LibGuides: Pan African Studies : Primary Sources

Primary Sources

Primary sources are first-hand evidence related to the time or event you are investigating. This includes accounts by participants or observers and a wide range of written, physical, audio or visual materials created at the time or later by someone with direct experience.

In the sciences and social sciences, primary sources or 'primary research' are original research experiments, studies, or observations written about by the researchers themselves.

Primary Sources by Subject

Discipline	Primary Source Examples	Secondary Source Examples
History	Letters Photographs Diaries	History books Journal Articles Documentaries
Art & Literature	Novels Paintings Poems	Art criticism article Literature criticism article Art history textbook
Communications & Journalism	Speeches Investigative Journalism Newspapers & magazines	Journal articles on communication theories Book on Journalism practices Public speaking manual
Political Science	Laws Court documents Public opinion surveys	Article by a legal scholar American government textbook Encyclopedia of political theory
Science & Social Science	Research studies Lab tests Mental Health surveys	Reviews of other studies Systematic reviews Textbooks

Primary Source Databases

Black Abolitionist Papers This link opens in a new window
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This primary source collection details the 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 massive, international impact of African American activism against slavery, in the writings and publications of the activists themselves.
Black Drama, Third Edition This link opens in a new window
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Black Drama contains the full text of more than 1,700 plays written from the mid-1800s to the present by more than 200 playwrights from North America, English-speaking Africa, the Caribbean, and other African diaspora countries. More than 40 percent of the collection consists of previously unpublished plays.
Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century: Organizational Records and Personal Papers, Part 1 This link opens in a new window
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The Organizational Records and Personal Papers bring a new perspective to the Black Freedom Struggle via the records of major civil rights organizations and personal papers of leaders and observers of the 20th century Black freedom struggle.
Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century: Organizational Records and Personal Papers, Part 2 This link opens in a new window
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This newest Black Freedom module includes the records of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Africa-related papers of Claude Barnett, and the Robert F. Williams Papers. SNCC, formed by student activists in 1960 after the explosion of the sit-in movement, was one of the three most important civil rights organizations of the 1960s, alongside SCLC and the NAACP.
With the addition of SNCC records, History Vault now includes SNCC, SCLC, and NAACP records. Rounding out this module are the papers of Chicago Congressman Arthur W. Mitchell, the Chicago chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality, and records pertaining to the Mississippi Freedom Summer.
African American Police League Records (1961-1988) This link opens in a new window
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The collection Module 48 documents how African American policemen in Chicago, beginning in 1968, attempted to fight against discrimination and police brutality by the Chicago Police Department and to improve relations between African Americans and police.
20th Century African American Poetry This link opens in a new window
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Features almost 9,000 poems by 62 of the most important African American poets of the last century, including Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer, Imamu Amiri Baraka, Audre Lorde and Rita Dove.
African American Poetry This link opens in a new window
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Contains the early history of African American poetry, from the first recorded poem by an African American (Lucy Terry's 'Bars Fights', c.1746) to the major poets of the nineteenth century, including Paul Laurence Dunbar and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper.
NAACP Papers: The NAACP's Major Campaigns - Scottsboro, Anti-Lynching, Criminal Justice, Peonage, Labor and Segregation and Discrimination Complaints and Responses This link opens in a new window
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This NAACP module focuses on the NAACP’s efforts regarding anti-lynching, peonage, and discrimination in employment and the criminal justice system. In this module is the NAACP file on the case of the Scottsboro boys. In this case, nine young black men were accused of raping two white women on a train in northern Alabama.

Websites for Primary Sources

A Voice: African American Voices in Congress
Exhibits, primary sources and teaching resources related to African American members of the United States Congress.
Civil Rights Digital Library
materials from libraries, archives, museums, public broadcasters, and others on a national scale. The CRDL features a collection of unedited news film from the WSB (Atlanta) and WALB (Albany, Ga.) television archives held by the Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia Libraries.
Colored Conventions
Research, primary sources, exhibits, and teaching resources surrounding the 'Colored Conventions' where already free and once captive Black people came together in state and national political meetings from 1830 until the 1890s.
Digital Schomburg
From the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the site includes exhibitions, books, articles, photographs, prints, audio and video streams, and selected external links for research in the history and cultures of the peoples of Africa and the African Diaspora.
Umbra
Digitized African American history resources. Includes 724,971 items from more than 1000 U.S. archives, libraries, and museums.

Online Archive of California (OAC)
Free public access to searchable collection guides (also known as finding aids) for primary resource collections in repositories maintained by more than 200 institutions throughout California, including many digitized collections.
Calisphere
Calisphere provides free access to unique and historically important artifacts for research, teaching, and curious exploration. Discover over 750,000 photographs, documents, letters, artwork, diaries, oral histories, films, advertisements, musical recordings, and more.
Los Angeles Public Library Images
The Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection emphasizes the history of Los Angeles, Southern California, and California. This Internet-accessible collection is one of the treasures of the Central Library.
Los Angles Public Library Visual Collections
The LA Public Library visual collections include both local history collections and other historical collections. Includes maps, images, drawings, posters, menus, and other types of ephemera.
The Lawrence de Graaf Center for Oral and Public History
Established in 1968, the Lawrence de Graaf Center for Oral and Public History is a teaching, training, research, publication, and public service archive located at CSU Fullerton's Pollak Library. It contains more than 5,500 oral histories covering a wide range of people and topics from California and beyond.

