Finding Books, Journals and Films, Websites
Sickening : anti-black racism and health disparities in the United States by Publication Date: 2021
The earliest African American literatures : a critical reader by ISBN: 146966562XPublication Date: 2021
The Black Civil War Soldier: a visual history of conflict and citizenship by
A stunning collection of stoic portraits and intimate ephemera from the lives of Black Civil War soldiers Though both the Union and Confederate armies excluded African American men from their initial calls to arms, many of the men who eventually served were black. Simultaneously, photography culture blossomed--marking the Civil War as the first conflict to be extensively documented through photographs. In The Black Civil War Soldier, Deb Willis explores the crucial role of photography in (re)telling and shaping African American narratives of the Civil War, pulling from a dynamic visual archive that has largely gone unacknowledged. With over seventy images, The Black Civil War Soldier contains a huge breadth of primary and archival materials, many of which are rarely reproduced. The photographs are supplemented with handwritten captions, letters, and other personal materials; Willis not only dives into the lives of black Union soldiers, but also includes stories of other African Americans involved with the struggle--from left-behind family members to female spies. Willis thus compiles a captivating memoir of photographs and words and examines them together to address themes of love and longing; responsibility and fear; commitment and patriotism; and--most predominantly--African American resilience. The Black Civil War Soldier offers a kaleidoscopic yet intimate portrait of the African American experience, from the beginning of the Civil War to 1900. Through her multimedia analysis, Willis acutely pinpoints the importance of African American communities in the development and prosecution of the war. The book shows how photography helped construct a national vision of blackness, war, and bondage, while unearthing the hidden histories of these black Civil War soldiers. In combating the erasure of this often overlooked history, Willis asks how these images might offer a more nuanced memory of African-American participation in the Civil War, and in doing so, points to individual and collective struggles for citizenship and remembrance.
ISBN: 9781479809004Publication Date: 2021-01-26
From Slave Cabins to the White House by
Koritha Mitchell analyzes canonical texts by and about African American women to lay bare the hostility these women face as they invest in traditional domesticity. Instead of the respectability and safety granted white homemakers, black women endure pejorative labels, racist governmental policies, attacks on their citizenship, and aggression meant to keep them in "their place."Tracing how African Americans define and redefine success in a nation determined to deprive them of it, Mitchell plumbs the works of Frances Harper, Zora Neale Hurston, Lorraine Hansberry, Toni Morrison, Michelle Obama, and others. These artists honor black homes from slavery and post-emancipation through the Civil Rights era to "post-racial" America. Mitchell follows black families asserting their citizenship in domestic settings while the larger society and culture marginalize and attack them, not because they are deviants or failures but because they meet American standards.Powerful and provocative, From Slave Cabins to the White House illuminates the links between African American women's homemaking and citizenship in history and across literature.
Call Number: ebookISBN: 9780252043321Publication Date: 2020-10-15
Visualizing Equality by
The fight for racial equality in the nineteenth century played out not only in marches and political conventions but also in the print and visual culture created and disseminated throughout the United States by African Americans. Advances in visual technologies--daguerreotypes, lithographs, cartes de visite, and steam printing presses--enabled people to see and participate in social reform movements in new ways. African American activists seized these opportunities and produced images that advanced campaigns for black rights. In this book, Aston Gonzalez charts the changing roles of African American visual artists as they helped build the world they envisioned. Understudied artists such as Robert Douglass Jr., Patrick Henry Reason, James Presley Ball, and Augustus Washington produced images to persuade viewers of the necessity for racial equality, black political leadership, and freedom from slavery. Moreover, these activist artists' networks of transatlantic patronage and travels to Europe, the Caribbean, and Africa reveal their extensive involvement in the most pressing concerns for black people in the Atlantic world. Their work demonstrates how images became central to the ways that people developed ideas about race, citizenship, and politics during the nineteenth century.
