Research Guides: Black History Month: Home

Key Search Words

Use the words below to search for information in the library's c atalog and databases.

African American history
African Americans
African Americans--Music (or other subheadings)
United States race relations

Books @ the MJC Library

Recommended history and biography

Recommended fiction and poetry

Beloved by Toni Morrison
The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes by Langston Hughes
Call Number: PS3515.U274 A17 1994
The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou by Maya Angelou
Call Number: PS3551.N464 A17 1994
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Call Number: PS3515 .U789 T51 2006

Watch Some History

Harriet Tubman (1820-1913)

Formerly enslaved person who became a conductor for the Underground Railroad, a spy, a union army nurse, and a Civil War scout

Sojourner Truth (1797-1883)

Formerly enslaved person who became an abolitionist

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1925-1968)

Clergyman and civil rights activist

Rosa Parks (1913-2005)

Best known for her act of civil disobedience in 1955 that sparked the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s

Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993)

Civil rights activist and Supreme Court Justice

Articles on African American History and Black History Month

All of these resources are free for MJC students, faculty, & staff. If you're working from off campus, you'll need to sign in. Once you click on the name of a database, simply enter your student ID (without the W) and your six-digit birth date.

African-American History This link opens in a new window
This is one of our History Research Center databases, which covers more than 500 years of the African-American experience, African-American History offers a fresh way to explore the full spectrum of African-American history and culture, with tablet/mobile-friendly videos and slideshows, images, biographies of key people, event and topic entries, primary sources, maps and graphs, and timelines.
African American Experience This link opens in a new window
Use this database to find primary sources and brief overview articles to explore themes in the African American experience from African origins to the present day.

Access World News: Black History
Links to current newspaper articles on a wide range of topics related to African American history.

Issues & Controversies in History This link opens in a new window
Use this database when you want topical, in-depth coverage of world history from antiquity to the present. Read about the background, outcomes, and contemporary points of view for the major topics in history from every region of the world. This is a great database for finding primary sources.
Gale In Context: Biography This link opens in a new window
This is a great database to use when you need to find information about a person.This Gale database includes more than 500,000 individuals from throughout history and from around the world.
America: History and Life with Full Text This link opens in a new window
Use this database to find scholarly articles on U.S. and Canadian history. It provides full-text coverage of more than 200 journals and nearly 100 books in addition to selective indexing for 1,700 journals from 1955 to present.
Issues & Controversies This link opens in a new window
This is a great database to use when you want to explore different viewpoints on controversial or hot-button issues. It includes reports on more than 800 hot topics in business, politics, government, education, and popular culture. Use the search or browse topics by subject or A to Z.
EBSCOhost Databases This link opens in a new window
Search 22 databases simultaneously that cover almost any topic you need to research at MJC. EBSCO databases include articles previously published in journals, magazines, newspapers, books, and other media outlets.

Reference eBooks @ the MJC Library

To access eBooks if you're off campus, you'll need to log in using your student credentials.

African American Eras: Segregation to Civil Rights Times

Civil Rights Movement: People and Perspectives by Michael Ezra

Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture

Milestone Documents in African American History by Paul Finkelman

Find Web Resources

Search Google Scholar:

Browse Featured Web Sites:

Library of Congress: African American History
Links to the Library of Congress' resources on all aspects of African American history, including civil rights, slavery, performing arts, and notable individuals.
The History Channel: Black History Month
Videos, photo galleries and articles on African American history
Black History Milestones 1619-2021
from the History Channel
California’s African American Community
Brief February 2023 report on the history and demographics of Black Californians

Black History Month: Home