Websites for African American History

The Walnut Hills High School library has a a rich collection of books about African American history and culture. Check these first! We also have many books by African American authors. There are many websites on African American History as well. The following are a few of the best.

General Information
Biographical Information
Historical Information
Slavery
Underground Railroad
Amistad
Military
 
 
General Information

Encyclopedia Britannica- A good general online enyclopedia with articles on all aspects of African American culture. You will have to choose this off the InfOhio menu; A username and password to access the INFOhio Electronic Resources is available from the school library media center. Due to regulations from INFOHIO, we can no longer provide this to you online.

African American History and Culture- An online database of African American history and culture, with links to biographies, articles, recommended websites, historical documents, and more. From home: user ID: walnut passwords: hills.

African American Almanac
http://www.toptags.com/aama/
Biographies, historical documents and events, folk tales, trivia games, and speeches and commentary by and about the African American experience.

Newbank
http://infoweb.newsbank.com- An excellent source of up-to-date information on current people and events in the African American community. Also, during gJanuary and February each year, Newsbank has a special focus on African American history and culture. Password needed.
 
SIRS Discoverer
http://www.infohio.org- Another excellent source of up-to-date information on peopel and events; click on the "Spotlight of the Month" during February for special articles on African American history and culture.ou will have to choose this off the InfOhio menu; password and user name from home are hcca, then hcca513.

 

Biographical Information

American National Biography- Biographies of famous Americans, including African Americans. This link will take you to the main Infohio Home page; click on American National BIography from this menu to get in. Note: You must be dead to be included in this database.

Student Resource Center- Biographies of many famous people, living and dead, with links to magazine and newspaper articles about them.

Historical Information

African-American Odyssey
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aointro.html
This on-line exhibition, compiled by the Library of Congress, uses vintage maps, government documents, book covers, sheet music, and other items to chart the course of African-American history from slavery through the civil rights movement. The items are divided into nine timeperiods, and captions and introductory essays put the images in historical context.

Digital Schomburg Images of 19th Century African Americans
http://149.123.1.8/cgi-shl/vsc30b.exe/schomburg/images_aa19/toc.html?E+nyplbeta
In this on-line exhibit, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture presents hundreds of engravings and photographs of African Americans in the nineteenth century. These images are organized by subject, such as the Civil War, family, religion, and slavery.

The African-American Journey
http://www.worldbook.com/fun/aajourny/html/
This site presents an overview of African-American history through short historical and
biographical articles taken from the World Book Encyclopedia. Look under "Archived Features" and click on African American History.

The African-American Mosaic
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/intro.html
"A Library of Congress resource guide for the study of black history and culture."

Black History
http://blackhistory.eb.com/
FromEncyclopedia Britannica, this site highlights famous African American people and events in the fields of art, education, literature, politics, science and sports.

From Jim Crow to Linda Brown
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/lesson97/crow/student.html
A retrospective of the African American Experience from 1897 to 1953.

Slavery

Africans in America
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/home.html
The on-line counterpart to the PBS television series Africans in America, this exhibit provides anin-depth look at slavery in the U.S. through interviews with contemporary historians; short biographical and historical essays; and paintings, advertisements, and other images.

Excerpts from Slave Narratives
http://vi.uh.edu/pages/mintz/primary.htm
Here the University of Houston's history department offers excerpts from slave narratives.

American Slave Narratives: An Online Anthology
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/wpa/wpahome.html
This site features the text of thirteen interviews with former slaves that were conducted by theWorks Progress Administration in the late 1930s.

Aboard a Slave Ship, 1829
http://www.ibiscom.com/slaveship.htm
Read about what Reverend Robert Walsh observed on a slave ship off the African coast in 1829.

.History of the Missouri Compromise
http://www.toptags.com/aama/events/mcomp.htm
This site provides a summary of the act and how it affected slaves and freemen.

Underground Railroad

The Underground Railroad
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/features/99/railroad/j1.html
From National Geographic, take this virtual journey along the Underground Railroad as if you were a slave choosing to run for freedom. NOTE:This site may load very SLOWLY depending on your computer.

Aboard the Underground Railroad
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/underground
 
History Channel Underground Railroad
http://www.historychannel.com/exhibits/undergroundrr/
 
Kentucky's Underground Railroad
http://www.ket.org/underground/
 
On the Underground Railroad
http://www.ushistory.com/railr.htm

Amistad

The Amistad Case
http://www.nara.gov/education/teaching/amistad/home.html
This interactive exhibit by the National Archives and Records Administration tells the story of theslave ship Amistad. It contains key documents from the 1841 landmark court case.

The Amistad Supreme Court Decision
http://caselaw.findlaw.com/amistad.html
Full text of the decision is available online as well as an initial summary of the decision.

Military

The Buffalo Soldiers on the Western Frontier
http://www.imh.org/imh/buf/buftoc.html
This exhibit, designed by the International Museum of the Horse, explains the history of the
Buffalo Soldier calvary units through vintage photographs and illustrations.

Integration of the Armed Forces, 1940-1965
http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/integration/IAF-FM.htm
Here the Center of Military History presents the full text of Integration of the Armed Forces, 1940-1965, a book written for the center by Morris J. MacGregor Jr. As he writes in his foreword, MacGregor covers "the fall of the legal, administrative, and social barriers to the black American's full participation in the military service of his country."

The United States Colored Troops in the Civil War
http://www.coax.net/people/lwf/data.htm
Review the history of regiments and the African American men who fought in the Civil War.