ISBN: 9781469659954Publication Date: 2020-09-14
Black Cultural Production after Civil Rights by
The post-civil rights era of the 1970s offered African Americans an all-too-familiar paradox. Material and symbolic gains contended with setbacks fueled by resentment and reaction. African American artists responded with black approaches to expression that made history in their own time and continue to exercise an enormous influence on contemporary culture and politics. This collection's fascinating spectrum of topics begins with the literary and cinematic representations of slavery from the 1970s to the present. Other authors delve into visual culture from Blaxploitation to the art of Betye Saar to stage works like A Movie Star Has to Star in Black and White as well as groundbreaking literary works like Corregidora and Captain Blackman. A pair of concluding essays concentrate on institutional change by looking at the Seventies surge of black publishing and by analyzing Ntozake Shange's for colored girls... in the context of current controversies surrounding sexual violence. Throughout, the writers reveal how Seventies black cultural production anchors important contemporary debates in black feminism and other issues while spurring the black imagination to thrive amidst abject social and political conditions.Contributors: Courtney Baker, Soyica Diggs Colbert, Madhu Dubey, Nadine Knight, Monica White Ndounou, Kinohi Nishikawa, Samantha Pinto, Jermaine Singleton, Terrion L. Williamson, and Lisa Woolfork
ISBN: 9780252042775Publication Date: 2019-08-30
Department Stores and the Black Freedom Movement by
In this book, Traci Parker examines the movement to racially integrate white-collar work and consumption in American department stores, and broadens our understanding of historical transformations in African American class and labor formation. Built on the goals, organization, and momentum of earlier struggles for justice, the department store movement channeled the power of store workers and consumers to promote black freedom in the mid-twentieth century. Sponsoring lunch counter sit-ins and protests in the 1950s and 1960s, and challenging discrimination in the courts in the 1970s, this movement ended in the early 1980s with the conclusion of the Sears, Roebuck, and Co. affirmative action cases and the transformation and consolidation of American department stores. In documenting the experiences of African American workers and consumers during this era, Parker highlights the department store as a key site for the inception of a modern black middle class, and demonstrates the ways that both work and consumption were battlegrounds for civil rights.
ISBN: 9781469648668Publication Date: 2019-04-08
The Body Is Not an Apology, Second Edition by
"To build a world that works for everyone, we must first make the radical decision to love every facet of ourselves. . . . 'The body is not an apology' is the mantra we should all embrace." --Kimberlé Crenshaw, legal scholar and founder and Executive Director, African American Policy Forum Humans are a varied and divergent bunch with all manner of beliefs, morals, and bodies. Systems of oppression thrive off our inability to make peace with difference and injure the relationship we have with our own bodies. The Body Is Not an Apology offers radical self-love as the balm to heal the wounds inflicted by these violent systems. World-renowned activist and poet Sonya Renee Taylor invites us to reconnect with the radical origins of our minds and bodies and celebrate our collective, enduring strength. As we awaken to our own indoctrinated body shame, we feel inspired to awaken others and to interrupt the systems that perpetuate body shame and oppression against all bodies. When we act from this truth on a global scale, we usher in the transformative opportunity of radical self-love, which is the opportunity for a more just, equitable, and compassionate world--for us all. This second edition includes stories from Taylor's travels around the world combating body terrorism and shines a light on the path toward liberation guided by love. In a brand new final chapter, she offers specific tools, actions, and resources for confronting racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, and transphobia. And she provides a case study showing how radical self-love not only dismantles shame and self-loathing in us but has the power to dismantle entire systems of injustice. Together with the accompanying workbook, Your Body Is Not an Apology, Taylor brings the practice of radical self-love to life.
