Continuing our work this month of highlighting open educational resources in underrepresented disciplines, Joshua Peach of the OER Team has collected a selection of open textbooks, courses, primary resources, digital objects, and archives in the field of African American Studies. We hope you find these rich and deep collections useful in teaching and research within the discipline, as well as across other departments in the college!
- African-American Odyssey, Library of Congress
Digital projects that represent some of the rare and unique items from the Library of Congress’ vast African-American collections. - African American Experience: Primary Source Sets, Digital Public Library of America
“Primary source collections exploring topics in history, literature, and culture developed by educators — complete with teaching guides for class use.” - Amistad Research Center Digital Collections and Projects
In partnership with Tulane University, this independent community-based archive has created and maintained rich digital projects with their collections of film, photographs, television, and oral histories that “reference the social and cultural importance of America’s ethnic and racial history, the African Diaspora, human relations, and civil rights.” - Black Abolitionist Archive, University of Detroit Mercy
“From the 1820s to the Civil War, African Americans assumed prominent roles in the transatlantic struggle to abolish slavery. In contrast to the popular belief that the abolitionist crusade was driven by wealthy whites, some 300 black abolitionists were regularly involved in the antislavery movement, heightening its credibility and broadening its agenda. The Black Abolitionist Digital Archive is a collection of over 800 speeches by antebellum blacks and approximately 1,000 editorials from the period. These important documents provide a portrait of black involvement in the anti-slavery movement; scans of these documents are provided as images and PDF files.” - Black Diasporic Visions: (De) Constructing Modes of Power, Reflections and Resources by Josh Adler, Rosa Angela, Darializa Avila Chevalier, Brittany Brathwaite, J. Michell Brito, O.D. Enobabor, Javiela Evangelista, Ruben Mina, Janelle Poe, Carla Shedd, Kayla Reece, Ashleigh Washington, Crystal Welch-Scott, CUNY Manifold (2022). License: CC BY-NC-SA
“Black Diasporic Visions turns us toward a myriad of pathways for liberation formed by African people and people of African descent inside and outside of oppressive structures of power, as well as the development of alternative visions and spaces. More specifically, in this course, we consider these constructions which are often despite, within and at the intersections of institutions and systems that impact education, the prison industrial complex, food justice, public planning, preservation, legal personhood and climate change.” - Black Lives Matter Collective Storytelling Project, University of Washington, Tacoma and University of Washington Libraries (2020). License: CC BY-NC-ND
Student reflections on race, racism and racial justice originating from a cross-course collaboration at the University of Washington, Tacoma. - Black Studies Across the Americas (BSAA), Borough of Manhattan Community College. License: CC BY-NC
“In the Black Studies Across the Americas (BSAA) program faculty and students work collaboratively with Afro-descendant activists from across the Americas to create educational materials that insert Black Studies into disciplines where it is not traditionally the focus. Countries and/or communities that have been part of the program include Argentina, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, the Garifuna of Central America, Haiti, Peru, and Puerto Rico. These free educational products are shared on this site.” - Black Women’s Suffrage Digital Collection, Digital Public Library of America
“The Black Women’s Suffrage Digital Collection is a collaborative project to provide digital access to materials documenting the roles and experiences of Black Women in the Women’s Suffrage Movement and, more broadly, women’s rights, voting rights, and civic activism between the 1850s and 1960. The materials in this collection include photographs, correspondence, speeches, event programs, publications, oral histories, and other artifacts.” - The Bright Continent: African Art History, by Kathy Curnow, Michael Schwartz Library, Cleveland State University (2018). License: CC BY-NC-SA
“This book aims to act as your map through the world of African art. As such, it will help you define the competencies you need to develop–visual analysis, research, noting what information is critical, asking questions, and writing down your observations–and provide opportunities for you to practice these skills until you are proficient. It will also expose you to new art forms and the worlds that produced them, enriching your understanding and appreciation.” - The Center for Black, Brown, and Queer Studies OER Library
A collection of audio shorts and podcasts from The Center for Black, Brown, and Queer Studies (BBQ+) that “activates, connects, and mobilizes educators, researchers, and activists from marginalized communities and whose mission is to dismantle the structural barriers that prevent the full participation and leadership of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, as well as members of the LGBTQ+ community, in spaces of learning and education.” - CUNY Dominican Studies Institute: Digital Resources
“The CUNY Dominican Studies Institute at The City College of New York has developed digital open-source resources featuring various educational platforms to enhance teaching and learning on Dominican topics.” - Digital Schomburg, New York Public Library
“Digital Schomburg provides access to trusted information, interpretation, and scholarship on the global Black experience through online materials at the Schomburg Center created and curated by our staff and librarians. Visitors can locate online articles, digital exhibitions, photographs, audio and video streams, historical projects, and external links for research in the history and cultures of the peoples of Africa and the African Diaspora.” - National Archives: African American Heritage
“The Archives holds a wealth of material documenting the Black experience. This page highlights these resources online, in programs, and through traditional and social media.” - Slavery to Liberation: The African American Experience – 2nd Edition, by Joshua Farrington, Norman W. Powell, Gwendolyn Graham, and Ogechi E. Anyanwu, Encompass Digital Archive/Eastern Kentucky University (2022). License: CC BY
“Slavery to Liberation: The African American Experience gives instructors, students, and general readers a comprehensive and up-to-date account of African Americans’ cultural and political history, economic development, artistic expressiveness, and religious and philosophical worldviews in a critical framework” - Smithsonian Open Access: National Museum of African American History and Culture
Objects from the Smithsonian collections including the National Museum of African American History and Culture, African Art Museum, and American History Museum reproduced as digital assets—2D and 3D images and data available for use in the public domain under a Creative Commons 0 designation.
