Research Guides: African American Studies: Primary Sources

Primary Sources

How to Identify Primary Sources

There are two main types of sources that scholars use to conduct research, primary and secondary. The University of New South Wales at Sydney gives these helpful definitions:

Primary sources provide a first-hand account of an event or time period and are considered to be authoritative. They represent original thinking, reports on discoveries or events, or they can share new information. Often these sources are created at the time the events occurred but they can also include sources that are created later. They are usually the first formal appearance of original research.

Secondary sources involve analysis, synthesis, interpretation, or evaluation of primary sources. They often attempt to describe or explain primary sources.

Scholarly journals, although generally considered to be secondary sources, often contain articles on very specific subjects and may be the primary source of information on new developments.

Primary and secondary categories are often not fixed and depend on the study or research you are undertaking. For example, newspaper editorial/opinion pieces can be both primary and secondary. If exploring how an event affected people at a certain time, this type of source would be considered a primary source. If exploring the event, then the opinion piece would be responding to the event and therefore is considered to be a secondary source.

There's more information and examples of the different types of sources on the UNSW library site. To learn more, we encourage you to check out these other online resources:

Primary vs. Secondary Sources from the American University library site
Conducting Primary Research from Purdue OWL

Special Collections on African American Studies

For even more primary resources on African Americans, please visit the UMD Special Collections website.

African American Heritage at the National Archives The Archives holds a wealth of material documenting the African American experience, and highlights these resources online, in programs, and through traditional and social media.
Chronicling America "Chronicling America is a Website providing access to information about historic newspapers and select digitized newspaper pages, and is produced by the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP). NDNP, a partnership between the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Library of Congress (LC), is a long-term effort to develop an Internet-based, searchable database of U.S. newspapers with descriptive information and select digitization of historic pages."
National Archives' Guide to Black History: History
Race & Place Archived materials relating to life in Jim Crow era Charlottesville, VA.
We Were Prepared for the Possibility of Death FBI reports documenting the 1961 attempt, organized by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), to enforce court and administrative rulings integrating interstate public transportation. Interracial groups of civil rights activists planned to ride buses from Washington, D.C. to New Orleans, but they met with a great deal of violence.

Colonial America Digitized records of the Board of Trade, the Secretary of State for the Southern Department, and the Secretary of State for the Colonies, who together were responsible for administering British colonies in mainland North America and the Caribbean, covering the period from the 1660s to the 1780s, with some earlier and later material. Records include letters, charters and commissions, orders to officials, court records, maps and building plans, printed pamphlets and newspapers, acts of colonial assemblies, military reports, and shipping lists, among others. They document many aspects of colonial life, including the development of colonial institutions, education, economic and industrial development, relations with Native Americans, warfare, religion, slavery, immigration, and many others.
Understanding Hate in America: White Nationalism and the Press in the 1920s Collection of Klan and other white nationalist newspapers alongside Newspapers published by Catholic, African-American and Jewish organizations to counter the narrative of hate and bigotry. The collection contains national Klan publications as well as regional and local Klan produced papers.The collection will also include a set of papers sympathetic to the Klan alongside anti-Klan publications.
Early American Imprints, Series I (1639-1800) This digital collection contains virtually every books, pamphlet and broadside published in America over a 160-year period. American History. Contains books, pamphlets, games, periodicals, etc. 17th and 18th Century
Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker 1801-1819 Based on the noted American Bibliography, 1801-1819, provides a comprehensive set of American books, pamphlets and broadsides published in the early part of the 19th century.

Library of Congress Digital Collections - African American History The Library of Congress has multiple digital collections related to African American History. These collections include many primary resources.
Booker T. Washington papers, 1853-1946 [Revised Finding Aid] African-American leader, educator, and author. Correspondence, memoranda, book drafts and notes, articles, speeches, reports, minutes, financial papers, scrapbooks, and other papers relating chiefly to the early history and administration of Tuskegee Institute, Tuskegee, Ala., founded by Booker T. Washington in 1881, as well as to the National Negro Business League which he organized in 1900.
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights records, 1922-1991 [Revised Finding Aid] The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, a national association of civil rights organizations, was founded 1949-1950 by Roy Wilkins (chairman), A. Philip Randolph, and Arnold Aronson. The records include correspondence, memoranda, minutes, notes of meetings, position papers, reports, financial records, congressional testimony, clippings, printed material, and other records documenting efforts.
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People records, 1842-1999 [Revised Finding Aid] Civil rights organization. Records of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, consisting of correspondence, memoranda, minutes, reports, itineraries, biographical material, speeches, testimony, writings, annual convention files, legal case files, legislation, publications, resolutions, policy statements, constitutions, bylaws, charters, contracts, proposals, scripts,...
Faith Berry papers, 1963-1984 [Revised Finding Aid] Author and editor. Correspondence, memoranda, minutes, speeches, writings, book reviews, reports, radio and television transcripts, research materials, press releases, clippings, printed materials, posters, photographs, and other papers pertaining to Berry's research on the life and literary career of poet Langston Hughes and to her work on behalf of civil rights and women

Discussions on Desegregation Interviewees discuss the events leading to desegregation in Virginia. Quicktime needed to watch videos. Transcripts also available.
Harvard University African American Women Guide
Black Women Oral History Project (Harvard, 1976-81)
Voices from the Days of Slavery Audio recordings from the Library of Congress