Research Guides: Political Science (UNH Durham): POLT 584

Historical Background - Videos & Ebooks

The following selected videos will provide some broader historical context:

The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross (2013; PBS)
Episode 1: The Black Atlantic, 1500-1800
Episode 2: The Age of Slavery, 1800-1860
Episode 3: Into the Fire, 1861-1896
Episode 4: Making a Way Out of No Way, 1897-1940
Episode 5: Rise!, 1940-1968
Episode 6: A More Perfect Union, 1968-2013
Each episode is about 56 minutes
American Experience: Eyes on the Prize (1986-2006)
14-episode series on America's civil rights movement. Each episode is approx. 53-58 minutes.
Black America Since MLK: Part One: Out of the Shadows (2016, PBS, 55 minutes)
Generally the 1960s, including Stokely Carmichael, the Black Panthers, and the rising call for Black Power
Black America since MLK: Part Two: Move on Up (2016, PBS, 55 minutes)
Generally the 1970s and early 1980s
Black America since MLK: Part Three: Keep Your Head Up (2016, PBS, 55 minutes)
Generally 1980s and 1990s
Black America since MLK: Part Four: Touch the Sky (2016, PBS, 55 minutes)
Generally 2000s including Barack Obama
Making Black America Through the Grapevine (2022; PBS)
"As Black people fought for full citizenship, hour one explores how free African Americans exercised their self-determination by building communities, establishing schools, and creating associations that would become the foundational pillars of Black America. Host Henry Louis Gates, Jr. explores the organizations, networks and artistic impression created by and for Black people." 4 episodes, each about 52 minutes long
Tell Them We Are Rising (2017; PBS)
"A haven for Black intellectuals, artists and revolutionaries - and path of promise toward the American dream - Black colleges and universities have educated the architects of freedom movements and cultivated leaders in every field. They have been unapologetically Black for more than 150 years. For the first time ever, their story is told." Episode is 1 hour 22 minutes

Selected text resources:

Encyclopedia of African American Culture and History by Colin A. Palmer; Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture Staff (Contributions by Staff)
Call Number: ebook
ISBN: 0028658167
Publication Date: 2005; 2nd edition
A source for authoritative and comprehensive information about black history, figures and accomplishments
Encyclopedia of African-American Politics, Third Edition by Robert Smith
Call Number: ebook
ISBN: 1438199392
Publication Date: 2021; 3rd edition
This A-to-Z volume examines the role of African Americans in the political process from the early days of the American Revolution to the present. Focusing on basic political ideas, court cases, laws, concepts, ideologies, institutions, and political processes, this book covers all facets of African Americans in American government.

Thinkers: Biographical Background and Sometimes More

Biographical sources include the American National Biography database, Dictionary of American Biography, and Contemporary Black Biography. Selected video and audio entries are included where possible.

Antebellum Era

David Walker (1796-1830)
Maria Stewart (1803-1879)
Liberty in the Air (Episode 2 of Slavery and the Making of America) (2005)
55 minutes. Section with David Walker and Maria Stewart starts at minute 40. "Follows the paths of several African Americans, including Thomas Jefferson's slave Jupiter, Colonel Tye, Elizabeth Freeman, David Walker, and Maria Stewart, as they respond to the increasingly restrictive system of slavery."
Frederick Douglass (1818–1895)
Becoming Frederick Douglass (2022; PBS)
55 minutes. "Discover how a man born into slavery became one of the most influential voices for democracy in U.S. history."
Frederick Douglass: In Five Speeches (2022)
58 minutes. Actors draw from five of Douglass' legendary speeches to represent a different moment in the tumultuous history of 19th century America as well as a different stage of Douglass' long and celebrated life. Scholars provide context for the speeches, and, along with readings from Douglass' autobiographies, remind us that Frederick Douglass' words about racial injustice still resonate deeply today."

Reconstruction and Beyond

Anna Julia Cooper (1858?-1964)
Alexander Crummell (1819-1898)
Booker T. Washington (1856-1915)
Ida B. Wells-Barnett (1862-1931)
Ida B. Wells: A Passion For Justice: The Pioneering African American Journalist & Activist (1989)
54 minutes. "Documents the dramatic life and turbulent times of the pioneering African American journalist, activist, suffragist and anti-lynching crusader of the post-Reconstruction period" Includes Toni Morrison reading selections from Wells' memoirs and other writings.
William Monroe Trotter (1872-1934)
W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt) Du Bois (1868-1963)
W.E.B. Du Bois: A Biography in Four Voices (1996)
1 hour 55 minutes. "Du Bois was the consummate scholar-activist whose path-breaking works remain among the most significant and articulate ever produced on the subject of race."
W. E. B. Du Bois: A Recorded Autobiography, Interview with Moses Asch (1961)
1 hour 12 minutes. (Folkways Records)
Asa Philip Randolph (1889-1979)
Bayard Rustin (1912-1987)
Brother Outsider: The Life of Freedom Fighter Bayard Rustin (2003)
1 hour 25 minutes. "He was there at most of the important events of the Civil Rights Movement - but always in the background. BROTHER OUTSIDER asks "Why?""
Interview with Bayard Rustin, 1982
41 minutes; interview starts at about minute 1:00. Discusses the March on Washington, Civil Rights Act of 1965, anti-war movement, and the role of the media.
Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955)
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)
King: Legacy of a Dream (1970)
A 24-minute film that uses selected footage from the 3-hour documentary "King: A Filmed Record; Montgomery to Memphis". It uses only original newsreel and other primary material.

Black Nationalism

Martin R. Delany (1812-1885)
Henry McNeal Turner (1834-1915)
Marcus Garvey (1887-1940)
Malcolm X (1925-1965)
Stokely Carmichael (1941–1998)
Black Panther Party
From Encyclopedia of African-American Politics, 3rd ed. (2021).

Black Radical Feminism

Claudia Jones (1915-1964)
Florynce Kennedy (1916-2000)
Shirley Chisholm (1924-2005)
Chisholm '72: Unbought & Unbossed: The First Black Woman to Run for President (2004)
1 hour 16 minutes. An in-depth look at the 1972 presidential campaign of Shirley Chisholm
Angela Davis (1944- )
Angela Davis's Speech at Women's March on Washington (2017)

Modern Black Conservatives

Clarence Thomas (1948- )
The Justice Nobody Knows (Clarence Thomas), Part One (2007)
Steve Kroft interviews Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas about his life, work, and the highly controversial confirmation hearings that Thomas believes set a harmful precedent (Part 1)
The Justice Nobody Knows (Clarence Thomas) (Part Two) (2007)
Alan Keyes (1950- )
Michael Steele (1958- )
Star Parker (1956- )

Contemporary Black Thought

Barack Obama (1961- )
Barack Obama - Selected Speeches
From the Miller Center at the University of Virginia
Ta-Nehisi Coates (1975 - )
Ta-Nehisi Coates’ full opening statement on reparations at House hearing (2019)
From PBS News Hour
Cornel West (1953- )