History/PoliticalScience 350:
Race and Law in United States Politics and History
The following sources will give you background and overview information on your topics.
The Encyclopedia of American Religious History,REF/BL/2525/.Q44 1996
Encyclopedia of Christianity, REF/BR/95/.E8913 1999 (4 vols.)
Encyclopedia of Protestantism, REF/BX/4811.3/.E53 2004 (4 vols.)
Encyclopedia of the United States in the Nineteenth Century, REF/E/169.1/.E626 2001
Dictionary of American History, 2003. REF/E/174/.D52 2003
Great Events from History: American Series, REF/E/178/.M22 (3 vols.)
Americans at War: Society, Culture and the Homefront, REF/E/181/.A453 2005 (4vols.)
Encyclopedia of American Military History, REF/E/181/.E63 2003 (3 vols.)
Oxford Companion to American Military History, REF/E/181/.O94 1999
Encyclopedia of American Political History, REF/E/183/.E48 2001
Encyclopedia of American Political History: Studies of the Principal Movements and Ideas, REF/E/183/.E5 1984 (3 vols.)
Civil Rights in the United States, REF/E/184/.A1/C47 2000 (2 vols.)
Encyclopedia of Race and Racism, REF/E/184/.A1/E584 2008 (3 vols.)
The African American Encyclopedia,REF/E/185/.A253 1993 (6 vols.)
The African American Almanac, REF/E/185/.A37 2000
Black American Reference Book, REF/E/185/.D25 1976
Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History, REF/E/185/.E54 2006 (6 vols.)
Encyclopedia of African American History:1619-1895, REF/E/185/.E545 2006 (3 vols.)
The Negro Almanac: a Reference Work on the Afro-American, REF/E/185/.N385 1989
The Negro in American History, REF/E/185/.N4 (3 vols.)
Vol. 1 Black Americans 1928-1971
Vol. 2 A Taste of Freedom 1854-1927
Vol. 3 Slaves and Masters 1567-1854
1001 Things Everyone Should Know about African American History, REF/E/185/.S798 1996
Reference Library of Black America, REF/E/185/.R455 2005 (5 vols.)
Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Civil Rights, REF/E/185.61/E54 2003 (2 vols.)
Encyclopedia of Civil Rights in America, REF/E/185.61/E544/1998 (3 vols.)
Historical Dictionary of the Civil Rights Movement, REF/E/185.61/L84 1997
Slavery in the United States: a Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia, REF/E/441/.S635 2007 (2 vols.)
Slavery in America, REF/E/443/.S58 2008 (2 vols.)
Encyclopedia of Southern History, REF/F/207/.E52
Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, REF/F/209/.E53 1989
The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, REF/F/209/.N47 2006 (4 vols.)
Vol.1 Religion
Vol. 2 Geography
Vol. 3 History
Vol. 4 Myth, Manners and Memory
The Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Regional Culture: The South, REF/F/209/.S68 2004
Affirmative Action:An Encyclopedia, REF/HF5549.5/.A34/A426 2004 (2 vols.)
United States Reports (1948--), REF/KF/101/.A212
United States Supreme Court Reports (1759-1881), REF/KF/101/.A3
Supreme Court Reporter(1882-1966), REF/KF/101/.A322
Supreme Court of the United States 1789-1980: An Index to Opinions Arranged by Justice, REF/KF/101.6/.B57 1983 (2 vols.)
United States Supreme Court Decisions: An Index to Excerpts, Reprints, and Discussions, REF/KF/101.6/.G83 1983
American Justice, REF/KF/154/.A44 1996 (3 vols.)
Encyclopedia of the American Judicial System, REF/KF/154/.E5 1987 (3 vols.)
Oxford Companion to American Law, REF/KF/154/.O96 2002
West’s Encyclopedia of American Law, REF/KF/154/.W47 2005 (13 vols.)
Oxford Guide to United States Supreme Court Decisions, REF/KF/4548/.O97 1999
Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States, REF/KF/8742/.A35/O93 2005
Encyclopedia of the American Military,REF/UA/23/.E56 1994 (3 vols.)
