Examine the tension experienced by African-Americans as they struggled to establish a vibrant and meaningful identity based on the promises of liberty and equality in the midst of a society that was ambivalent towards them and sought to impose an inferior definition upon them. The primary sources used are drawn from a time of great change that begins after Reconstruction's brief promise of full citizenship and ends with the First World War's Great Migration, when many African-Americans sought greater freedoms and opportunities by leaving the South for booming industrial cities elsewhere in the nation.

If you are a teacher looking for resources related to African American studies that you can use in the classroom, or a student working on an African American history research paper, where do you start? This blog summarizes some of the primary resources available at the Library of Congress.

The collection African American Perspectives: Pamphlets from the Daniel A.P. Murray Collection, 1818-1907, contains pamphlets and other materials, most of which were written by African American authors about pressing issues of the day. In this lesson, students use the collection's Timeline of African American History, 1852-1925 to identify problems and issues facing African Americans immediately after Reconstruction. Working in small groups on assigned issues, students search the collection for documents that describe the problem and consider opposing points of view, and suggest a remedy for the problem.

The most recent primary source set on the Great Migration is an excellent collection of newspapers, maps, photographs, oral histories, and film that help to inform an understanding of the Great Migration. But how does each source type contribute to a unique insight about the Great Migration? Format-specific source analysis requires students to think about what a particular type of source can—and cannot—tell them about the Great Migration.

Use the Library’s primary source analysis tool and selected questions from the Teacher’s Guide: Analyzing Photographs and Prints to help students observe details, reflect on the image, and ask questions. In these photographs from the early 20th century, students can study the tools and equipment within the lab, and the actions of the scientist, students, and teachers.

During the Great Migration of African Americans to cities in the northern United States, the National Urban League supported people by developing both programs to ease the transition to life in urban centers and partnerships with government and private industry to help African Americans achieve financial and social success in their communities. Primary sources in the Library’s online collections provide opportunities for students to explore moments in the League’s history.

From the 1910s to 1970, one of the largest internal migrations in the history of the United States took place. Millions of African Americans moved from rural to urban centers and from southeastern states to the north and west. This exodus, which came to be called “the Great Migration,” transformed American life in the 20th century and beyond.

Students may recognize that an event is historical or consequential, but it might be harder for them to think about how people living at the time of the event understood the issue, made decisions about it, and took action. Primary source sets from the Library of Congress give teachers ready-to-use sources that are uniquely situated to do the work of showing what life was like at a particular time. The newest primary source set, The Great Migration, shows rich examples of human agency.

Legal segregation in America, from Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) to Brown v. The Board of Education, Topeka, Kansas (1954), is seldom fully explored by students of American history and government. At most, these studies are sidebar discussions of isolated people or events. It is important for students to develop an understanding of the complex themes and concepts of African American life in the first half of the 20th century to provide a foundation for a more meaningful understanding of the modern Civil Rights Movement. This mini-unit will allow students to explore to what extent the African American experience was "separate but equal."

One of my favorite (so far) tasks as a member of this team has been to review potential sources for the newest primary source set on the Great Migration.
Two sources in particular pulled me in for a close read: “Distribution of the Colored Population: 1890” from The Statistical Atlas of the United States, based on results of the eleventh census and “Negro Population Change: 1940 to 1960″ from the National Atlas of the United States of America from 1970.