Black History Month

To commemorate Black History Month Middletown Thrall Library has created a concise guide to items available both through the library and elsewhere on the Internet which may help you better understand and celebrate this special month.

If you need further assistance in finding more information online or in print, please visit the Reference Department or call Reference at (845)341-5461. You may also ask our librarians questions over the Internet. If you would like to suggest other online or print resources, please feel free to submit your suggestions here.

Items Available at the Library

To check on items available at our library or from other libraries in the system, please click here for our online catalog.

Once in the catalog, you can try searching for specific titles or authors if you know them, or you can try keyword and subject searches using, for example, "African American" (minus quotation marks) as your keywords.

The following randomly selected titles from our catalog represent only a fraction of the information available at the library and through the larger library system. Titles range from historic accounts to biographies of individuals, both past and present, who have impacted history in some way.

For more information please visit the Reference Department, call our librarians at 341-5461, or use our online reference service.

Click any of the titles below to access the complete information for it in our electronic library catalog. There you will find the Call Number (the location of the book in the library) as well as information about the author(s) and links to related subjects in the catalog. If you are interested in any of these titles, please stop by the library or call Reference at 341-5461:


• African American Military Heroes
• African American Teachers
• African American Women Writers
• African Americans in the Civil War
• Alex Haley: Author of Roots
• American Roots Music
• The Black 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential African-Americans, Past and Present
• Black Artists in Photography, 1840-1940
• Black Camelot: African-American Culture Heroes in Their Times, 1960-1980
• Black Dance: From 1619 to Today
• Black Dance in America: A History Through Its People
• Black Heroes of the American Revolution
• Black Music in America: A History Through Its People
• Black Pioneers: An Untold Story
• Civil Rights: the Struggle for Black Equality
• Colin Powell: A Man of War and Peace
• Escape From Slavery: the Boyhood of Frederick Douglass in His Own Words
• Extraordinary People of the Harlem Renaissance
• Flying Free: America's First Black Aviators
• Genealogical History of Black Families of Orange County, New York
• The Harlem Renaissance
• Harlem Renaissance Artists
• Harriet Tubman and Black History Month
• Harriet Tubman: Freedom's Trailblazer
• Her Story, Her Words: the Narrative of Sojourner Truth
• I'll Find A Way Or Make One: A Tribute to Historically Black Colleges and Universities
• Jackie Robinson and the Story of All-Black Baseball
• Jesse Jackson: Still Fighting for the Dream
• Joe Louis: Heavyweight Champion
• Jubilee: the Emergence of African American Culture
• Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
• Langston Hughes: Young Black Poet
• Lest We Forget: the Passage From Africa to Slavery and Emancipation
• Like Men of War: Black Troops in the Civil War, 1862-1865
• Louis Armstrong: Jazz Musician
• Martin Luther King: A Concise Biography
• Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Maya Angelou: Author
• Michael Jordan: Beyond Air
• Muhammad Ali
• Musical Landscapes in Color: Conversations With Black American Composers
• Native Sons: A Critical Study of Twentieth-Century Black American Authors
• Notes of A Native Son
• Oprah Winfrey: Talk Show Host and Actress
• Powerful Words: Excerpts From Famous Speeches and Writings By African Americans
• Rosa Parks: Civil Rights Leader
• Simple Justice: the History of Brown V. Board of Education and Black America's Struggle for Equality
• Sojourner Truth: From Slave to Activist for Freedom
• The Souls of Black Folk
• Spike Lee: Filmmaker
• The Story of Muhammad Ali
• Sugar Ray Leonard
• Tell All the Children Our Story: Memories and Mementos of Being Young and Black in America
• Till Victory Is Won: Black Soldiers in the Civil War
• Toni Morrison
• Up From Slavery
• A W.E.B. Du Bois Reader
• W.E.B. Du Bois: the Fight for Equality and the American Century, 1919-1963
• Women in the Civil Rights Movement: Trailblazers and Torchbearers, 1941-1965
• Zora Neale Hurston: Writer and Storyteller


If you would like help in finding titles, please call our Reference Department at 341-5461 or use our free Ask a Librarian service to send us questions and receive answers over the Internet.




Information Accessible over the Internet

• A&E Presents: Black History Month - A&E's Biography.com guide contains links to related television programming, news items, as well as a gallery of photographs, and historical figures in sections such as "Groundbreakers" and "Heroes."
  
  
• About.com: Black History Month - an extensive guide including educational resources in the following categories: "Teaching Black History Month," "Biographies," "Glossary," "Photographs," "Timelines," "Primary Documents," "Quotes," "Civil Rights Movement E-Course." Additional sections further down the main menu include: "Culture and Conflicts," "Local Events and History," and "Profiles and Personalities."
  
  
• African-American Mosaic - "A Library of Congress Resource Guide for the Study of Black History & Culture"
  
  
• African-American Odyssey - From the Library of Congress. Includes images and text. Topics include "African-American Odyssey: A Quest for Full Citizenship," "The Frederick Douglass Papers at the Library of Congress," "Jackie Robinson and Other Baseball Highlights, 1860s-1960s," "Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938," and "Slaves and the Courts, 1740-1860."
  
