Walker Library: ENGL 2020: Themes in Literature and Culture: African American Experience in Literature: Library Resources Overview

Scholarly Research Sources

The JEWL Search Box on the library homepage includes the MLA, JSTOR, and Project Muse databases. They are also listed individually in the recommendations below.

Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window
Up-to-date biographical information, overviews, full-text literary criticism and reviews on more than 130,000 writers in all disciplines, from all time periods and from around the world.
For authors now living or who died after 12/31/59, also consult Contemporary Literary Criticism.
Gale Literature Criticism This link opens in a new window
Part of the Literature Criticism Online resource. Critical commentary and information on more than 3,000 authors now living or who died after 12/31/59. Includes essays on special topics and literature genres.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Complete full text (page images) for back issues of various leading scholarly journals.
MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
Journal articles and other resources in language, linguistics, and folklore.
Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
Scholarly journals for arts, humanities, social sciences, and mathematics, 1990s to present.
Gale Literary Index This link opens in a new window
Find which Gale reference series contains analysis of a literary work or an author bio. Check the library catalog to see if the library owns the reference series and to find where it is located.
Black Thought and Culture This link opens in a new window
Searchable texts of non-fiction work by prominent African Americans, 1700 to present.
Contains 1,297 sources with 1,098 authors, covering the non-fiction published works of leading African Americans. Particular care has been taken to index this material so that it can be searched more thoroughly than ever before. Where possible the complete published non-fiction works are included, as well as interviews, journal articles, speeches, essays, pamphlets, letters and other fugitive material.
African American Poetry This link opens in a new window
Complete texts for poetry by African Americans, 1746-1900.
Contains nearly 3,000 poems by African American poets of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It provides a comprehensive survey of the early history of African American poetry, from the earliest published African American poems to the works of Paul Laurence Dunbar, the first African American poet to achieve national success and recognition.

The Norton Anthology of African American Literature by Gates & McKay (Editors, 1997)
Black Literature Criticism
Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature
Call Number: Reference Collection -- 1st Floor -- 810.9896 G85 (4 vol.)
Encyclopedia of African American Women Writers
Encyclopedia of African American Culture and History by Salzman (1996)
An authoritative, five volume work dealing with all aspects of the African-American experience from 1619 to the present day.
Encyclopedia of African-American Heritage by Altman (1996)
Chronicles more than a millennium of history. The broad scope of coverage highlights people, places, culture, politics, and history.
Race Sounds: The Art of Listening in African American Literature by Nicole Brittingham Furlonge (2018)
African American Literature: Sharing Powerful Stories by Linde & Sharif (2017)
Call Number: 3rd Floor Curriculum Collection -- 810.9896 SHA

African American Newspapers (Accessible Archives) This link opens in a new window
19th century African American newspapers in full-text searchable form with page images.
Titles in Collection:
The Christian Recorder
The Colored American/Weekly Advocate
Frederick Douglass' Paper
Freedom's Journal
The National Era
The North Star
Provincial Freeman

Historical Newspapers Database
--Ethnic News Watch, 1959-1989
--New York Times, 1851-2013
--Washington Post, 1877-1999
--Chicago Defender, 1909-1975
--Atlanta Constitution, 1868-1942
--Norfolk Journal, 1916-2003
--New York Amsterdam News, 1922-1993
--Nashville Tennessean, 1812-1922
--Daily News Journal, 1999-present
more...less...
Newspaper titles can be searched separately by selecting or deselecting titles on the main search screen or selecting titles through the Library Database A-Z link.
Chronicling America
Library of Congress digitization project. View content from historic newspapers pages from 1777-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present.
MTSU Library Microtext Collections - African Americans
Newspapers and other primary sources; 2nd floor DMS - ask for help.
AFRO American Newspapers
Digitally archived issues spanning over 100 years. Features various AFRO editions covering an impressive span of change, division and progress in African American History.

Kanopy Streaming Video This link opens in a new window
Watch streaming films, documentaries, and training videos from Criterion Collection, Women Make Movies, First Run Features, and other leading producers. The library owns some titles on this platform, but most content is leased solely for classroom use; see https://library.mtsu.edu/mediaresources/policy
Kanopy Troubleshooting Guide
Kanopy Accessibility Statement
Creating playlists and/or clips (Must first create a Kanopy account)
PBS Video Collection This link opens in a new window
Streaming video of almost 1,600 videos aired on PBS, including series such as NOVA, Nature, American Experience, etc.
Product brochure (pdf)
Title list (xls)
American History in Video This link opens in a new window
Collection of video available online for the study of American history.
American History in Video provides the largest and richest collection of video available online for the study of American history, with 2,000 hours and more than 5,000 titles on completion.
The collection includes:
•Commercial and governmental newsreels
•Archival footage
•Public affairs footage
•Important documentaries
Product Brochure (pdf)
Title List (Excel file)
60 Minutes: 1997-2014 This link opens in a new window
250 hours of streaming video from the CBS News show, 60 Minutes.
Title list (.xls)
Swank This link opens in a new window
Streaming collection of films and documentaries, both classic and contemporary. Content on this platform is leased solely for classroom use; see https://library.mtsu.edu/mediaresources/policy
Swank accessibility features, including captions
Sharing and assigning Swank films
Instructors can create a Swank account in order to search unlicensed titles. Please see the library's streaming film acquisition policy before requesting a film license.
Docuseek2 This link opens in a new window
Streaming documentary films from a number of sources, including Bullfrog Films, Icarus Films, and the National Film Board of Canada. Many films in this collection focus on social and environmental issues.
Docuseek Help Wiki
Instructors can register a personal account in order to create clips and playlists.
Vanderbilt Television News Archive This link opens in a new window
Archive of regularly scheduled newscasts from ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and Fox News, August 1968 to present. Users must visit the archive in person or pay for a loan in order to view broadcasts described in the archive.
Archive of regularly scheduled newscasts from ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and Fox News. Special news reports are recorded in addition to these newscasts, including material from other networks. We record broadcasts as they are televised, provide the widest access allowable within copyright for scholarship and research, and preserve the content for future generations. The database currently includes 1,099,338 records, including abstracts at the story level of regular evening newscasts and catalog records for each special news report.

