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AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY PATHFINDER

 Scope: KnowItNow callers often seek biographical information and other material concerning significant events associated with African American History. 

 Library of Congress (LC) Subject Headings:

  • Africa—Civilization—African American influences
  • African American History
  • African Americans
  • Africans—United States
  • Antislavery Movements (Abolition)
  • Blacks
  • Blacks—United States
  • Civil rights movement
  • Freedmen
  • Slavery
  • Soldiers, Black
  • Underground Railroad
  • United States—Civilization—African American influences
  • United States--Civil War

Library Catalog Call Numbers:

             LC

  • Africa—Civilization—African American influences DT14
  • African American History E185.86
  • African Americans (General) E185
  • Africans—United States E185.615
  • Underground Railroad E450
  • Slavery E447
  • United States—Civil War E470

            Dewey

  • History-United States (General) 973-978
  • Slavery 305.896
  • Underground Railroad 973.7
  • United States—Civil War 973.7

Keywords:  The following sample terms are intended for use in library catalogs and online searching.

  Abolition- abolitionists, abolitionism, emancipation, liberation, rescue, freedman, freedmen, Quakers, Society of Friends

 African Americans- African-Americans, Negroes, Black, colored,

 Slavery- bondage, captivity, enslavement, forced labor/labour, human trafficking (modern),

 Soldiers, Black- African American units, Black regiments/units, Buffalo Soldiers, Negro/colored regiments, Tuskegee Airmen,

Suggested Google Search Strings:

             The following are some samples of search strings which can be used in connection with history inquiries: 

             Site: .edu, .gov

             The suffixes above may be used with the search strings below to designate a particular type of site.

  •     A history of
  •     How did
  •     Military history of African Americans
  •     What happened at
  •     What is a
  •     When was the
  •     Where was
  •     Who was
  •     Why did
  •     Name + biography, For example “Frederick Douglass” + biography

ClevelandPublic Library (CPL) Databases: These resources are only available to Cleveland Public Library operators and callers. 

 American Slavery: A Composite Autobiography:  This database contains a compilation of over 2,000 slave narratives resulting from interviews conducted between 1936 and 1938 under the Federal Writer’s Project of the Works Progress Administration. 

 Call and Post: This database allows for full text searching of all issues of this longtime Cleveland African American newspaper dating from 1932 to 1991.  (An index to issues from 1992 to 2004 and full text for issues from 2005 to present is available in the Ethnic Newswatch database.)

ClevnetDatabases: These resources are available only to CLEVNET operators and callers.  

BiographyResource Center: African Americans:  Compilation of biographies from print sources including Contemporary Black Biography, Notable Black American Men, as well as other text sources including books and magazines. 

Free Online Sources:

Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writer’s Project, 1936-1938: http://bit.ly/hzhvX6 A smaller collection of slave narratives, organized in alphabetical order for the narrator’s names, which are posted as part of the Library of Congress’s Memory Project. 

 Encyclopedia Brittanica’s Guide to Black History: http://search.eb.com/blackhistory This is a very good site for upper elementary/middle school-aged callers. It includes a timeline of African American history dating from the second century and multiple biographies of prominent individuals both

 In Motion: The African American Migration Experience: http://bit.ly/eLhDtv This site provides thousands of texts and illustrations concerning 13 migrations that defined African American history.  Also included are 60 maps. 

 OhioWeb Library:  http://www.ohioweblibrary.org The following sources are available to all Ohio residents and can be “pushed” through SparkRef by KIN24x7 librarians using the KIN24x7 OPLIN interface (see Database Access Information) provided the caller types in his/her ZIP code.

 Biographies Plus Illustrated database. Works best if searched by subject. For example, “Washington, George.”

 Worldbook Advanced database.  Good for general information about historic figures and events.

 Books: The following resources are valuable for those libraries which possess them. 

 Lehman, Jeffrey. The African American almanac. Detroit: Gale Research, 1994-. LC: E185 .A37x; Dewey: 305 12

 Cowan, T. & Maguire, J. Timelines of African American history.  New York: Berkeley Publishing Group, 1994. LC: E185 .C86 1994; Dewey: 973/.049673 20. 

 Journals:  These journals are good sources of information for those locations which possess them in hard copy or electronic form.

Journal of African American History- Articles available through several databases including Academic Search Premier and JStor.