Welcome
Welcome to the African American Studies library portal. The portal provides quick links to the resources you need to succeed in your course. Whether you are online or on-Grounds, UVA Library services and support are available to all students.
Your Librarian
Your Librarian is Kristal Sergent.
Kristal is the research librarian for African American & African Studies and the Carter G. Woodson Institute.
She can help you find and use scholarly articles and primary sources, like newspapers, magazines, and archival sources, for your research projects. She also provides training on Zotero.
Schedule a research meeting with a librarian early in your research process to save time and get a better grade.
Ask a Librarian
Sign Up for Library events
Sign up for Library orientations, workshops, and events with our online calendar. UVA Library programming is offered in-person and online.
Search Virgo
Search for scholarly materials
Academic databases contain peer-reviewed articles, scientific papers, newspapers, magazines, and more. Start with these databases for preliminary searching. Find more subject-specific databases at: https://guides.lib.virginia.edu/afam_hist.
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new windowLarge general database of articles from scholarly journals, magazines, and newspapers on many topics. Also includes reference books (World Almanac, American Heritage Dictionary), biographies, speeches, images, and other primary source documents.
- African American Communities This link opens in a new windowFocusing predominantly on Atlanta, Chicago, New York, and towns and cities in North Carolina this resource presents multiple aspects of the African American community through pamphlets, newspapers and periodicals, correspondence, official records, reports and in-depth oral histories, revealing the prevalent challenges of racism, discrimination and integration, and a unique African American culture and identity.
- Black Life in America This link opens in a new windowThis primary source collection offers an expansive window into centuries of African American history, culture and daily life—as well as the ways the dominant culture has portrayed and perceived people of African descent. The content in this database is sourced from more than 19,000 American and global news sources, including over 400 current and historical Black publications.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowJSTOR provides access to millions of journal articles, books, images, and primary sources in 75 disciplines. The Archive Journal Collection is included.
API available, more information here: APIs for Scholarly Research - ProQuest Historical Newspapers - Black Newspapers This link opens in a new windowA subset of the larger ProQuest Historical Newspapers, this is a collection of several prominent black newspapers including the Chicago Defender, Norfolk Journal and Guide, Pittsburgh Courier, Baltimore Afro-American, and NY Amsterdam News.
Download research software
- ZoteroTo download the library's recommended citation manager, follow the instructions on the Zotero guide.