Primary Sources -- Helpful for CONTEXTUAL UNDERSTANDING

Vanderbilt Television News Archive This link opens in a new window
Archive of regularly scheduled newscasts from ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and Fox News, August 1968 to present. Users must visit the archive in person or pay for a loan in order to view broadcasts described in the archive.
Archive of regularly scheduled newscasts from ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and Fox News. Special news reports are recorded in addition to these newscasts, including material from other networks. We record broadcasts as they are televised, provide the widest access allowable within copyright for scholarship and research, and preserve the content for future generations. The database currently includes 1,099,338 records, including abstracts at the story level of regular evening newscasts and catalog records for each special news report.
American Civil Liberties Union Papers, 1912-1990 This link opens in a new window
Records of the ACLU on free speech, citizenship, race, discrimination, immigration, labor, radicalism, and related topics. Includes papers of the Southern Regional Office of the ACLU, primarily in the period 1945 to 1990.
NAACP Papers This link opens in a new window
Digitized documents from the NAACP's major campaigns and important local NAACP branches, 1909-1972. Full-text and searchable. Part of the Civil Rights and the Black Freedom Struggle collection, which also includes Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century modules.
Digital copies of nearly two million pages of NAACP internal memos, legal briefings, and direct action summaries from national, legal, and branch offices throughout the country. Click on a module below for a content description.

Modules:
Board of Directors, Annual Conferences, Major Speeches, and National Staff Files
Branch Department, Branch Files and Youth Department Files
Special Files
The NAACP's Major Campaigns - Education, Voting, Housing, Employment, Armed Forces
The NAACP's Major Campaigns - Legal Department Files
The NAACP's Major Campaigns - Scottsboro, Anti-Lynching, Criminal Justice, Peonage, Labor, and Segregation and Discrimination Complaints and Responses
Sixties, The: Primary Documents and Personal Narratives 1960 - 1974 This link opens in a new window
123,000 pages of primary documents related to 1960s America, including diaries, letters, autobiographies and other memoirs, written and oral histories, manifestos, government documents, memorabilia, and scholarly commentary.
See product brochure (pdf)
Download bibliography (Excel file)
Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice This link opens in a new window
Primary source documents relating to slavery and social justice.
Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law This link opens in a new window
Legal materials on slavery in the U.S. and the English-speaking world.
Includes every statute passed by every colony and state on slavery, every federal statute dealing with slavery, all reported state and federal cases on slavery, and hundreds of books and pamphlets on the subject.
African American Historical Serials Collection This link opens in a new window
Digitized periodicals, reports, and annuals documenting history of African American life and religious organizations between 1829 and 1922.
Content includes:
- More than 170 unique titles related to African American life and culture
- Approximately 60,000 pages of searchable primary source content
- Reports and annuals from African American religious organizations and social service agencies, as well as African American periodicals
Coverage list (pdf)
Video tutorial on using EBSCO's Historical Digital Archives
African American Music Reference This link opens in a new window
Chronicles the diverse history and culture of the African American experience through music.
• Full text from major reference works
• Biographies and personal narratives from oral histories
• Manuscripts, song-sheets, lyrics, discography data, and other text sources
cover jazz, spirituals, civil rights songs, slave songs, minstrelsy, rhythm and
blues, gospel, and other forms of African American musical expression

Harlem Renaissance -- from the Library of Congress
Diverse collection of primary sources covering important people, places, events, and other things that help with understanding and defining this period.
Black History By Topic -- from The National Archives
Links to collections of primary and secondary sources by broad topic.

Biography Databases

The Dictionary of Literary Biography is included within the Literature Resource Center Database.

Biography (Gale In Context) This link opens in a new window
Biographies, articles and bibliographies for prominent people in all fields.
600,000+ biographical entries — on more than 528,000 individuals — spanning history and geography. Search by Name, Occupation, Nationality, Birth Place, or Death Place.
Biography Reference Bank This link opens in a new window
Periodical coverage of Biography Index, full-text articles, page images, and abstracts from Wilson databases (including biographical profiles, feature articles, interviews, essays, book reviews, performance reviews, speeches, or obituaries).
• Coverage of more than 600,000 individuals
• Over 2.2 million records
• Links to over 300,000 related full-text articles, as well as abstracts and images from thousands of periodicals
• Over 35,000 images
• Substantive narrative profiles averaging 3,000 words in length
Something About the Author Online This link opens in a new window
Author biographies.

African American Writers Before the Harlem Renaissance
Browse The Dictionary of Literary Biography (vol. 50).
African American Writers From the Harlem Renaissance to 1940
Browse the Dictionary of Literary Biography (vol. 51).
African American Writers from 1940-1955
Browse the Dictionary of Literary Biography (vol. 76)
African American Writers After 1955
Browse The Dictionary of Literary Biography (vol. 38).

About Us

ENGL 2020: Themes in Literature and Culture: African American Experience in Literature: Library Resources Overview

Scholarly Research Sources

Biography Databases