  
• African-American Voices - Historical accounts from the Digital History section of the Department of History and the College of Education at the University of Houston.
  
  
• African-American World - PBS presents a guide to Black History with historical highlights in areas such as "Arts & Culture," "Race and Society," and "Profiles." Additional information and activity information is available for teachers/parents and children. Note the links at the top of PBS' page as well: Timeline, Reference Room, Kids, Classroom, Community, and Resources. Over 300 articles on famous African-Americans and notable events in Black History are available in the "Reference Room" at that site.
  
  
• Black History Hotlist - A guide to information online in the following areas of Black History: Slavery, Serving in the Military, Civil Rights Movement, Million Man March, African-American Leaders, In Their Own Words, Issues in the News, Poetry, and Institutional Changes.
  
  
• Black History Month - Free access to biographies, activities, literary resources, a timeline, and a quiz from Gale Databases.
  
  
• Black Oral History - "interviews conducted by Quintard Taylor and his associates, Charles Ramsay and John Dawkins. They interviewed African American pioneers and their descendents throughout Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana, from 1972-1974." The Real Audio Player is required to hear the interviews.
  
  
• BlackPast.org - A collection and directory of sources for six centuries of African American History. Includes an online encyclopedia of people, places, churches, associations and events. From a professor of American History at University of Washington. This a wonderful place to start research or to spend some time browsing.
• City College Libraries: Black Studies - A comprehensive guide to African-American history. Topics include: "Abolition," "Act of 1964," "Affirmative Action," "Africa," "Amistad Case," "Baseball," "Black," "Black," "Black Panthers," "Book Reviews," "Brown v. Board of Education," "Central High School, Little Rock," "Civil Rights," "Civil Rights," "Colleges and Universities," "Committee," "Desegregation," "Education," "Emancipation," "Engineering," "Family History," "Frederick Douglass," "Freedman's Bureau," "Genealogy," "Great Migration," "Harlem Renaissance," "Health," "Historic Sites," "Historically," "Horseracing," "Journals," "Legal Resources," "Literature," "Lynching," "Manuscripts," "March on Washington, 1963," "Martin Luther King Jr.," "Media," "Military," "Montgomery Bus Boycott," "Museums," "Music," "Nonviolent Coordinating," "Oral/Personal Histories," "Photography," "Politics," "Postage," "Power," "Religion," "Science," "Slave Narratives," "Slavery," "Sports," "Stamps," "Statistics," "Student," "The Underground Railroad," "Theatre," "Tuskegee Airmen," "Women," and "Writing."
  
  
• Culture and Change: Black History in America - From Scholastic. Activities and educational resources for young people, parents, and teachers.
  
  
• Encyclopedia Britannica Guide to Black History - View a timeline, explore eras in Black History, access hundreds of full text articles arranged by subject, audio/video clips, and a bibliography. Additional links and a study guide are available at the bottom of their page.
  
  
• From Slavery to Freedom: The African-American Pamphlet Collection, 1822-1909 - "396 pamphlets from the Rare Book and Special Collections Division, published from 1822 through 1909, by African-American authors and others who wrote about slavery, African colonization, Emancipation, Reconstruction, and related topics." From the Library of Congress' American Memory Exhibit.
  
  
• History Channel: Black History - Text and images arranged in the following sections: "History of the Civil Rights Struggle," "African-American Icons," "Video Clips," "Great Speeches," "Maps," "Exhibits," and "Related Resources."
  
  
• Kids Domain: Black History Links - Activities, quizzes, and educational resources for young people from Kidsdomain.com
  
  
• In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience - From New York Public Library. Described as followed by NYPL: "In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience presents more than 16,500 pages of texts, 8,300 illustrations, and more than 60 maps. The Web site is organized around thirteen defining migrations that have formed and transformed African America and the nation. Each migration is presented through five units: 1. A narrative; 2. About 100 illustrations, each with caption, and bibliographical, indexing, and ordering information; 3. From twenty to forty research resources consisting of essays, books, book chapters, articles, and manuscripts; 4. Maps; 5. Lesson plans for teachers." Some areas of this site require the free Flash plugin from Adobe.com.
  
  
• Infoplease Presents: Black History Month - Access information in the following categories: History and Timelines, Contemporary Issues, Special Features (Quotations, Inventors, Harlem Renaissance and more), Holidays, Education, Awards and Firsts, Quizzes & Crosswords
  
  
• Librarian's Index to the Internet: Black History Month - LII.org's directory of annotated links to Black History websites.
  
  
• Martin Luther King, Jr. - An extensive biography by Gale Group. Includes a free downloadable/printable Black History Month calendar (Adobe Acrobat Reader required for that).
  
  
• Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project at Stanford University - Read and hear various writings and speeches. Audio feeds require Quicktime or the Real audio player.
  
  
• National Geographic: The Underground Railroad - An interactive and illustrated history of slavery and the Underground Railroad. Note: the drop-down menu at the top of their page leads to other related sections in their site.
  
  
• We Shall Overcome - Historical places of the Civil Rights Movement. Click the "List of Sites" to learn more about different historic locations. From the National Parks Service (NPS.gov)