Subject guides: Race and Decolonial Studies: Black Lives Matter

Welcome to the Race and Decolonial Studies Guide - giving you information on library resources and services relating to race, critical race studies and decolonial work.

Newspapers and news media, TV and film

A sign is held up during a Black Lives Matter Protest in Edinburgh, June 2020

A sign is seen during a Black Lives Matter protest in Edinburgh, following the death of George Floyd who died in police custody in Minneapolis, Edinburgh, Scotland. June 7, 2020. REUTERS/Russell Cheyne

Use these key databases to search for and access current full-text newspaper and news sources articles, including both UK and international titles.

Use these databases to search for and view TV news programmes, documentaries, interviews, films, etc.

Literature and drama

Use these databases to search for and access plays, novels, poetry, short stories by black writers, as well as information about those writers.

You can also search DiscoverEd for individual books the Library has in its collections by black writers.

Search DiscoverEd

Black History Month

October is Black History Month.

In 2023 the library has invited five outstanding UoE academics and commentators to share thoughts on the theme Black History Month in the UK-Views from Home and the Diaspora at our event taking place on Tuesday 24th October 2023. You can find more information on the event page on our website.

We have more information about Black History Month activities taking place in the library on our website, including details of current and previous activities relating to our collections:

Book display at the Main Library during BHM October 2023.

In October 2022 ECA Library celebrated Black History Month by creating a focused display looking at Edward Enninful’s book, A Visible Man, and featured some of the recent Vogue UK issues he used to transform the magazine since he became editor in Chief of Vogue UK in 2017. You can find information about this on the ECA Library blog. Other events which took place during BHM at the University of Edinburgh are listed here.

During October 2021 Library Services focused their efforts on creating a Black History Month Resource List to allow as many people as possible to participate both on and off campus. The list has been created collaboratively with input from EUSA and you can find a link to this below. This has also been an opportunity to further diversify UoE collections by purchasing new books that were suggested for the event.

Recommended reading: 'Why Black History Month is more important this year than ever', by Catherine Ross (Founder Director, Museumand - The National Caribbean Heritage Museum Editor of Black History Month 2020)

Black history

Use these databases to search for and access a wide range of historical documents relevant to learning, teaching and research in black history e.g. government documents, newspapers, pamphlets, legal documents, organisation and personal papers,etc.