ISBN: 9781523091010Publication Date: 2021-02-09
White Freedom by
The racist legacy behind the Western idea of freedom The era of the Enlightenment, which gave rise to our modern conceptions of freedom and democracy, was also the height of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. America, a nation founded on the principle of liberty, is also a nation built on African slavery, Native American genocide, and systematic racial discrimination. White Freedom traces the complex relationship between freedom and race from the eighteenth century to today, revealing how being free has meant being white. Tyler Stovall explores the intertwined histories of racism and freedom in France and the United States, the two leading nations that have claimed liberty as the heart of their national identities. He explores how French and American thinkers defined freedom in racial terms and conceived of liberty as an aspect and privilege of whiteness. He discusses how the Statue of Liberty--a gift from France to the United States and perhaps the most famous symbol of freedom on Earth--promised both freedom and whiteness to European immigrants. Taking readers from the Age of Revolution to today, Stovall challenges the notion that racism is somehow a paradox or contradiction within the democratic tradition, demonstrating how white identity is intrinsic to Western ideas about liberty. Throughout the history of modern Western liberal democracy, freedom has long been white freedom. A major work of scholarship that is certain to draw a wide readership and transform contemporary debates, White Freedom provides vital new perspectives on the inherent racism behind our most cherished beliefs about freedom, liberty, and human rights.
ISBN: 9780691205366Publication Date: 2021-01-19
Veil and Vow by
In Veil and Vow, Aneeka Ayanna Henderson places familiar, often politicized questions about the crisis of African American marriage in conversation with a rich cultural archive that includes fiction by Terry McMillan and Sister Souljah, music by Anita Baker, and films such as The Best Man. Seeking to move beyond simple assessments of marriage as "good" or "bad" for African Americans, Henderson critically examines popular and influential late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century texts alongside legislation such as the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act and the Welfare Reform Act, which masked true sources of inequality with crisis-laden myths about African American family formation. Using an interdisciplinary approach to highlight the influence of law, politics, and culture on marriage representations and practices, Henderson reveals how their kinship veils and unveils the fiction in political policy as well as the complicated political stakes of fictional and cultural texts. Providing a new opportunity to grapple with old questions, including who can be a citizen, a "wife," and "marriageable," Veil and Vow makes clear just how deeply marriage still matters in African American culture.
ISBN: 9781469651750Publication Date: 2020-02-10
Making All Black Lives Matter by
"A powerful -- and personal -- account of the movement and its players."--The Washington Post "This perceptive resource on radical black liberation movements in the 21st century can inform anyone wanting to better understand . . . how to make social change."--Publishers Weekly The breadth and impact of Black Lives Matter in the United States has been extraordinary. Between 2012 and 2016, thousands of people marched, rallied, held vigils, and engaged in direct actions to protest and draw attention to state and vigilante violence against Black people. What began as outrage over the 2012 murder of Trayvon Martin and the exoneration of his killer, and accelerated during the Ferguson uprising of 2014, has evolved into a resurgent Black Freedom Movement, which includes a network of more than fifty organizations working together under the rubric of the Movement for Black Lives coalition. Employing a range of creative tactics and embracing group-centered leadership models, these visionary young organizers, many of them women, and many of them queer, are not only calling for an end to police violence, but demanding racial justice, gender justice, and systemic change. In Making All Black Lives Matter, award-winning historian and longtime activist Barbara Ransby outlines the scope and genealogy of this movement, documenting its roots in Black feminist politics and situating it squarely in a Black radical tradition, one that is anticapitalist, internationalist, and focused on some of the most marginalized members of the Black community. From the perspective of a participant-observer, Ransby maps the movement, profiles many of its lesser-known leaders, measures its impact, outlines its challenges, and looks toward its future.
ISBN: 9780520292703Publication Date: 2018-08-28
100 Amazing Facts about the Negro by ISBN: 9780307908711Publication Date: 2017-10-24The first edition of Joel Augustus Rogers's now legendary 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro with Complete Proof, published in 1934, was billed as "A Negro 'Believe It or Not.'"
I Am Not Your Negro by ISBN: 9780525434696Publication Date: 2017-02-07National Bestseller Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary.
