A-Z Databases

This curated selection of primary sources is designed for teaching and learning about the struggles and triumphs of Black Americans. Developed with input from Black history scholars and advisors, its easily discoverable materials are ideal for assignments and special projects focused on U.S. Black history.

HeinOnline's Air and Space Law database brings together documents on private-sector pioneers with government funded programs to create 29 unique subjects, that track technological advancements, reforms and new frontiers in aerospace history. Topics covered include: airline deregulation; air traffic control modernization; airline safety concerns in a post-9/11 world; drones; satellites and their essential function in modern life; the Space Shuttle Program, including investigation of the Columbia and Challenger disasters; the growing problem of space debris; and the increasing amount of private, commercial companies and their stake in space. Collection is organized by outerspace and suborbital space to support researchers concerned with celestial bodies and earthbound air travel.

This module consists of a large variety of collections from the U.S. National Archives, a series of collections from the Chicago History Museum, as well as selected first-hand accounts on Indian Wars and westward migration. One of the highlights of this module is its focus on American Indians in the first half of the 20th Century, a period that has not been studied in as much detail as the calamitous 19th Century. The two major collections on the 20th Century in this module are Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and records from the Major Council Meetings of American Indian Tribes. In addition to these 20th Century records, American Indians and the American West, 1809-1971, features a number of excellent collections on American Indians in the 19th Century, with a focus on the interaction among white settlers, the U.S. federal government, and Indian tribes. For related collections, see the Records of the National Council on Indian Opportunity and the FBI Files on the American Indian Movement in the American Politics from Kennedy to Watergate module.

The focus of this module is on the NAACP's efforts to combat lynching, mob violence, discrimination in the criminal justice system, and white resistance to civil rights efforts. These files are supplemented by materials on segregation and discrimination complaints regarding public accommodations and recreational facilities sent to and investigated by the NAACP, and records on discrimination in employment. A particularly rich set of records in this module is the NAACP file on one of the most celebrated criminal trials of the 20th century--the case of the Scottsboro Boys. The NAACP's campaign against lynching and mob violence was ideally suited to accomplish the NAACP's early goals of breaching the wall of silence regarding racial discrimination and racial violence, and bringing African Americans into full civic participation. The records pertaining to this campaign shed light on the Great Migration of the early 20th century and the movement of African Americans to urban areas, and NAACP's efforts to respond to urban mob violence, especially during the violence of 1919 as well as later riots. The NAACP's efforts to win passage of a federal law against lynching are also well-documented in this module.

Major campaigns for equal access to education, voting, employment, housing and the military are covered in this module. The education files in this second module document the NAACP's systematic assault on segregated education that culminated in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. Files from 1955 –1965 focus on the NAACP's efforts to implement the Brown decision as well as to combat de facto segregation outside of the South. Voting rights was one of the NAACP's earliest major campaigns. The voting rights document in extensive detail the NAACP's campaign against the white primary, discriminatory registration practices, the grandfather clause, and the triumphs of the 1957 Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The NAACP was involved in several subjects that did not rise to the level of major campaigns but were still vital to the organization. This module contains records on those subjects, and in so doing, reveals the wide scope of NAACP activism and interest. These files cover subjects and episodes that are crucial to the NAACP's history, such as civil rights complaints and legislation, the Klan, Birth of a Nation, the Walter White-W. E. B. Du Bois controversy of 1933-1934, communism and anticommunism during the years of the "red scare," the congressional prosecution of Hollywood personalities, the prosecution of conscientious objectors during World War II, NAACP's relations with African colonial liberation movements, NAACP fundraising and membership recruitment, urban riots, the War on Poverty, and the emergence of the Black Power Movement.

Throughout history, revolution and protest movements have demanded the world’s attention and driven political and social change. To understand the impact and aftermath of these events, it is imperative to shine a historical lens on the ideologies, origins, goals and stakeholders that drove them. Revolution and Protest Online is a research and learning database providing in one place comprehensive, comparative documentation, analysis, and interpretation of political processes through the lens of revolutions, protests, resistance and social movements. This easily searchable collection examines the most studied and important events and themes related to revolution and protest from the 18th century through the 21st century. This collection will include at completion 175 hours of video, 100,000 pages of printed materials (personal papers, organizational and government documents, journals, books, reports, videos, monographs, and speeches), and more than 1,000 images. Content is provided by preeminent historical archives as well as video partners. The collection also provides links to websites that offer background for the curated primary sources and documentaries.