African American History Sources

Secondary Source List

Review the following secondary sources on African American History and select two that most closely support your research question.

• Abolitionist Movement. (n.d.). Historynet. www.historynet.com/abolitionist-movement
• Denworth, Lydia. (2020, June 4). A Civil Rights Expert Explains the Social Science of Police Racism. Scientific American. www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-civil-rights-expert-explains-the-social-science-of-police-racism/
• Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. (2019, April 2). How Reconstruction Still Shapes American Racism. Time. www.time.com/5562869/reconstruction-history
• Holmes, Marian Smith. (2010, June 16). The Great Escape From Slavery of Ellen and William Craft. Smithsonian Magazine. www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-great-escape-from-slavery-of-ellen-and-william-craft-497960/
• Lewis, Femi. (2020, January 23). The Jim Crow Era. ThoughtCo. www.thoughtco.com/what-is-jim-crow-45387
• O'Rourke, John. (2013, August 26). MLK's "I Have a Dream" Speech - 50 Years Later. BU Today. www.bu.edu/articles/2013/mlk-i-have-a-dream-speech-50-year-anniversary/
• Solly, Meilan. (2020, June 4). 158 Resources to Understand Racism in America. Smithsonian Magazine. www.smithsonianmag.com/history/158-resources-understanding-systemic-racism-america-180975029/
• Standing Up for Change: African American Women and the Civil Rights Movement. (n.d.). National Women's History Museum. www.womenshistory.org/exhibits/standing-up-for-change
• The Civil Rights Movement and the Second Reconstruction, 1945–1968. (n.d.). History, Art, & Archives: United States House of Representatives. history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/BAIC/Historical-Essays/Keeping-the-Faith/Civil-Rights-Movement/
• This Far By Faith: 1776–1865: From Bondage to Holy War. (n.d.). PBS. www.pbs.org/thisfarbyfaith/timeline/p_2.html

Primary Source List

Review the following primary sources on African American History and select two that most closely support your research question.

• Banneker, Benjamin. (1791, August 19). Letter to Thomas Jefferson. Founders Online: National Archives. www.founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-22-02-0049
• Black Lives Matter. (n.d.). Herstory. www.blacklivesmatter.com/herstory/
• Douglass, Frederick. (1852, July 5). What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? Teaching American History. www.teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/what-to-the-slave-is-the-fourth-of-july/
• Du Bois, W.E.B. (1903). Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others. History Matters. www.historymatters.gmu.edu/d/40
• “Natural and Inalienable Right to Freedom”: Slaves’ Petition for Freedom to the Massachusetts Legislature, 1777. (n.d.). History Matters. www.historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6237/
• Obama’s Triumph: A Turning Point for America? (2008, June 5). NPR. www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91181127
• Robinson, Jo Ann Gibson. (1987). The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It: The Memoir of Jo Ann Gibson Robinson, Chapter 2. National Humanities Center. nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai3/protest/text5/robinsonbusboycott.pdf
• Simon, Caroline. (2018, July 12). How Social Media Has Shaped Black Lives Matter, Five Years Later. USA Today. www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/07/12/black-lives-matter-movement-and-social-media-after-five-years/778779002/
• Smith, Stephen. (2001, November). Remembering Jim Crow. American Public Media. americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/remembering/index.html
• Washington, Booker T. (1895, September 18). "Address By Booker T. Washington, Principal Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, Tuskegee, Alabama, At Opening Of Atlanta Exposition." Courtesy of Library of Congress. www.iowaculture.gov/history/education/educator-resources/primary-source-sets/reconstruction-and-its-impact/booker-t
• White, Walter F. (1929, January). I Investigate Lynchings. National Humanities Center. nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai3/segregation/text2/investigatelynchings.pdf
• X, Malcolm. (1964, April 3). The Ballot or the Bullet. EdChange. www.edchange.org/multicultural/speeches/malcolm_x_ballot.html

hint

If you are not finding a secondary or primary source that has the information you need, you are welcome to use sources from outside of this list.

You can also return to the course concepts related to your topic for links to the primary and secondary sources referenced in the instruction.