African American Reference Works: Home

Ninety years after W.E.B. Du Bois first articulated the need for "the equivalent of a black Encyclopedia Britannica," Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates Jr., realized his vision by publishing Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience in 1999. This new, greatly expanded edition of the original work broadens the foundation provided by Africana. Including more than one million new words, Africana has been completely updated and revised.

The African American Almanac is written in an engaging style by subject experts, and reviewed by academic editor Christopher Brooks of Virginia Commonwealth University. Included is a chronology chapter that highlights important events in African American history. A related chapter on African American Firsts focuses on important first-time achievements.

The African American National Biography presents history through a mosaic of the lives of thousands of individuals, illuminating the abiding influence of persons of African descent on the life of this nation from the arrival of Esteban in Spanish Florida in 1529 through to notable black citizens of the present day.

This work pulls together for the first time all of the research in this vast but underrepresented field this work provides one of the strongest building blocks of Black Women's Studies.

The Cambridge Companion to African American Women's Literature covers a period dating back to the eighteenth century. These specially commissioned essays highlight the artistry, complexity and diversity of a literary tradition that ranges from Lucy Terry to Toni Morrison.

The Cambridge Companion to American Civil Rights Literature brings together leading scholars to examine the significant traditions, genres, and themes of civil rights literature.

Through a series of essays that explore the forms, themes, genres, historical contexts, major authors, and latest critical approaches, A Companion to African American Literature presents a comprehensive chronological overview of African American literature from the eighteenth century to the modern day

The Complete Encyclopedia of African American history. This comprehensive resource explores the past, the progress, and the present of African Americans in four volumes, each building, complementing, and expanding on the previous volume.

The African-American's struggle for freedom and equality has been one of the truly heroic episodes in American history. Yet, until now, there has been no reference book presenting an overview of the century-long struggle for civil rights under a single cover. This encylopedia fills that void.

This two-volume reference work provides students and general readers easy access to information on African American business leaders, companies, associations, and other business subjects.

A five-volume set and supplement covering all aspects of the African-American experience from 1619 to the present day.

The Encyclopedia of African American Education covers educational institutions at every level, from preschool through graduate and professional training, with special attention to historically black and predominantly black colleges and universities. Other entries cover individuals, organizations, associations, and publications that have had a significant impact on African American education.

Focusing on the making of African American society from the 1896 ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson up to the contemporary period, this encyclopedia traces the transition from the Reconstruction Era to the age of Jim Crow, the Harlem Renaissance, the Great Migration, the Brown ruling that overturned Plessy, the Civil Rights Movement, & more.

Focusing on the making of African American society in early America from 1619 to 1830, this text traces the transition from Africa to America and the role Africans played in shaping the development of American society.

Containing many key issues that have influenced the African society in America, this title looks at the ways in which the tenets and foundations of African American culture have given rise to the current culture, examining topics such as abolitionism, the civil rights movement and literature and the media.

This important new reference covers African and African-American religion in sub-Saharan Africa, North America, South America, and the Caribbean, and provides vital insights into its growing worldwide influence in Europe, Asia and the South Pacific.

This first volume of a two-volume set addresses the historical and contemporary impact of two of the largest minority groups in the United States. Divided into two sections, the encyclopedia addresses the political struggles of African Americans and Asian Americans. (Text from a review in ERIC)

This encyclopedia provides readers with over 280 entries that offer fresh and engaging insights into Dr. King and the civil rights movement. From their unique familiarity with these materials, they have compiled an encyclopedia offering a fresh and exciting look at the work of Dr. King and the course of the civil rights movement.

The goal of The Oxford Handbook of African American Language is to provide readers with a wide range of analyses of both traditional and contemporary work on language use in African American communities in a broad collective. The Handbook offers a survey of language and its uses in African American communities.

The SAGE Encyclopedia of African Cultural Heritage in North America provides an accessible ready reference on the retention and continuity of African culture within the United States.