Research Guides: Civil Rights in the United States: Primary Sources

Civil Rights Movement

(Also see Africana Studies Primary Sources)

History Vault: Civil Rights and the Black Freedom Struggle This link opens in a new window
Manuscript and archival collections focusing on civil rights and the Black Freedom Movement of the 20th Century. Contains records of four of the most important civil rights organizations of the 1950s and 1960s: NAACP, SCLC, SNCC, and CORE.
Black Life in America This link opens in a new window
The experience and impact of African Americans, as recorded by the news media.

The Black Panther (Newspaper)
The newspaper of the Black Panther Party. Twenty issues of the Black Panther Party newspaper from between 1968-1973. The papers are posted on Libcom.org.
Civil Rights (National Archives)
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Library of Congress)
Exhibition commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the history that led up to it, and its immediate impact.
Civil Rights Digital Library: Topics (Digital Library of Georgia)
Select a topic to see archival collections and reference resources, many of which are available online.
Civil Rights History Project (Library of Congress)
Oral interviews and collections of people who participated in the Civil Rights movement.
FBI Records: The Vault - Civil Rights
FBI records included in the FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) Library.
Freedom Summer Collection (Wisconsin Historical Society)
Manuscript collections documents the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project of 1964

Hispanic Life in America This link opens in a new window
The experience and impact of Hispanic Americans, as recorded by the news media.

Historical Publications of the United States Commission on Civil Rights
Documents from this commission, which have been at the forefront of federal and state efforts for civil rights.
Jim Crow and Segregation (Library of Congress)
Set of primary sources that reflects popular views of and causes and affects of racial segregation.
The Krueger-Scott Oral History Project
The Krueger-Scott oral histories is the largest collection of oral history interviews conducted with African-American residents of Newark who came to the city during the Great Migration, as well as those whose local roots stretch back generations. The faculty, staff and graduate students at Rutgers University-Newark who have worked on the collection in collaboration with local cultural institutions are proud to have helped preserve, archive, and make public these remarkable oral narratives that describe an as yet unwritten history of 20th-century African-American life. (source: website)
Land of (Unequal) Opportunity: Documenting the Civil Rights Struggle in Arkansas
From the University of Arkansas
The NAACP: A Century in the Fight for Freedom
The story of America's oldest and largest civil rights organization, told through letters, photographs, maps, and more. Part of the Library of Congress Primary Source sets.
National Archives Civil Rights Records
National Museum of African American History & Culture: Collections (Smithsonian)
The National Museum of African American History and Culture is the only national museum devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life, history, and culture.
Voices of Civil Rights (Library of Congress)
Exhibition that includes personal accounts and oral hstories. A collaboration of AARP, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, and the Library of Congress.
Seminal Documents of the Civil Rights Movement

Government Materials Related to The Civil RIghts Era

Civil Rights Data Collection

From the U.S. Department of Education

Illustrates that Civil Rights is not a historical phenomenon but an ongoing issue in the United States.

Library of Congress: Civil Rights Resource Guide

Links to over forty sites related to Civil Rights

Library of Congress: American Memory

An important site from the Library of Congress. Use the search box to find matches to terms such as Civil Rights, Jim Crow, Martin Luther King, etc.

National Museum of African American History and Culture

A comprehensive Smithsonian Museum website

Primary Sources: General

In history and the humanities a primary source is a item produced from the time you are researching. Examples include a photograph, a letter, a newspaper article, and government documents. Looking at actual sources from a specific time helps you get a firsthand account of what was happening then.

These resources will help you locate relevant primary sources. (See Primary Source Research for more guidance.)

Accessible Archives This link opens in a new window
Archives of searchable historical primary source materials. See the Subcollections Guide for a list of collections.
Accessible Archives makes available vast quantities of archived historical information, not previously furnished available online. Primary source materials have been assembled into databases with a strict attention to detail allowing access to specific information with pinpoint accuracy. Online full-text search capabilities and digital imaging permits the user to search and manipulate this information in ways never before possible.
African American Newspapers, Series 1 This link opens in a new window
Online access to 270 African American newspapers published in the U.S. from 1827-1998.
Provides online access to approximately 270 U.S. newspapers chronicling a century and a half of the African American experience. This unique collection features papers from more than 35 states—including many rare and historically significant 19th century titles.
Archives Unbound This link opens in a new window
Digital collection of historical documents from the Middle Ages to the 20th century.
Archives Unbound presents topically-focused digital collections of historical documents that support the research and study needs of scholars and students at the college and university level. Collections in Archives Unbound cover a broad range of topics from the Middle Ages forward-from Witchcraft to World War II to twentieth-century political history. Collections are chosen for Archives Unbound based on requests from scholars, archivists, and students.
Historic Documents This link opens in a new window
Primary source documents from 1972 forward in U.S. government and politics.
Database of primary source materials from 1972 forward. Approximately one hundred documents covering the most significant events of each year are presented.

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
New York Public Library Digital Collections
More than 700,000 items digitized from the NYPL collections.

New York Times (ProQuest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window
Access to The New York Times (1851 - 2017).
Presents PDF pages of the newspaper, preserving the visual sense of the publication. This online format replaces the microfiche archival coverage.
Wall Street Journal (ProQuest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window
Online access to back issues of the Wall Street Journal, 1889 - 1999.
Newspaper coverage is from 1889 through 1996. For more recent issues of the Wall Street Journal, select the Wall Street Journal (current) link.

Civil Rights in the United States