Black History Month in the United States

"Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which were overcome while trying to succeed. . . ."

--Booker T. Washington

W.E.B. Du Bois - Critic, editor, scholar, author, civil rights leader and one of the most influential African Americans of the 20th century, Du Bois was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909

US Dept. Of State - Gateway To African-American History

Another good website is this one

Eras in Black History

"Before the Mayflower - A history of Black America" by 'Lerone Bennett, Jr'
is said to be a good book to read on the history.

You link is extaordinay Walter. The first Africans in the colonies were not slaves at all that came much later.

These links mostly emphasize documents, books, and narratives.

Documenting the American South (DAS) - a collection of sources on Southern history, literature and culture from the colonial period through the first decades of the 20th century including slave narratives and first-person narratives of the South.

Documenting the American South (DAS)


Afro-American Almanac Historical Documents

Afro-American Almanac Historical Documents


Princeton University Library - African American Studies Resources - Historical Documents

Princeton University Library - African American Studies Resources - Historical Documents

Princeton University Library - African American Studies Resources


American Slave Narratives - An Online Anthology

American Slave Narratives online


African American Studies Toolkit, includes online documents

African American Studies Toolkit


African-Americans - Biography, Autobiography and History - The Avalon Project at Yale Law School

African-Americans - Biography, Autobiography and History


The following are general links to U.S. government or university collections of documents, mostly of American history. There are many of course dealing with African-American history, for example, the Dred Scott decision.


Our Documents - A National Initiative on American History, Civics, and Service, explores 100 milestone documents of American history

Our Documents


American Memory: Historical Collections for the National Digital Library

American Memory


UVA E-text Archive

University of Virginia E-Text Archive


The Historical Text Archive

The Historical Text Archive


. . . . . . . . . .

Here are examples of what can be found with a little searching (these from the UVA E-text Archive):

Documenting the African American Experience

Three examples of documents that are there:

"A narrative of the most remarkable particulars in the life of James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, an African prince, written by himself."

"A narrative of the uncommon sufferings, and surprizing deliverance of Briton Hammon, a Negro man."

"Cases adjudged in the Supreme Court of New-Jersey; relative to the manumission of Negroes and others holden in bondage."


Afro-American Sources in Virginia. A Guide to Manuscripts


Database of African American Poetry


And some of the articles to be found in the Historical Text Archive's African-American section:

The Historical Text Archive - African Americans


Lift Every Voice and Sing (1900) by James Weldon Johnson
A Colored Man's Reminiscences of James Madison
An African-American Bibilography: Education
An African-American Bibilography: History
An African-American Bibliography: Science, Medicine, and Allied Fields
Bibliography on Civil Rights and WWII
Congressional Black Caucus, 103rd Congress 1993 - 1994
Gullah Excursion 1993: Ancestral Breaths of Life
I Have a Dream
Letter From a Birmingham Jail
Research Note on the Atlantic Slave Trade Database Project



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Two links from MSN:

MSN Learning and Research - African-American History Timeline

MSN Learning and Research - 15 African-American firsts

Great topic Joanne - tailor made to be Featured, I'd say!

I am grateful that the black Americans as a whole are being covered on this thread and not just the most obvious leaders.

The African American Mosaic - A Library of Congress Resource Guide for the Study of Black History & Culture

The Amistad Research Center

Archives of African American Music and Culture

The William Ransom Hogan Archive of New Orleans Jazz

Black Facts your internet resource for black history information

Black History - Exploring African American issues on the Web

W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for Afro-American Research at Harvard University

Born in Slavery - Slave Narratives from the Federal Writer's Project, 1936-1938

North American Slave Narratives - UNC - Chapel Hill

Excerpts from Slave Narratives

The Church in the Southern Black Community - UNC - Chapel Hill

I think it is ironic that the blacks were given Black History Month plus Martin Luther King Day at the precise moment when white America stopped even pretending to care about them. The hypocrisy is monumental.

When was that precise moment Larry?

I've got it! I should read that W E B DuBois novel I bought several years ago - the Souls of Black Folk.

The holiday was created during the Reagan years, Jeanne. If you were awake during that period you should remember the smug indifference of most white Americans to the plight of blacks, led by Reagan who loved to tell lying stories about welfare queens driving Cadillacs and buying vodka with food stamps. You do remember the Eighties, don't you, Jeanne?

Larry, what's your problem?

I don't have a problem. She asked me what the precise historical moment was and I answered her. I thought her question was a little flip and I answered accordingly. If someone treats me flippantly, I will deal with them flippantly. What's YOUR problem?

The Harlem Renaissance: Harlem 1900-1940

Three good books by Zora Neale Hurston who wrote during the Harlem Renaissance,

Zora Neale Hurston

I, of course, look at the history of black musicians in America. Jazz is the only pure American music; From Jazz to folk to rock to pop to rap. I will not give a link. Suffice it to say that regardless of political correctness or whatever they are calling it these days, blacks gave us a legacy that will never, ever disappear.

Hello, Dolly, This is Louis, Dolly.---Louis Armstrong

God Bless the Child who has his own..who has his own...Billie Holiday

See the Girl with the Red Dress on....rock it Ray Charles

and on it goes....every day is Jazz day...........................................

Thank you

Thanks for that Letty. There are a couple of links up above. I finally got around recently to reading a little bit about the history of jazz. A couple of those books are

The History of Jazz
by Ted Gioia

WSJ:". . . anyone looking for a balanced, well-written popular history of jazz will certainly find it both readable and reliable, a few minor slips notwithstanding. Nor should more experienced readers expect to come away empty-handed: Mr. Gioia, for instance, has some highly intelligent things to say about the extent to which contemporary jazz now reflects the fragmentation of the postmodern movement in art."

Jazz: A History of America's Music
by Geoffrey C. Ward, Ken Burns, Albert Murray (Contributor), Dan Morgenstern (Contributor)

Companion to Ken Burn's PBS series.