FINDING MATERIAL IN BIBLIOGRAPHIES
The library has several book-length listings (called bibliographies) of materials on American history.
American Historical Association’s Guide to Historical Literature, REF/D/20/.A55 1995 (2 vols.)
Harvard Guide to American History, REF/E/178/.F852 (2vols.)
Footnotes to American History, REF/E/179/.S48
A Guide to the Sources of U.S. Military History, REF/E/181/.G83
Military History of the United States: An Annotated Bibliography, REF/E/181/.M54 1986
Civil War Books: A Critical Bibliography, REF/E/462/.B52/N39 (2 vols.)
FINDING BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
If you are interested in an historical figure, the biographical sources below may help you.
American National Biography, REF/CT/213/.A68 1999 (20+ vols.)
Research Guide to American Historical Biography, REF/CT/214/.R47 1988 (5 vols.)
American Reformers, REF/CT/214/.A67 1985
Dictionary of American Biography, 1935--. REF/E/176/.D56 (20+ vols.)
Black Women in America, REF/E/185.86/.B542 2005 (3 vols.)
Notable Black American Men, REF/E/185.86/.M682 2007
African American National Biography, REF/E/185.96/.A4466 2008 (8 vols.)
Dictionary of American Negro Biography, 1982. REF/E/185.96/.L6
Biography and Genealogy Master Index. Online.
Biography Index, 1941-96, index shelves. Online, 1984--.
Biography Resource Center. Online.
Note: All of ouronline databases can be accessed by selecting Library on the college web page and then choose the Online Databases:A-Z online databases link.
USING THE ONLINE CATALOG
The online catalog lists materials owned by the libraries of Emory & Henry College, Bluefield College, King College, Appalachian School of Law, Tazewell County Public Library and Washington County (VA) Public Library. You can find materials listed by author, title, subject and keyword. Below is an example of a subject search.
FINDING MATERIALS USING INDEXES
Kelly Library has several indexes that should help you locate periodical articles on race and law in U.S. politics and history. All of these indexes are online, and can be accessed through the Online Databases:A-Z online databases link.
Academic OneFile/Expanded Academic ASAP/General OneFile
Covers many subject areas, partially full-text, combination of popular magazines and scholarly journals.
America: History & Life.
Indexes articles in scholarly journals, chapters in books and dissertations.
Arts and Humanities Citation Index. (in FirstSearch) 1980-, online.
Indexes 1300 titles in the arts, humanities and social sciences.
CQ Supreme Court Collection
Analytical and historical commentary on Supreme Court cases. Under the CQ Electronic Library link.
..
JSTOR
A full-text database of more than 350 scholarly journals in many subject areas. Each title is full-text from volume 1, issue 1.
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LexisNexis Academic Universe
The premier legal database: also good for newspaper articles. Access to a wide range of regional, local, and international news; company and financial information; and legal, medical and reference information.
Newsbank
Provides full-text articles of current newspapers, magazines, historical newspapers, and early American imprints.
OmniFile Full Text Mega
Covers many subject areas, partially full-text, and a combination of popular magazine and scholarly journals.
WorldCat
Includes millions of bibliographic records for items cataloged by OCLC member libraries, representing material in over 400 languages.
INTERLIBRARY LOAN
When you use the indexes mentioned previously, you may find citations to books and periodicals that Kelly Library does not own. The staff will try to borrow the book or get a photocopy of the article for you. You should select items carefully and allow at least 5-7 days for the material to arrive. Also, please double check the online catalog and the Full-text journals list to be sure that the library doesn’t already own the material. Kelly Library uses the online ILLiad system to order materials; if you have never ordered interlibrary loan material through this system, you will have to register the first time you use it. If you have any questions about this service, please speak with Patty Greany, Jody Hanshew or Jane Caldwell.
