Black History Month: Databases

Explore African American history from a variety of articles and linked pages like:

• Black Americans, or African Americans - This page is available in 3 reading levels and discusses the history of Black Americans starting in the 16th century through present. Includes videos, photos, maps, portraits, primary sources, and more on topics like military involvement, Civil Rights era protests, the Great Migration, and contemporary artists and achievements.
• Black Power - Discusses the philosophy and history of the movement, with links to vetted resources from the National Archives, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and Khan Academy.
• The Second Reconstruction - Provides information on civil rights events and victories between 1946 and 1963. Explains some major legal cases and protests. 
• A long list of individual articles and resources on notable people including:
  • Benjamin O. Davis, Sr.
  • Carter G. Woodson
  • Frederick Douglass
  • Ida B. Wells
  • Mary McLeod Bethune
  • and many more

Explore African American history from a variety of articles, media, and biographies. Find information on:

• Black History Month and other celebrations of African American heritage, pride, and freedom
• Black Nationalism and important players in the movement
• Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), their history, growth, and continued legacy.

Use the university-level database to explore history in a variety of ways, including through the World Atlas, by comparing countries, referencing statistics in the World Factbook, and browsing articles, biographies, and media. Learn about arts and culture such as:

• African American Literature from the pre-Civil War period through the end of the 20th century
• Browse the related articles on Black Theatre
• Explore the music genres created and popularized by Black artists like blues, funk, hip-hop, jazz, R&B, and soul

Britannica Launch Packs - Social Studies offer topic-based collections of articles, videos, images, websites, maps, and primary sources that have been curated by Britannica editors and are linked to curriculum standards. Articles are available in up to 3 reading levels (and readers can choose their own level once they open the article) giving you an easy way to differentiate content for all learners. The articles have many of the same features as Britannica School’s online encyclopedia, including a read-aloud function, translation via Google Translate, and digital highlighting and note-taking. Videos in the content sets can be viewed on the spot or downloaded for later use; and all resources include complete citations for students to use in their bibliographies. LaunchPacks related to Black History include:

Aimed at grades 6 - 8, Gale - Middle School in Context contains magazines, newspapers, primary sources and videos. Also includes Merriam-Webster's Elementary Dictionary, maps, flags, seals, charts and graphs. Browse categories like cultures, geography, government, literature, people, science, social issues, history, and more. 

Explore the People page for African Americans to learn fast facts, words to know, related subjects, links to notable public figures, and 21st century issues, events, and achievements. 

A search for Black History Month returns topics, biographies, images, videos, audio, news and magazine articles, and primary source documents. 

The Gale - High School In Context database offers easy access to interdisciplinary topics and covers the major subject areas, including biography, geography, history, government, literature, science and health, and social studies, allowing students to create connections between subject areas and to truly put topics into larger cultural, social, and historical context. 

Browse the home page by topic or click the blue Browse All Topics button to browse by decade; states, country, or region; literary titles; and more. Find resources relating to Black History Month under topics like Biography, History, Literature & the Arts, Social Issues, and World Cultures & Religion. Or, use the search bar to return full text reference materials, essays, vetted websites, videos and audio from the NYTimes, NPR, and more. 

Biography in Context hosts biographical entries on thousands of notable international figures from all time periods and areas of study, including science and technology, arts and entertainment, literature, sports and fitness, history, popular culture, politics, and more. Browse their categories by skill (such as music, art, or writing), careers (such as aviators, inventors, or politicians), identity (race, sex/gender, or sexual orientation & gender identity), or social cause (environmentalism, philanthropy, or social reform). This database has biographies on Black Americans from all eras, in all categories, including the people that are sometimes left out or glossed over when looking at complex topics like slavery and emancipation, the Civil Rights Movement, groundbreaking artists, and modern pop culture icons. 

Gale's U.S. History in Context (UHIC) delivers comprehensive, contextual, media-rich search results from one of the most extensive online collections of historical information available. Providing a complete overview of U.S. history that covers the most-studied events, decades, wars and conflicts, political and cultural movements, people, and more, UHIC is aligned to state and national curriculum standards. The Topic Finder is particularly useful for students exploring a topic but unsure of what to focus on. This tool takes the titles, subjects, and approximately the first 100 words from a subset of your top results and feeds them into an algorithm. The results can display unexpected connections between topics, related terms, and people names. 

Browse the topic, "African American Perspectives" from the home page, explore Dr. King's page from the Topics of Interest carousel, or perform a search for more specific terms. The advanced search allows for researchers to filter by content type, publication dates, content level, and publication.

PebbleGo Next Social Studies (grades 3-5), will include more than 150 articles that correlate to Social Studies Standards. Some relevant categories include:

• Black Arts Movement
• Civil Rights in the US
• Harlem Renaissance

PebbleGo Next Biographies (grades 3-5), contains historical and contemporary biographies targeted to national curriculum. Additional biographies to PebbleGo's list are:

• A. Philip Randolph
• Bayard Rustin
• Henrietta Lacks
• Ida B. Wells
• Jackie Joyner-Kersee
• Jean-Michel Basquiat
• Jerry Rice
• Malcolm X
• Mamie Johnson
• Medgar Evers
• Meghan Markle
• Meta Warrick Fuller
• The Tuskegee Airmen