W. E. B. Dubois: A Digital Archive

African American History Month, and especially the last week in February, are especially appropriate times to celebrate the wonderful digital archive capturing the works of W. E. B. Dubois--author, scholar, educator, magazine editor, activist, international spokesman and founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Dubois was born in western Massachusetts on February 23, 1868.

The Papers of W. E. B. Dubois was the first archive collection digitized for Credo, the online repository at the University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries' Department of Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA).  In fact, Credo, the repository, is named in recognition of Dubois's Credo, a statement of his philosophy of pride, peace, liberty, education, and patience in achieving equality. The over 100,000 items in the Papers, from letters and speeches to novels, plays, and photographs, are available for browsing, searching, and exploring the life of this Renaissance man and prominent civil rights pioneer.   

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

New Study Reveals Data on Lynching

The extra-judicial practice of lynching in the late 19th and early 20th centuries is a subject of interest to many students of legal history and civil rights. But compiling the hard statistical data, the victims and the when and where of the lynchings that took place in the United States, as well as the context of these events, has been a major challenge and an ongoing effort of historians and other scholars. Today, a New York Times article described a brand new report, "Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror," produced by the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit organization based in Montgomery, Alabama, after five years of research.  The Report Summary is available here, and the full report is available upon request from the organization.

As the article explains, "efforts to count the number of lynchings in the country go back at least to 1882, when the The Chicago Tribune began publishing each January a list of all executions and lynching in the previous year." In 1995, sociology professors Stewart Tolnay and E. M. Beck compiled what may be the most accurate inventory to that time, based on previously published lists.  The book based on their inventory, A Festival of Violence: An Analysis of Southern Lynchings, 1882-1930, is available at Axinn Library. Both the new report and the books and articles by Tolnay and Beck are important resources for research on this topic.      

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

The African American Electorate: A Statistical History

Hofstra Law students have full access to this unique and rich database of materials covering every era in the history of African-American voters, from the Colonial period through 2008, with charts and graphs to enhance the story.  Chapters on each historical period include supporting statistical data from both the North and South on registration, voter turnout, and electoral impact in addition to suffrage, enfranchisement and disenfranchisement, poll taxes, voting rights activism and the Voting Rights Act.  A wonderful resource for legal, political, and cultural history, the African American Electorate: A Statistical History is part of the CQ Press Electronic Library created by Congressional Quarterly, Inc.  It is available to all Hofstra students through the University portal.

To access this Axinn Library database from the Hofstra University website, start here.  Click on the "Research Databases" tab, then on "click here to browse the full A-Z list."  At the Hofstra portal login page, use your network login to proceed.  Then select "CQ The African American Electorate: A Statistical History" from the alphabetical list under "C".       

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

A Different Civil Rights Archive

The April anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., is a good time to mention a recent, unique addition to digital archives of the American civil rights movement. The Civil Rights Struggle, African-American GI's, and Germany brings together films, oral history videos, photos, and other materials that document the experiences of the 2-3 million African-American soldiers and civilian employees who lived in Germany between 1945 and the end of the Cold War. This fascinating archive is a collaborative project of German Historical Institute, Heidelberg Center for American Studies at the University of Heidelberg, and Vassar College. Take a look and expand your understanding of the civil rights story to encompass the role played by the largest group of African-American soldiers stationed outside the country at a time of great social change, and the impact of the American civil rights movement on the wider world community.


Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

The International Civil Rights Center and Museum

The New York Times has an informative article on the International Civil Rights Center and Museum in Greensboro, North Carolina. The museum opened on February 1, 2010 and is housed in the former Woolworth's building where the original Greensboro lunch counter sit-ins took place. The museum is an archival center and teaching facility dedicated to civil and human rights. Its website has some great information including a time-line of of the Greensboro sit-ins and a biographical page detailing the people who participated in the first lunch counter sit-in.



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

The Civil Rights Digital Library

The Civil Rights Digital Library is a wonderful source of information on the civil rights movement. In addition to offering an archive of historical news footage, the web site acts as a portal to related civil rights digital collections. You can browse the site by event, persons, places and topics.

I looked for information on the Montgomery Bus Boycott and found film footage, audio files, historical newspaper articles, and a number of photographs.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat