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This Black History Month, why not use this specially collated list of resources to learn about Black History? Our wonderful staff and students have suggested some of the best resources out there...
As recommended by...
The UCL History BAME Network and it's staff facilitator, Dr Jagjeet Lally
Read...
- Akala, Natives. Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire (2018)
- David Olusoga, Black and British. A Forgotten History (2017)
- NIgeria@60 (Horniman Museum, south London)
- The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965)
- Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race (2017)
Watch...
- Africa Turns the Page: a wonderful documentary about “African” writers from the early twentieth century all the way to the present that will inspire and give you plenty of reading ideas!
- I am not Your Negro (2016): documentary by Raoul Peck. The famed writer, James Baldwin, tells the story of race in modern America with his unfinished novel, ‘Remember This House’: Available to buy or rent on YouTube or on Amazon Prime.
- Rest in Power (2018): six-episode series documents the shooting of Trayvon Martin and explores the racial tension in the United States that was brought about in its wake. Available on Amazon Prime.
- Black and British: A Forgotten History with David Olusoga - various episodes available on Iplayer.
- Selma (2014): A chronicle of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s campaign to secure equal voting rights via an epic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965. Available on Amazon Prime.
- Akala’s Oxford Union address.
Listen
See & Experience...
As recommended by...
Professor Margot Finn
Black History Collections in the IHR Wohl Library
Access here: https://www.history.ac.uk/library/collections/black-history
The IHR Wohl Library collection centres around published primary sources and guides, supported by reference and some secondary works.
Our Migration Story
Access here: https://www.ourmigrationstory.org.uk/
This website presents the often untold stories of the generations of migrants who came to and shaped the British Isles.
Runnymede Trust
Access here: https://www.runnymedetrust.org/
The Runnymede Trust is a leading Race Equality UK think tank.
As recommended by...
Professor Matthew Smith
Legacies of British Slave-Ownership Database
Access here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/
This database, which was created by The Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slave-ownership at UCL, provides an excellent resource for researchers who are interested in finding out about British slave-holders.
Beyond a Boundary
Access here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2eatQ7A9e8
1976 film about the Trinidadian Marxist intellectual C. L. R. James, who wrote the book Beyond a Boundary (1963), which is a memoir on cricket.
James Baldwin and Nikki Giovani, a conversation
Access here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZmBy7C9gHQ
Conversation between James Baldwin and Nikki Giovani, taped in London 1971
PBS Egalite for All: Toussaint Louverture and the Haitian Revolution (2009)
Access here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOGVgQYX6SU
The true story of the most successful slave uprising in world history comes to the screen as filmmaker Nolan Walker explores the Haitian Revolution.
The 1619 Project
Access here: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-america-slavery.html
The 1619 Project is an ongoing initiative from The New York Times Magazine that began in August 2019, the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery.
Slave Voyages Database
Access here: https://www.slavevoyages.org/
This digital memorial raises questions about the largest slave trades in history and offers access to the documentation available to answer them.
As recommended by...
Dr Tim Gibbs
BBC Four: Africa's Great Civilisations
Access here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b5b4vy
Henry Louis Gates Jr takes a new look at the history of Africa, from the birth of humankind to the dawn of the 20th century.
So who was Roy Francis? A Squidge Rugby Deep Dive
Access here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRX27awOb6g&t=308
The passionate (almost entirely positive) commentary from South African rugby fans – a country where the shadow of apartheid is still very heavy - gives you a sense of the historical significance of the debates.
As recommended by...
Dr Chloe Ireton
Black Atlantics in the Global South: Primary Sources in Conversation
Access here: https://blackatlantics.wordpress.com/
This website has been developed for the public history project Black Atlantics in the Global South: Primary Sources in Conversation. Members of the undergraduate research seminar “Black Atlantics in the Global South,” led by Dr. Chloe Ireton, contribute short primary source-based essays that seek to engage with the public about their ongoing research projects.
As recommended by...
Dr Keren Weitzberg
Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the Study of Racism and Racialisation
Access here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/racism-racialisation/
The UCL Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the Study of Racism and Racialisation explores the impact of racism - scientific, metaphysical and cultural.
As recommended by...
Dr Benedetta Rossi
The Studies in the History of the African Diaspora (SHADD) website
Acces here: https://profbrunov.wixsite.com/shadd
The Studies in the History of the African Diaspora (SHADD) website, also named after Mary Ann Shadd (an anti-slavery activist and the first Black female newspaper editor in North America), Studies in the History of the African Diaspora – Documents hosts primary documents and archival inventories that are housed at the Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on Africa and its Diasporas at York University (Canada).
The Freedom Narratives website
Access here: https://www.freedomnarratives.org/
The Freedom Narratives website contains testimonies of West Africans from the times of slavery, including autobiographical accounts.
Equiano's World: Gustavus Vassa and the Abolition of the Slave Trade
Access here: www.equianosworld.org
Equiano's World: Gustavus Vassa and the Abolition of the Slave Trade sheds light on the life and work of an inspiring African author and abolitionist.
DATAS: Documenting Africans in Trans-Atlantic Slavery
Access here: www.datasproject.org studies
DATAS: Documenting Africans in Trans-Atlantic Slavery studies African names and ethnonyms to reconstruct the histories of those enslaved across the Atlantic and Americas. It contains a 'resources' page with links to further online databases and valuable websites based on scholarly research on African and Atlantic history: https://documentingafricans.blogspot.com/p/resources.html
As recommended by...
Dr Michael Collins
The Stuart Hall Project: John Akomfrah
Access here: https://vimeo.com/205226601
Read the BFI interview with John Akomfrah here: https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/interviews/stuart-hall-project-john-akomfrah-interview
The Stuart Hall Project is a 2013 British film written and directed by John Akomfrah centred on cultural theorist Stuart Hall, who is regarded as one of the founding figures of the New Left and a key architect of Cultural Studies in Britain.
As recommended by...
Dr Aaron Graham
Race & Slavery Petitions
Access here: https://library.uncg.edu/slavery/petitions/
A searchable database containing details of hundreds of petitions by and about free and enslaved people of colour to legislatures and courts in the US South between 1775 and 1867, for use by scholars and historians, teachers and students, genealogists and others.
Slave revolt in Jamaica, 1760-1: a cartographic narrative
Access here: http://revolt.axismaps.com/
An interactive cartographic study of a major slave revolt in Jamaica in 1760, providing day-by-day visualisation of the course and progress of the revolt and its suppression.
British Library: Endangered Archive Programme: Manumission Books, 1747-79
Access here: https://eap.bl.uk/collection/EAP148-3/search
A digitised collection of nine volumes of 'manumission libers' containing the certificates of freedom granted in Jamaica to enslaved people of colour manumitted or freed by slaveowners between 1747 and 1779.
Liberated Africans
Access here: https://liberatedafricans.org/
A database with details of the Courts of Mixed Commission established across the world in the nineteenth century to rule on slave ships seized, including links to a range of court records giving details of ships condemned and enslaved peoples landed in places such as Sierra Leone.
Esclavage & Indemnités
Access here: https://esclavage-indemnites.fr/public/
A French counterpart to the Legacies of British Slavery project, giving details of the individual slaveowners who claimed compensation from the Haitian Government after the treaty with France in 1825, and from the French government in 1849 after the abolition of slavery in Martinique, Guadeloupe and other French territories.
Runaway slaves in Britain: bondage, freedom and race in the eighteenth century
Access here: https://www.runaways.gla.ac.uk/
A comprehensive database of nearly a thousand advertisements for runaway slaves in Britain, offering an insight into the pervasive nature of slavery in Britain itself.