HIST 3322/ 4333/ 5386: African American Civil Rights Movement

Get started researching topics in the history of the African American Civil Rights Movement.

Librarian

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Kristina Claunch
Contact:
936-294-1520
kclaunch@shsu.edu
Library (NGL) Room 223G

Help with Primary Sources

How to Understand and Find Primary Sources

 

What Did They Call...?

Language changes constantly over time. For example, African American is common today, but historically people have used Afro-American, black, colored, Negro, African, slave, etc. How do you know what word historical people used for an idea?

Search the Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary (or find it in the library in the 2nd floor Reference section, call number PE1591 .H55 2009, volumes 1-2). 

OED Online
Historical Thesaurus
 
  

Historical Document Collections

Historical Newspapers & Periodicals

Video: How to Search America's Historical Newspapers

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Video: Using Dates to Search History Databases

Many primary source databases cover a long period of history, so you can really improve your searching by knowing how to search only the dates you need.

Click the icon in the bottom right corner of the video player to view it in full screen!

Find More Printed Primary Sources

To find more primary sources in the Library's book collection, try these search strategies on the catalog's Advanced Search page:

1. Enter some words to describe your topic in the keyword row. In the subject row, enter the word "sources".

2. Enter some words to describe your topic in the keyword row. In the subject row, enter a word such as "correspondence", "diaries", or "personal narratives".

3. Enter some words to describe your topic in the keyword row. In the next row, change the first box to also say keyword, and enter the phrase "documents OR documentary" in that second search box.

4. For primary sources written by a certain person, click Browse on the right side of the search page. Enter the person's name backwards, like "Washington George" and click subject. In the list of subject headings that appear, look for headings that end with words such as "correspondence", "diaries", "notebooks sketchbooks etc.", "manuscripts", or "oratory."

Video: Finding Primary Sources in the Catalog

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Printed Collections

Often a variety of primary documents are collected together into a book (usually related to a time period, topic, or theme).

Below are just a few collections in the Library; each book contains many original documents (note: many of these books will contain both primary and secondary content, so use your judgement or ask a librarian for help in distinguishing the two).

Search the library catalog for more sources . . .

 

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Archives, 1950-1990
 

Other Printed Collections

 

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