A Black Women's History of the United States by ISBN: 9780807033555Publication Date: 2020-02-04
Subject Headings
Search the UConn Library's General Search for more books and resources on Black History and African Americans. Go the Advance Search option to use this these subject headings (select Subject from the drop down menu) as your keywords to find more books on these subjects.
African Americans -- History
African Americans ---Biography
African Americans -- Study and teaching
United States -- Race relations -- Political aspects
United States -- Race relations -- History
United States -- Civilization -- African American influences
For keyword searches use: african american authors, black history, black power, black americans, Negros, afro-americans, black americans
- Historical African American Newspapers Available OnlineMarist College, Librarian Elizabeth Clarke has created Libguides that list and organize freely available serials.
The content is available for free, though it is at the discretion of the institution providing the content. The newspapers contained within guide are those that have ceased to operate or are currently running papers with archives available.
Selected Films at the UConn Library: (Search the Library's General Search for more titles)
- Black Film ArchiveBlack Film Archive celebrates the rich, abundant history of Black cinema. Black Film Archive lists every* Black film made between 1915 and 1979 that is currently streaming with every description written by founder, Maya S. Cade.
- Alvin Ailey (2022) Documentary: Ailey (LIMITED PBS Streaming available until 2/8/22)a portrait of the legendary choreographer Alvin Ailey.
Photo Info: A painting dedicated to the founders of Black History Month, the Black United Students at Kent State University, by Ernie Pryor. By Kkhemet - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=57035672
- Juneteenth: Faith & Freedom Documentary(YouTube) Uncover the deep spiritual significance of America’s newest federal holiday with pastor Rasool Berry in "Juneteenth: Faith & Freedom," a new documentary film presented by the Our Daily Bread Voices Collection and Our Daily Bread Media.
- The Black Freedom Struggle in the United StatesThe site features over 2,000 curated primary-source documents related to critical people and events in African American history.
- Historical Newspapers editied by Frederick DouglassThe collection is comprised of 568 issues of three weekly newspaper titles dating between 1847 and 1874: The North Star in Rochester, New York, Frederick Douglass' Paper in Rochester, New York, and New National Era in Washington, D.C
- Origins of Black History MonthA history of the month from the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH)
- The 1619 ProjectThis project by the New York Times Magazine in 2019 examines the legacy of slavery in the United States
- Enslaved: Peoples of the Historical Slave Tradean open-source online discovery tool that houses records related to nearly one million enslaved people and their descendants, as well as emancipation activists and enslavers.
- Connecticut History - Black History Month ResourcesSee Reading list - A World Apart: Connecticut's African Americans, 1914-1970
- Connecticut Historical SocietyBlack History Month Archives- Dollie McLean: From the West Indies to the Capital City;The Greater Hartford NAACP: The Next 100 Years;Beyond the Amistad: Black History at CHS
- Connecticut State Library - Resources for studying African American HeritageAfrican American Genealogy
- Rare Images Black History TimeLineAn exclusive peek at photos from Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s compendium, Life Upon These Shores.
- UMBRA Search - African American HistoryFree digital platform that brings together content documenting African American history and culture in order to enable the creation of new works—research projects, scholarship, curricula, art of all kinds—that illuminate parts of our history that have not been enough broadly accessible.
- Beyond Busing: The Boston Public Schools Desegregation Collectiondocuments the experience of politicians, parents, students, community members, and school staff beginning with the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954 through to the Morgan v. Hennigan case in 1974 and the resulting citywide response.
- IU Digital Resource: Land, Wealth, Liberation: The Making & Unmasking of Black Wealth in the United States Indiana University’s Lilly Library has launched a new digital resource collection on March 24, 2022. The digital collection provides an interactive timeline of events that affected the history of Black wealth in the U.S. from 1820 through today. The collection explores how Black Americans have worked to produce and maintain wealth through land ownership as well as an interactive timeline that includes photos, videos and personal testimonies of events.
