Research Guides: African American Studies: Databases for Scholarly Journals

Featured Databases

African American Studies is widely regarded as interdisciplinary, as its topics of research are related to more than one branch of knowledge. For example, publications that discuss the Atlantic Slave Trade might be found in databases specializing in the Civil War and American history, in addition to African American Newspapers. To allow a comprehensive review of what information is available, examine the list of All Databases to seek materials that may be relevant to your research.

Note: on September 13, 2022 African American Periodicals will be migrated to a new interface for a much-improved user experience.
Key features of the redesigned interface include:

Save articles and keyword searches within “My Folder”
Download and save pages directly to a Google Drive account
Search within a single issue of a publication
Create, download, or print citations in all major formats (MLA, APA, CMS, etc.)
Search by publication name, location, article type, historical era, decade, and year
Improved Results screen for quicker access to relevant content

African American Newspapers: The 19th Century Cultural life and history during the 1800s in the U.S. and the Canadian province of Ontario: first-hand reports of the major events and issues of the day, including the Mexican War, Presidential and congressional addresses, Congressional abstracts, business and commodity markets, the humanities, world travel and religion. Large numbers of early biographies, vital statistics, essays and editorials, poetry and prose, and advertisements, all of which portray the African-American experience.
African American Periodicals Over 170 African American newspapers and magazines published in the U.S. from 1825-1995, from slavery during the Antebellum Period to the struggles and triumphs of the modern era. Publications include African Repository (1825-92), Black Panther (1967-75), Black Worker (1929-68), and Soul (1966-76). Search full-text by any or all of these periods: Slavery and Antebellum Era (1825 to 1860), U.S. Civil War (1861 to 1865), Reconstruction and Post War South (1866 to 1895), Segregation and the Rise of Black Protest Thought (1896 to 1920), African American Culture in the New Era (1921 to 1945), Civil Rights Era (1946-1960), The Second Reconstruction (1961-1972), Modern / Contemporary Era (1973-1998). The collection is based upon James P. Danky's African-American Newspapers and Periodicals: A National Bibliography (Harvard, 1998) and drawn from holdings of the Wisconsin Historical Society.
African American Poetry Contains nearly 3,000 poems by African-American poets of the 18th and 19th centuries.
Afro-Americana Imprints From the Library Company of Philadelphia's Afro-Americana Collection, this still-growing resource provides researchers with full-text searchable, digital facsimiles of more than 12,000 printed works. These books, pamphlets and broadsides, including many lesser-known imprints, span nearly 400 years, from the early 16th to the early 20th century. Afro-Americana Imprints can be searched along with Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans (1639-1800).
Black Drama Black Drama (Third Edition) contains approximately 1200 plays by 201 playwrights, together with detailed, fielded information on related productions, theaters, production companies, and more. The database also includes selected playbills, production photographs and other ephemera related to the plays. Coverage: 1850 - present
Black Studies Center Fully cross-searchable gateway to Black Studies combines three resources: Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience, International Index to Black Periodicals (IIBP), and The Chicago Defender. The Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience contains the full-text of commissioned essays detailing the Black Experience and other related materials. The IIBP covers scholarly and popular Black Studies journals, including full text for 58 titles. Black Studies also features the full text backfile of the influential black newspaper The Chicago Defender (1935-1975).
Caribbean Newspapers, 1718-1876 This link opens in a new window 18th and 19th-century Caribbean newspapers of interest to those studying Colonial history, the Atlantic slave trade, New World slavery and more. A comprehensive resource for studying the development of Western society. Includes documents in English, French and Spanish Coverage: 1718-1876
Ethnic NewsWatch Provides access to full-text articles from 200 magazines, journals, and newspapers published by the ethnic, minority, and native press in America. Searchable in both English and Spanish.
Independent Voices Independent Voices chronicles the transformative decades of the 60s, 70s and 80s through the lens of an independent alternative press. Consolidated for the first time, Independent Voices provides over 1,000 titles from the special collections of dozens of libraries. Independent Voices provides easy access to the powerful voices of feminists, dissident GIs, campus radicals, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Latinos, gays, lesbians and more.
Black Studies Periodicals Black Studies Periodicals (formerly The International Index to Black Periodicals) covers scholarly and popular Black Studies journals, including full text for many titles. The Marshall Index is a guide to black periodicals, 1940-1946. Cultural, economic, historical, religious, social, and political issues of vital importance to the Black Studies discipline are covered.
Music Online: African American Music Reference Provides full-text reference articles, biographies, images, sheet music, lyrics, liner notes, and discographies which chronicle the African American experience through music. Covers blues, jazz, spirituals, civil rights songs, slave songs, minstrelsy, rhythm and blues, and other forms.
Race Relations Abstracts Includes bibliographic records for journal articles covering essential areas related to race relations, including ethnic studies, discrimination, immigration studies, and other areas.