Civil Rights Digital Library
materials from libraries, archives, museums, public broadcasters, and others on a national scale. The CRDL features a collection of unedited news film from the WSB (Atlanta) and WALB (Albany, Ga.) television archives held by the Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia Libraries.
Digital Public Library of America
A vast project that works with many cultural heritage institutions to bring together the riches of America’s libraries, archives, and museums, freely available to the world. It strives to contain the full breadth of human expression, from the written word, to works of art and culture, to records of America’s heritage, to the efforts and data of science. The portal provides innovative ways to search and scan through the united collection of millions of items, including by timeline, map, virtual bookshelf, format, subject, and partner.
Documenting the American South
Primary resources for the study of Southern history, literature and culture through the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
The Internet Archive
A nonprofit digital library of public domain material, including the Way Back Machine.
Library of Congress American Memory Project
Written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience.
The National Archives
Search by topic, time period, or place. Useful research guides available to help you.
New York Public Library Digital Collections
NYPL Digital Gallery provides free and open access to over 800,000 images digitized from the New York Public Library's collection.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
Prints & Photographs Division staff have selected sets of images on frequently requested topics, focusing on images for which there are no known restrictions.

Archives of Sexuality and Gender: LGBTQ History and Culture since 1940 This link opens in a new window
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Archives of Sexuality & Gender: LGBTQ History and Culture since 1940 covers topics including LGBTQ activism and the HIV/AIDS crisis. It provides researchers with the documents about the Gay Rights Movement with resources.
Repositories for this collection include: Lesbian Herstory Educational Foundation; Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives; Women's Energy Bank; GLBT Historical Society; National Library of Medicine; among other archives.For a detailed title list, please check the Archives title list.
Women's Studies Archive: Women's Issue and Identities This link opens in a new window
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This database focuses on the 19th and 20th centuries, Women's Issues and Identities provides a history of the social, political, and professional aspects of women's lives and offers a look at the roles, experiences, and achievements of women in society.
Through a variety of documents such as diaries, letters, photographs, news clippings, organizational records, and journals, it presents a record of the issues that have affected women, societal contributions, social status, and women's movements. The Archive material list provides details about materials included.

Digital Library of the Caribean
Digitized versions of Caribbean cultural, historical and research materials currently held in archives, libraries, and private collections.
World Digital Library
Search 16,561 items about 193 countries between 8000 BCE and 2000.
Trans-Atlantic Slave Voyages
The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database has information on almost 36,000 slaving voyages that forcibly embarked over 10 million Africans for transport to the Americas between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. Covers Africa, Europe, North America, the Caribbean, and Brazil.
Latin American Network Information Center: Digital Initiatives
Through partnerships with organizations in Latin America and globally, LANIC's mission is to facilitate access to online information on, from, or about Latin America. To this end, LANIC hosts an extensive set of digital collections covering many different topics and content areas.

Primary Sources at CSULA

Archives & Special Collections
Special Collections & Archives supports the discovery, learning and engagement goals of the University by identifying, acquiring, perserving, and providing access to primary research materials of enduring value in support of the academic mission of the university, the educational and research needs of the Cal State LA academic community, scholars, and the research community at large.
CSULA Digital Repository
Welcome to the CSULA Digital Repository, a digital collection provided by the CSULA University Library. This digital archive collects and provides access to the research and resources for students, faculty, and staff of the CSULA community.
Night Times (CSULA student evening newspaper 1954-1961)
Armed with the GI bill, returning veterans from the Korean conflict flooded into Los Angeles State College. As is common today, many of these students attended classes in the evening while working a full-time job during the day. To introduce evening students to their classmates, activities and college life, L.A. State College began publishing an evening newspaper called Night Times.

Primary Sources in Books

Primary sources such as autobiographies, diaries, letters, photographs, and other documents are often reprinted in books. Search the library with OneSearch and combine your topic with descriptions like these.

Below are examples of books containing primary sources that can be found in the CSULA Library.

The American Slave by George P. Rawick
Call Number: Level 2 North E441 .A58
ISBN: 9780837133140
Publication Date: 1972-10-20
From 1936 to 1938, over 2,300 former slaves from across the American South were interviewed by writers and journalists under the aegis of the Works Progress Administration.
Angela Davis by Angela Davis
Call Number: Level 2 North E185.97.D23 A32
ISBN: 9780717806676
Publication Date: 1988-12-01
Her own powerful story to 1972, told with warmth, brilliance, humor and conviction, with a 1988 Introduction by the author.
Black Panthers Speak by Philip S. Foner
Call Number: Level 2 North E185.615 .B547 2002
ISBN: 9780306812019
Publication Date: 2002-08-07
For over three decades, The Black Panthers Speak has represented the most important single source of original material on the Black Panther Party. With cartoons, flyers, and articles by Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale, and Eldridge Cleaver, this collection endures as an essential part of civil-rights history.
The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers, 1826-1919 by Marcus M. Garvey; Robert A. Hill (Editor); Tevvy Ball (Contribution by); Barbara Blair (Contribution by); Erika A. Blum (Contribution by)
Call Number: Level 2 North E185.97.G3 M36 1983
ISBN: 9780520044562
Publication Date: 1983-11-04
This is the first volume in a monumental ten-volume survey of thirty thousand archival documents and original manuscripts from widely separated sources, brought together by editor Robert A. Hill to provide a compelling picture of the evolution, spread, and influence of the UNIA. Letters, pamphlets, vital records, intelligence reports, newspaper articles, speeches, legal records, and diplomatic dispatches are enhanced by Hill's descriptive source notes, explanatory footnotes, and comprehensive introduction.

University Library

Pan African Studies