Library of Congress
Loc: African American Odyssey: Free Blacks in Antebellum Period
A site that chronicles through documents the accomplishments of African-Americans, both slave and free, from colonial times through the Civil War.
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Gilder Lehrman Institute: History Now: History Now: African Americans in World War Ii
[Free Registration/Login Required] An article about the contributions of African Americans to the war effort during World War II, despite discrimination.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Soldiers: Making of African American Identity: 1500 1865
Photographs of and letters from black soldiers-both enslaved and free-from the late-eighteenth to mid-nineteenth centuries that examine military experience for African Americans.
University of Nebraska
U. Of Nebraska: Railroads and Making of Modern America: Origins of Segregation
Primary source materials that focus on the segregation of African Americans that took place on the railroads in the 1800s. Content includes newspaper articles, anecdotal accounts, letters, legal cases, etc.
Blackdog Media
Classic Reader: "By the Bayou St. John" by Alice Dunbar
This is the full text of the short story "By the Bayou St. John" by Alice Dunbar, an African American poet, journalist and political activist. Among the first generation born free in the South after the Civil War.
Other
Ford's Theatre: Remembering Lincoln
People felt the Lincoln assassination in deeply personal ways. Examine the journal entries and letters from those who were directly affected by his death and worried about the leadership of Andrew Johnson. Included are entries by a free...
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Gilder Lehrman Institute: Post Civil War America
[Free Registration/Login Required] "A variety of materials demonstrates the rise and fall of civil rights for African Americans during the latter half of the nineteenth century, including constitutional amendments, sharecropper...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Culture of the Common Man: R. Allen & D. Walker
National Humanities Center collection of primary source material includes selection by Richard Allen, Confession of John Joyce, 1808, and excerpts from David Walker's Appeal, 1830. With questions for discussion.
CommonLit
Common Lit: "Mother to Son" by Langston Hughes
This is the full text of the poem "Mother to Son" by Langston Hughes. It includes a short bio of Langston Hughes and a focuses for the reader: As you read, take notes on the metaphor and larger message presented in the text. [Free...