General Databases

Credo Reference Online reference library provides advanced searching and full-text of hundreds of dictionaries and encyclopedias in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Cross-reference links and interactive concept maps provide answers and enable further exploration of topics. Images include 17,000 works of art from the Bridgemann Art Library Archive.
Essay and General Literature Index Indexes essays and chapters in anthologies, and multi-author collections. Coverage spans the entire range of the humanities and social sciences, from economics, political science, and history to criticism of literary works, art history, drama, and film.
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JSTOR Full-text digital archive of over 2600 scholarly journals, especially strong in Social Sciences, Humanities, Economics, and Mathematics.
OmniFile Full Text Mega Provides invaluable support for research in all core undergraduate subjects and for cross-disciplinary work.
Periodicals Archive Online Periodicals Archive Online is a major archive that makes the backfiles of scholarly periodicals in the arts, humanities and social sciences available electronically, providing access to the searchable full text of hundreds of titles. The database spans more than two centuries of content, 37 key subject areas, and multiple languages.
Project Muse Project MUSE is a unique collaboration between libraries and publishers providing 100% full-text and user-friendly online access to high quality humanities, arts, and social sciences journals from scholarly publishers.
Proquest Research Library This database provides one-stop access to more than 4,000 periodicals from one of the broadest, most inclusive general reference databases ProQuest has to offer. Search from a highly-respected, diversified mix of scholarly journals, trade publications and magazines covering over 150 academic disciplines.
Readers' Guide Full Text (1983-current) and Readers’ Guide Retrospective (1890-1982) Database containing comprehensive indexing of the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States and reflects the history of 20th century America. Provides indexing and full text articles from both the popular press and peer reviewed journals. Indexing from 1983 to the present, with full text coverage as far back as 1994 for some titles.
Science Citation Index Expanded Provides bibliographic and citation information needed to find research data, analyze trends and journals, and share findings. Data from over 8,500 of the world's leading scientific and technical journals across 150 disciplines.
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Social Sciences Citation Index Provides bibliographic data, citations and abstracts of English-language authors to significant articles from over 3,000 journals across 55 social science disciplines. Also covers individually selected, relevant items from over 3,500 of the world's leading scientific and technical journals.
Social Sciences Full Text Social Sciences Full Text provides access to a wide assortment of the most important English-language journals published in the U.S. and elsewhere with full text and page images from scores of key publications, plus abstracting and indexing of hundreds of others.
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Web of Science: All Databases Easily search across all subscribed products simultaneously using a common set of search fields for the most comprehensive results Including: Web of Science Core Collection, BIOSIS Citation Index, BIOSIS Previews, CAB eBooks Archive, CABI, CAB Abstracts and Global Health, Current Contents Connect, Data Citation Index, Derwent Innovations Index, FSTA-the food science resource, KCI-Korean Journal Database, MEDLINE, Preprint Citation Index, SciELO Citation Index, and Zoological Record.
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