survivors of the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda

During a one-hundred-day period in 1994, Hutus murdered between half a million and a million Tutsi in Rwanda. The numbers are staggering; the methods of killing were unspeakable. Utilizing personal interviews with trauma survivors living in Rwandan cities, towns, and dusty villages, We Cannot Forget relates what happened during this period and what their lives were like both prior to and following the genocide (eBook).

Last Updated: Mar 19, 2024 4:14 PM
URL: https://library.raritanval.edu/hist191
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Subjects: American History, Cultural Studies, History, U.S. History, World Civilization

Tags: Primary Sources