EXTRAORDINARY CONTENT
Black Studies Comparison Chart
Key facts, highlights and testimonials reflect the value of this collection.
Download the Comparison ChartFor research and learning on every facet of Black history and culture
Awarded 4 Stars and the 2022 Readers' Choice for Best New Product by The Charleston Advisor
ProQuest’s comprehensive, award-winning Black Studies content available in a single location for deeper, more meaningful research, teaching, and learning. Developed in collaboration with faculty, scholars and librarians, this database combines multi-format primary and secondary sources, like historical Black newspapers, archival documents, government materials, videos, scholarly journals, essays and more. This outstanding content is supplemented with user-friendly features including timelines, topic pages, and collection pages for easier navigation and discovery.
ProQuest Black Studies is positioned to become the database of choice for both students and scholars in African American studies.
MICHAEL RODRIGUEZ, LIBRARY JOURNAL EREVIEW
ProQuest Research Assistant
Harnesses AI’s capabilities and applies them in a responsible, reliable manner as a research companion for students. Powerful features allow users to:
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- Easily craft more effective and targeted searches
- More effectively review, analyze, and interrogate documents
- Quickly evaluate the usefulness of each document for your research
- Receive guidance on next steps including choosing a research topic and understanding key concepts
Customer Resources
Charleston Advisor 4-Star Review
Read why ProQuest Black Studies was awarded the 2022 Readers' Choice for Best New Product
ProQuest Black Studies Brochure
See an overview of the content and features of ProQuest Black Studies
Title List
See all of the content types and resources included in ProQuest Black Studies
Library Journal Review
Read what Library Journal has to say about this groundbreaking research database
Confronting Hard History
Using primary sources to teach about slavery, civil rights and Black Lives Matter
Pathways to New Discoveries
Home Page – Get started
Below the search box, the home page of ProQuest Black Studies identifies the three major content features of the database: Historical Black Newspapers, Primary Source Collections, and Topic pages.
Collection Page – Records of Southern Plantations from Emancipation to the Great Migration
Each collection will have its own page with a description and bibliographic data as well as a display of archival arrangement so researchers can browse just like they would if they were visiting the physical archive.
Topic Pages – Browse
Students just getting started can browse Topic Pages to spark ideas for where to focus their own research. Over time, these pages will span historical organizations and events as well as people.
Topic Page – Daisy Bates
Topic pages on people, organizations, and events help students to get important background information as well as find key primary sources. The product will launch with topic pages on people.
Timeline – Civil Rights and Black Power Movements (1946-1975)
A timeline organized by categories such as “Jim Crow Era,” or “Civil Rights and Black Power Movements,” or “Contemporary Era” will allow students to easily find documents on important historical events.
Benefits
Depth and Detail
Topics pages on people, organizations and events – helping students get important background information.
Contextual Understanding
Timeline organized by key categories, events and people for awareness of context and connections.
Get Precise
Segmented search results by content type such as archival materials, newspapers, periodicals and more.
Ease of Use
Multi-faceted results filtering, browse content lists and quickly download PDFs.
ProQuest Black Studies contains a vast collection of primary and secondary sources found nowhere else, covering a range of disciplines, about Black culture and experience.
Michelle N. Hunt, The Charleston Advisor 4-Star Review
Featured Content
Black Historical Newspapers
The ten newspapers included in ProQuest Black Studies are among the most distinguished African American newspapers in the U.S. Titles include: Atlanta Daily World, Baltimore Afro-American, Chicago Defender, Cleveland Call and Post, Los Angeles Sentinel, Louisville Defender, Michigan Chronicle, New York Amsterdam News, Norfolk Journal and Guide, Philadelphia Tribune, and Pittsburgh Courier.
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NAACP Papers
The archival collections in ProQuest Black Studies are highlighted by the NAACP Papers, which have been called the most important collection for research on the Black Freedom Movement in the 20th Century.
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Civil Rights Organizational Papers
Alongside the NAACP Papers, ProQuest Black Studies will also include records of three of the most important civil rights organization of the 1950s and 1960s: Congress of Racial Equality; Southern Christian Leadership Conference; Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
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Black Abolitionist Papers
This primary source collection details the extensive work of African Americans to abolish slavery in the United States prior to the Civil War. Covering the period 1830-1865, the collection presents the international impact of African American activism against slavery, in the writings of the activists themselves.
Learn MoreThese are the sources I would come back to again and again, and where I would send my students, to find what's not available anywhere else: the primary source collections and the newspapers.
Hasan Kwame Jeffries, Assistant Professor of History, The Ohio State University
Case Studies
Unearthing a Hidden History
How historian Evan Faulkenbury used primary source documents to uncover the little-known Voter Education Project for his book.
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Teaching with Primary Sources
Why one professor assigns civil rights content from History Vault to his undergraduate seminar students – and the profound impact on their learning experience.
Read MoreExtraordinary range of content
10M
Pages
8M+
Records
120
Primary Source Collections
1650-2020
Years of Coverage
An essential acquisition for libraries serving scholars in civil and human rights American history, criminal justice, social choice and political theory, military history, and sociology. A tremendously significant historical resource.
Cheryl LaGuardia, Library Journal review of NAACP Papers
Resource Guides
The Civil Rights Movement
Descriptions of recommended books and primary source content to help novice researchers get acquainted with writing about civil rights history.
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Black Women and Civil Engagement
Discover different avenues for research and learning about women’s critical involvement in civic activity from Reconstruction through the Jim Crow era.
Read MoreThis is a remarkable resource. … It will be of great value to academic researchers and all readers who are motivated to analyze primary documents in their quest to uncover the attitudes and actions of African American organizers as well as those of officials in power.
T. M. Hughes, Choice Review of Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century
Essays
African American Police League
Howard Saffold, founding member of an organization dedicated to fighting racial abuse and discrimination in the Chicago Police Department, shares his experiences.
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FBI Files Enable Balanced Research
Professor Joe Street explains how documents from History Vault have informed deeper insights about the controversial Black Panther Party and his book on the organization’s history.
Read More[These materials] provide students and their instructors with abundant resources on a wide range of subjects that allows them to concentrate on learning the historian’s craft through independent research.
Eric Arnesen, Professor of History, George Washington University
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