Representative Reference Sources:

Reference items are useful for "auditioning" ideas (are there enough source documents to write a paper), giving the background on an event, and suggesting next steps with article bibliographies.

• Greenwood Encyclopedia of African-American Civil Rights: From Emancipation to the Twentieth Century (Rivera Reference E185.61 .E54 2003)
• Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 To The Present... (Rivera Reference E185 .E5453 2009)

Index to Articles (paper):

• Index to selected periodicals received in the Hallie Q. Brown Library, 1950-1959 (Rivera Reference AI3 .O43)
• Index to periodical articles by and about Negroes, 1960-1970 (Rivera Reference AI3 .O432)

Indexed titles include Jet, Ebony, and the New South.

Definition of Primary Resources:

Primary resources provide firsthand evidence of historical events. They are generally unpublished materials such as manuscripts, photographs, maps, artifacts, audio and video recordings, oral histories, postcards, and posters. In some instances, published materials can also be viewed as primary materials for the period in which they were written. In contrast, secondary materials, such as textbooks, synthesize and interpret primary materials (from "What are Primary Resources?" by the UCLA Institute on Primary Resources).

• Finding Primary Sources tutorial

Online Newspapers:

• Historical Newspapers through UCR
• Catalog of Digital Historical Newspapers (NewspaperCat) from the University of Florida
• Google News Archive Search page

Microfilm Newspapers:

These papers are on microfilm and shelved in the Rivera Library basement.  There are machines where you can read, or scan, articles. 

• Amsterdam News (1968-2010)
• Atlanta Constitution (1963-1988)
• Birmingham News (1953-1975)
• Pittsburgh Courier (1923-1974).

Declassified Documents:

• Declassified Documents Reference System (DDRS)

Other resources:

• Civil Rights Documentation Project University of Southern Mississippi
• Civil Rights in Mississippi Digital Archive University of Southern Mississippi Libraries
• The Sixties: Primary Documents and Personal Narratives 1960 - 1974
• BlackPast.org