Information Resource Bank

• Novelist: Harriet Wilson, Our Nig (1859).

• Poet: Lucy Terry, 1746, "Bar's Fight." It is her only surviving poem.

• Poet (published): Phillis Wheatley, 1773, ”Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral.” Considered the founder of African-American literature.

• Pulitzer Prize winner: Gwendolyn Brooks, 1950, won the Pulitzer Prize in poetry.

• Nobel Prize for Literature winner: Toni Morrison, 1993.

• Poet Laureate: Robert Hayden, 1976–1978; first black woman Poet Laureate: Rita Dove, 1993–1995.

Publications & Articles

• Justice For All: The Legacy of Thurgood Marshall
  Thurgood Marshall stands as one of the great American heroes of the 20th century: He was the attorney who ended legal segregation in the United States with his victory in the Brown v. Board of Education case, and the U.S. Supreme Court justice who championed expanded rights for every individual American - minorities, women, and immigrants, among many others.
  Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State

• Journal of African American History

• African American and Latino Families Face High Rates of Hardship  [Center on Budget and Policy Priorities].  November 21, 2006.

• Black American Literature at Year 2000: A New Presence

• Essays on African-American History, Culture and Society

• Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

• Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955)

• Civil Rights Act of 1964

• Voting Rights Act (1965)


Please see more about milestones in the modern civil rights movement at Civil Rights Timeline. [InfoPlease]

Government Sites

• A Proclamation by the President of the United States
  National African American History Month, 2007. January 26, 2007
  
• African American History The White House
  
• Black History Month: February 2007 Facts for Features & Special Editions
  U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce
  
• African Americans
  Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State
  
• African-American Rights
  
• African-American History Month Department of Education to find a timeline of African-American history.

Organizations

Association of African American Museums
"Established as the voice of the African American Museums Movement, the Association of African American Museums (AAAM) is a non-profit membership organization dedicated to serving the interests and needs of Black museums and cultural institutions nationwide. "

NAACP
"The oldest and largest civil rights organization in America, the NAACP was organized in 1909 as a coalition of black political activists and white progressives. The NAACP today has more than 500,000 members and operates through more than 2,200 branches, including youth and college divisions. Its current programs undertake voter education, housing, prison reform, and the furthering of equal employment and educational opportunities. Through its ACT-SO Program (Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics), the NAACP awards scholarships to outstanding black achievers."

The Amistad Research Center
"Online index of the holdings of the Amistad research Center at Tulane University. The center's archives include more than 10 million documents from the American civil-rights movement and several collections of African and African-American Art."

Center for African-American Studies
The UCLA Center for African American Studies (CAAS) was established as an Organized Research Unit in 1969. As such, the Center's mission is to develop strong academic and research programs in African American Studies through its five primary organizational branches: research, academic programs, library, special projects and publications.

The Foundation for Ethnic Understanding
The Foundation is committed to the belief that direct, face-to-face, dialogue between leaders of ethnic communities is the most effective path toward the reduction of bigotry and the promotion of reconciliation and understanding. In 2001, the Foundation launched a national education program in Black/Jewish relations, with the goal of transforming the powerful story of Black/Jewish cooperation in the civil rights movement into an educational vehicle to strengthen relations between Jewish and African American Students.

The Glider Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University
Directed by David Brion Davis, Sterling Professor of History at Yale University and winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, the Center investigates all aspects of the Atlantic slave system and its eradication. It also seeks to advance public understanding of the role of slavery and abolition in the making of the modern world. Through publications, conferences, and educational outreach programs and events, it translates scholarly research into public knowledge.

Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies
A national, nonprofit institution that conducts research on public policy issues of special concern to black Americans and other minorities. Founded in 1970, the Joint Center provides independent analyses through research, publications, and outreach programs.

President's Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities
The President's Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) will identify ways to strengthen the role of these colleges and universities in helping provide quality education opportunities for minority and disadvantaged students. The site is maintained by the U.S. Dept. of Education.

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
The Schomburg Center, one of the research libraries of the New York Public Library, is an institution devoted to collecting, preserving and providing access to resources documenting the experiences of peoples of African descent throughout the world. The Schomburg Center promotes the study of these histories and cultures of the peoples and interprets its collections through exhibitions, publications, and educational, scholarly and cultural programs. This site includes information on the Center's various divisions: art and artifacts; general research and reference; manuscripts, archives and rare books; moving image and recorded sound; and photographs and prints. It also contains links to other Internet sources of information on Africa and the African diaspora.

The W.E.B. DuBois Institute for Afro-American Research
Founded in 1975, the Institute is the nation's oldest research center dedicated to the study of the history, culture and social institutions of African Americans. It sponsors research projects, fellowships for emerging and established scholars, publications, conferences and working groups. Named after the first African American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard University (1896), the Institute also sponsors two major lecture series each year and serves as the co-sponsor for numerous public conferences, lectures, readings and forums. The site provides information about upcoming conferences as well as the various activities of the Institute.