The Pratt Library has multiple online databases to help you learn about Black History

As we celebrate Black History month, we invite you to come visit our African American Department at the Central Library.  If you can’t make it, we have a wealth of online resources available from home.

• The African American Biographical Database: This database brings together biographies of thousands of African Americans, many not to be found in any other reference source. This extraordinary collection contains extended narratives of African American activists, business people, former slaves, performing artists, educators, lawyers, physicians, writers, church leaders, homemakers, religious workers, government workers, athletes, farmers, scientists, factory workers, and more–both the famous and the everyday person
• African American Poetry, 1750-1900: Nearly 3,000 poems written by African-American poets in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
• African American Poetry, 20th Century: A database of modern and contemporary African-American poetry from the early twentieth century to the present. Features 10,000 poems by around 70 of the most important African-American poets of the last century.
• African American History: This electronic encyclopedia includes thousand of entries covering the entire breadth of African-American history – from African beginnings through the slave trade and the Civil Rights Movement to the present.
• Baltimore Afro-American– Historical Newspaper (1893-1988): The Baltimore Afro-American was one of the most widely circulated African American newspapers. The paper’s contributors have included writer Langston Hughes, intellectual J. Saunders Redding, artist Romare Bearden, and sports editor Sam Lacy.
• Black Newspapers: Black Newspapers is a collection of current newspapers providing access to news from 1989-present.