African Diaspora, 1860-present This link opens in a new window The Library's subscription to this resource expires 31 July 2024. The African Diaspora, 1860-present uses digitized primary source documents, secondary sources and videos from around the world to provide a window into the African diasporic communities formed throughout the world after the abolition of slavery. With a focus on communities in the Caribbean, Brazil, India, United Kingdom, and France, content is provided by key partners including The National Archives and Records Administration (US), National Archives at Kew (UK), Royal Anthropological Institute, and Senate House Library (University of London).
African Newspapers, Series 1, 1800-1922 This link opens in a new window This groundbreaking online collection provides more than 60 searchable African newspapers published in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Featuring English and foreign-language titles from Angola, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe, African Newspapers, Series 1, offers unparalleled coverage of the issues and events that shaped the continent and its peoples between 1800 and 1922. From repercussions of the Atlantic slave trade, life under colonial rule and the results of the Berlin Conference to the emergence of Black journalism, the Zulu Wars and the rejection of Western imperialism, these newspapers provide a wide range of viewpoints on diverse cultures.
Black Abolitionist Papers This link opens in a new window The Library's subscription to this resource expires 31 July 2024. This digital primary source collection, spanning 1830-1865, details the extensive efforts of African Americans to abolish slavery in the writings and publications of the activists themselves. Approximately 15,000 articles, documents, correspondence, proceedings, manuscripts, and literary works of nearly 300 black abolitionists show the full range of their activities in the United States, Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland, France, and Germany.
Chicago Defender (1910-1975) This link opens in a new window The Library's subscription to this resource expires 31 July 2024. Chicago Defender provides more than six decades of this newspaper’s historic coverage, online and easily searchable. The newspaper was a proponent of The Great Migration, the move of over 1.5 million African-Americans from the segregated South to the industrial North from 1915 to 1925. It reported on the Red Summer race riots of 1919, and editorialized for anti-lynching legislation and the integration of blacks into the U.S. military.
Empire Online This link opens in a new window Collection of 60,000 images of original manuscripts and printed material with accompanying thematic essays. The content comes from library and archive collections worldwide, and can used to support teaching and learning. Full details of how to incorporate images into course materials are provided. Covers the period 1492-1962.
FBI File: Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr This link opens in a new window The assassination on April 4, 1968, of Martin Luther King, Jr., president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, triggered a massive manhunt culminating in the arrest of James Earl Ray. The 44,000-page case file of the Federal Bureau of Investigation documents the bureau’s role in finding Ray and obtaining his conviction. The file also includes background information amassed by the FBI on Dr. King’s social activism. This archive is of particular interest to students of the civil rights movement and of the continuing controversy surrounding Dr. King’s murder.
Federal Surveillance of African Americans, 1920-1984 This link opens in a new window Throughout the twentieth century Black Americans of all political persuasions were subject to federal scrutiny, harassment, and prosecution. The Federal Bureau of Investigation enlisted black "confidential special informants" to infiltrate a variety of organizations. Hundreds of documents in this collection were originated by such operatives. The reports provide a wealth of detail on "Negro" radicals and their organizations. In addition to infiltration, the FBI contributed to the infringement of First Amendment freedoms by making its agents a constant visible presence at radical rallies and meetings. This archive is based on original microfilm.
NAACP Papers This link opens in a new window The Library's subscription to this resource expires 31 July 2024. Through ProQuest's History Vault you can access nearly two million pages of internal memos, legal briefings and direct action summaries from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Covering the period 1909 to 1972 it includes 6 collections: Board of Directors, Annual Conferences, Major Speeches, and National Staff Files; Branch Department, Branch Files, and Youth Department Files; Special Subjects; The NAACP's Major Campaigns--Education, Voting, Housing, Employment, Armed Forces; The NAACP's Major Campaigns--Legal Department Files; The NAACP's Major Campaigns--Scottsboro, Anti-Lynching, Criminal Justice, Peonage, Labor, and Segregation and Discrimination Complaints and Responses.
The Philadelphia Tribune (1912-2001) This link opens in a new window The Library's subscription to this resource expires 31 July 2024. The oldest continuously published daily black newspaper in the U.S., The Philadelphia Tribune was founded by Christopher James Perry. His paper conveyed ideas and opinions about local and national issues affecting blacks in the post-emancipation period, and today continues to serve the country’s fourth largest African-American community. The Philadelphia Tribune campaigned to appoint black citizens to the board of education, city council, and, judiciary. It actively supported the growth of the United Way fund and launched a “clean block” program, promoting the health, safety, and well-being of the city’s residents. The newspaper fought against segregation and rallied against the race riots in Chester, Pennsylvania.
Slavery: supporters and abolitionists, 1675-1865 This link opens in a new window Containing over 28,000 digitised pages this database contains a wide range of documents concerning the African slave trade during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. The papers focus primarily on Jamaica and the West Indies, but also cover the experience of other nations and regions. Through a combination of statistics, correspondence, pamphlets, and memoirs, they offer insights into the commercial and colonial dimensions of slavery and the views of its advocates and opponents.
Struggles for Freedom: Southern Africa (Aluka) This link opens in a new window This digital resource documents the liberation struggles in Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, including archival materials, periodicals, oral histories, books, and photographs. Struggles for Freedom brings together materials from various archives and libraries throughout the world documenting colonial rule, dispersion of exiles, international intervention, and the worldwide networks that supported successive generations of resistance within the region.

These are just a small selection of the digital primary source databases and digital archives available at the Library that cover black history. Many more are available.

More black history and black studies databases

Anti-racism internet resources

Taylor & Francis: Free Social Justice ebooks
A microsite from publishers Taylor & Francis, featuring free-to-view or open access materials on the topic of anti-racism.

Finding Library Resources - DiscoverEd

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