Need Help?
For individual research help, schedule an appointment to meet with a librarian.
Guide by Eliza Selander, Librarian
This guide is updated regularly. Community input is welcome.
Suggested resources will be evaluated for accuracy and relevance using the SIFT Method (Stop, Investigate, Find, Trace).
Please send resource suggestions, comments, and questions to eselander@nvcc.edu.
Guide Information
As an academic institution that values open dialogue and excellence in education, Northern Virginia Community College is committed to the free exchange of ideas by its faculty, staff and students. The Libguide platform is a content management system that NOVA librarians can use in consultation with faculty, staff, and students to create subject-specific, course-specific, and/or assignment-specific resource pages that can organize educational information and provide links to educational content.
The creation of a subject-specific, course-specific, or assignment-specific Libguide does not constitute a formal endorsement of any particular political position or viewpoint on a subject. Libguides are primarily connected to instruction and point students towards relevant resources.
As an institution, NOVA remains neutral with respect to political speech at the College. For more information on how to create a new libguide or to comment and provide feedback to adjust, improve, or add to an existing Libguide please contact Matt Todd, Dean of Libraries mtodd@nvcc.edu.
For more information on free speech and expressive activities, please see NOVA’s Speech and Expression policy and procedure.
Stories, Perspectives, and Connections
Image: Anadolu Agency, Getty Images
On the toolbar (to the left in desktop; above in mobile), you will find tabs leading you to eBooks, Articles, Videos, and Podcasts. All listed resources are available online. Many require a NOVA login.
Within each of these tabs, the suggested resources are grouped by Stories (including biography, memoir, and fiction by people of color); Perspectives (including scholarly and popular antiracist work); and Connections (including suggestions for next steps for the NOVA community).
Suggested Databases for Further Research
- African American Biographical Database This link opens in a new windowAABD includes profiles and full-text sketches providing both biographical detail and illuminating narratives chronicling the lives of Black Americans. (NVCC)
- African Americans and Reconstruction: Hope and Struggle, 1865-1883 (Readex) This link opens in a new windowThis collection offers roughly 1,400 fully searchable printed works, books, pamphlets, and speeches from the end of the Civil War to the beginning of Jim Crow. It includes documents related to African Americans and citizenship, voting rights, literacy, land rights, employment, and more, including the gaps between written law and practice. (VIVA)
- African Americans and Jim Crow: Repression and Protest, 1883-1922 (Readex) This link opens in a new windowThis collection offers +1,000 fully searchable books, pamphlets, and speeches from the beginning of Jim Crow to post-World War I that provide insights into African American culture and life during this period of segregation and disenfranchisement. Topics include African American identity, relationships with peoples of other nations, and literature. (VIVA)
- Black Freedom Struggle in the United States: A Selection of Primary SourcesIn this website, we present primary source documents from several of the time periods in American History when the river of the Black Freedom Struggle ran more powerfully, while not losing sight of the fierce, often violent opposition that Black people have faced on the road to freedom. This website contains approximately 1,600 documents focused on six different phases of Black Freedom
- Black Lives Matter from poets.orgThroughout history, poetry has always spoken in the most challenging and tragic circumstances. Poets have been at the forefront of wielding language to create change for the people. Explore the work of Elizabeth Alexander, Agha Shahid Ali, Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, Marilyn Chin, Aracelis Girmay, Langston Hughes, June Jordan, Audre Lorde, Claudia Rankine, Adrienne Rich, and Muriel Rukeyser, to name just a few.
- Britannica Image Quest This link opens in a new windowMore than two million rights-cleared images from over 50 of the best image collections in the world. (NVCC)
- Chadwyck-Healey African American Poetry, 1760-1900 This link opens in a new windowOver 2500 poems by African American writers. (VIVA)
- Ethnic NewsWatch (ProQuest) This link opens in a new windowFull-text newspapers, magazines, and journals of the ethnic and minority press, providing researchers access to essential, often overlooked perspectives. The database now also contains Ethnic NewsWatch: A History, which provides historical coverage of Native American, African American, and Hispanic American periodicals from 1959-1989. (NVCC)
- EBSCO eBook Collection This link opens in a new windowA collection of eBooks curated by NOVA librarians on a variety of different subjects. eBooks can be accessed in the browser or downloaded for offline use. (NVCC)
- Films on Demand This link opens in a new windowEducational videos on a variety of topics including humanities, social sciences, business, economics, science, mathematics, health, medicine, technical education, family and consumer sciences, careers and job search, guidance and counseling and archival films and newsreels. (NVCC, VCCS)
- Getty Images Black History & Culture CollectionThe Black History & Culture Collection is a not‑for‑profit initiative created to provide access to historical and cultural images of the African/Black Diaspora in the US and UK, gathered from content owned by Getty Images.
The Black History & Culture Collection was created for non‑commercial use to build on existing educational materials, paving the way for a deeper understanding of Black History. Additionally, the visuals found within the Black History & Culture Collection offer inspiration for educational projects.
- HistoryMakers This link opens in a new windowThis digital archive offers oral histories assembled from interviews with African-Americans from all walks of life, including politicians, authors, civil rights activists, religious leaders, musicians, legal scholars, and more. (VIVA)
- Kanopy Videos This link opens in a new windowKanopy is a large collections of films from leading producers. These films are all genres - from documentaries to movies and training videos. (NVCC)
- Oxford African American Studies Center This link opens in a new windowOver 8,000 articles by top scholars that focus on the lives and events which have shaped African American history and culture. Also includes images and primary sources. (NVCC)