FINDING PRIMARY RESOURCES
According to F.N. McCoy’s Researching and Writing in History (Berkeley: University of California, 1974, p. 11), secondary sources are the scholars, the authorities, the historians who wrote and are writing about people or events in history. Primary sources include works produced by the subjects themselves, such as letters, diaries and memoirs; works of contemporaries of the person or event; government records and newspaper or magazine accounts of that time period. Below are some starting points for your search for primary sources.
Annals of America, REF/E/171/.A793 (20+ vols.)
Documents of American History, REF/E/173/.C66 1973 (2 vols.)
African American History in the Press 1851-1899, REF/E/185/.2/A25 (2 vols.)
American Civil War: Letters and Diaries
An online database that knits together more than 1,000 sources of diaries, letters, and memoirs to provide access to thousands of views on almost every aspect of the war. The letters and diaries are by the famous and the unknown, giving not only both the Northern and Southern perspectives, but those of foreign observers also.
America’s Historical Newspapers, 1690-1900 (Series 1 and Series 2)
An online database containing hundreds of historic newspapers.
Early Encounters in North America
Documents the relationships among peoples in North America from 1534 to 1850 focusing on personal accounts, and provides unique perspectives from traders, slaves, missionaries, explorers, soldiers, native peoples, and officials, both men and women. It also includes nearly 1,000 prints, drawings, paintings, maps, bibliographies, letters, photographs, and original facsimile pages.
North American Women's Letters and Diaries
Online database containing 1,500 American and Canadian women's diaries and correspondence. Spanning more than 300 years, the 150,000 pages of material provide a detailed record of what women wore, what they ate, what they read, the conditions under which they worked, and how they amused themselves.
Abingdon Virginian, 1861-65. Microfilm cabinets
Atlantic Monthly, 1857--. Bound periodicals
Congressional Globe, 1848-1873. Government Documents Collection
Harper’s Magazine, 1850--. Bound periodicals. Also available online as Harpweek
Brownlow’s Knoxville Whig, 1853-1868. Microfilm cabinets
New York Times, 1861-1865. Microfilm cabinets
New Orleans Christian Advocate, 1828-1879. Microfilm cabinets
Richmond Enquirer, 1861-1862. Microfilm cabinets
Richmond Sentinel, 1863-1865. Microfilm cabinets
Southwest Virginia Newspapers, various titles and dates. Microfilm cabinets
National Archives microfilm collection of papers such as “Records Relating to the Suppression of the African Slave Trade and Negro Colonization Act 1854-1874.”
Also, many libraries and research centers are scanning original documents and making them available on the Internet.
FINDING INTERNET RESOURCES
There are many sites on the web that may be of use to you. You can use a search engine, such as Google ( AltaVista ( etc. Then there are directories that group web pages together, such as the Librarians’ Index to the Internet ( In addition, there are some well-known sites, such as the American Memory Projectat the Library of Congress ( Documenting the American South at UNC-Chapel Hill (docsouth.unc.edu/index.html), etc. that have primary sources available on the web. Some other sites that you may find useful are:
Avalon Project at Yale Law School: Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy (
Civil Rights Documentation Project(
From Revolution to Reconstruction: Documents (
Using Primary Sources on the Web (
REMOTE ACCESS
If you live off-campus and off the college’s network, you can access most of the library’s electronic databases. Copies of instructions for remote access are available on the library’s web page under A-Z Online Databases and then Off Campus Access Instructions.
DOCUMENTATION
You must document your sources to avoid plagiarism, and cite your sources in correct bibliography and foot/end note form. The History Department requires its students to use TheChicago Manual of Style, 15th ed. or Turabian’s Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses and Dissertations, 6th ed. (both of these are on reserve--ask at the Circulation Desk). For Internet and other electronic sources, try these sites for documentation guidelines: Melvin Page’s Brief Citation Guide (www2.h-net.msu.edu/~africa/citation.html) and the Chicago Manual of Style Online:Chicago-Style Citation Quick Guide ( Another good source for help with documentation is the E&H Writing Center (
REMEMBER: If you’re having problems using or locating any of the materials listed in this handout, please ask a library staff member for help.
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