J300: The Scottsboro Case: Race and Region in the 1930s US

(image from the Wolfsonian Library, Politics of Race on Trial)

Here are some resources you'll find helpful for your research and writing exercises. Need more help? Contact the history librarian, Celestina Savonius-Wroth, cewroth@indiana.edu. You can also contact Lou Malcomb, malcomb@indiana.edu, for help with government publications and statistics.   Did you get here through OnCourse? Some online resources don't work well inside OnCourse, so you may wish to link directly to this page by copying and pasting the URL into your browser: http://www.libraries.iub.edu/index.php?pageId=1002787.   On this page: Archival Collections - Newspapers - Magazines - Digitized Collections - Images - Government Publications and Statistics - Scholarly secondary sources   Green text indicates a physical location in the IUB Libraries.

Archival Collections

Papers of the NAACP - complete records of the NAACP on microfilm (help! what's that?).

Of particular interest for your projects:

Part 6. The Scottsboro case, 1931-1950

Part 7. The anti-lynching campaign, 1912-1955 

Part 10. Peonage, labor, and the New Deal, 1913-1939  

These collections are located in the Wells Library East Tower 2, call number E185.61 .P274 1982

Guides are available on the nearby reference shelf, and here.

ArchiveGrid is an online resource for archival materials all over the US. Most of these artifacts have not been digitized, but archivists are usually happy to look up specific information for you, and in some cases can make copies of individual documents on request. You can also search for archival materials using WorldCat, a giant database of the collections of hundreds of libraries. Limit your search to "archival materials."

Newspapers

ProQuest Historical Newspapers - digitized collection of major US newspapers starting with their earliest issues. Includes major mainstream papers such as New York Times, Chicago Tribune, etc as well as the following important African American papers: Atlanta Daily World, Los Angeles Sentinel, New York Amsterdam News, Pittsburg Courier, Chicago Defender.

America's Historical Newspapers - large digitized collection of regional newspapers from all parts of the US, includes another collection of African American Newspapers (1827-1998) and  Hispanic American Newspapers 1808-1980.

The Crisis - newspaper of the NAACP. (Wells East Tower 2 Microfilms,  E117 and Wells Research Collections Stacks,  E185.5 .C9).  

Economist Historical Archive 1843-2003 

Times Digital Archive (The Times, London) - covers 1785-1985.

Magazines

Readers Guide Retrospective 1890-1982 - searchable index to general interest magazines in the US. Not full text. Use the IU-Link button (in your search results) to locate magazines --use the Check for availability in IUCAT option. Some 20th-century magazines are available in Google Books: use the Advanced Book Search to narrow your results to a specific magazine. Or, for a completely different research experience, try browsing the print edition of Readers Guide (Wells Library Reference Department, AI3 .R21)

Periodicals Archive Online - digitized collection of magazines and journals (covers more international, "highbrow" and academic publications --a slightly different perspective from the magazines covered by Readers Guide).

The Nation - widely read left-leaning weekly magazine, in print since 1865 (1931-1934 are on reserve for your class in the Wells East Tower 2 reading room).

The New Republic - widely read progressive/liberal weekly magazine, in print since 1914 (Wells Library East Tower 2 Microfilms AP42)

Radical Periodicals in the United States - huge collection of reprints and microfilm of communist and other radical publications (to locate, search IUCAT for radical periodicals in the united states as title).

Search IUCAT using the Periodical Title search option to find especially important magazines from the period, including New Masses, Negro Worker and  Labor defender.

Black Thought and Culture - non-fiction published works of African American leaders, including interviews, journal articles, speeches, essays, pamphlets, letters, etc.

Women and Social Movements - primary sources illustrating women's social activism in the US, with interpretive essays by leading scholars. 

Images

AP Images - digital archive of Associated Press photographs.

FSA Photographs from the Library of Congress - huge collection of black and white photographs from the Great Depression period.

Government publications and statistics

U.S. Supreme Court Records and Briefs, 1832-1978 - for the full text of Supreme Court documents. Consult CQ Press Supreme Court Collection for supporting materials (historical essays, context, related cases).

Historical Statistics of the United States - statistical data drawn mostly from the U.S. Census.

Historical Census Browser - construct your own search across all types of data collected by the U.S. Census

LexisNexis Congressional Research Digital Collection - searchable full text collection of congressional materials, including reports, prints, and legislative histories.

 

Finding scholarly secondary sources

America: History & Life gives you access to research by historians, for historians. Be sure you understand the difference between books, book chapters, book reviews and journal articles.

JSTOR is a fulltext collection of scholarly journals, including many important history journals.