Primary Sources
- General Order 3Digitized version of General Order No. 3, which informed the people of Texas that all enslaved people were now free, from the National Archives.
- The Emancipation ProclamationPresident Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free."
- Library of Congress: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938"Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938 contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves. These narratives were collected in the 1930s as part of the Federal Writers' Project (FWP) of the Works Progress Administration, later renamed Work Projects Administration (WPA). At the conclusion of the Slave Narrative project, a set of edited transcripts was assembled and microfilmed in 1941 as the seventeen-volume Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves. In 2000-2001, with major support from the Citigroup Foundation, the Library digitized the narratives from the microfilm edition and scanned from the originals 500 photographs, including more than 200 that had never been microfilmed or made publicly available. This online collection is a joint presentation of the Manuscript and Prints and Photographs divisions of the Library of Congress".
- Freedom on the MoveCreated by an interdisciplinary team of scholars, this is a database of "runaway ads" to locate "fugitive" slaves. These are the actual advertisement that were printed in newspapers.
- A History of Racial InjusticeA project from the Equal Justice Initiative, this online calendar features a different historical event everyday that focuses on racial injustice.
Food (In)Security
- Detroit Black Community Food Security Network"The organization was founded to ensure that Detroit's African American population participated in the food movement and because we are the vast majority of the population in Detroit, that we are in the leadership on that movement locally".
- Neighborhood Grocery"By leveraging technology, equity crowdfunding, and civic partnerships in Detroit communities, Neighborhood Grocery will build grocery stores, and other food businesses to address health & wealth disparities in Detroit".
- Detroit Food Policy CouncilMission: "to influence policy which ensures the development and maintenance of a sustainable and equitable food system, resulting in a food-secure City of Detroit in which all of its residents are hunger-free, healthy, and benefiting from a robust food system".
- The W Food PantryOpen since April 2017, The W Food Pantry provides currently enrolled Wayne State Warriors in need of food assistance with supplemental food and additional resources to enhance student success.The W is excited to be a member of Gleaners Food Bank.
- Greater Grocer ProjectFrom Today@Wayne, March 11 2021: "Wayne State University, the Detroit Food Policy Council and members of the Detroit Grocery Coalition today announced the Great Grocer Project, a community-based program to strengthen relationships between independently owned grocery stores and their customers in Detroit, while providing support to increase awareness and sales of healthy foods that foster economic vitality within Detroit neighborhoods".
Well Being
- Mental Health & Non-White PopulationsMental Health America, (MHA), is a community-based non-profit that promotes mental health as a critical part of overall wellness.
- We, As Ourselves"We, As Ourselves is a call-to-action to center the voices and experiences of Black survivors and to create the cultural conditions for Black survivors to be heard and supported."
- Liberate Meditation (app)"Explore meditations and talks designed for the Black experience."
- Shine (app)"We started Shine because we didn’t see ourselves—a Black woman and a half-Japanese woman—and our experiences represented in mainstream “wellness.” Our bodies, our skin color, our financial access, our past traumas—it all often felt otherized."
- Nap Ministry"The Nap Ministry was founded in 2016 by Tricia Hersey and is an organization that examines the liberating power of naps. Our “REST IS RESISTANCE” framework and practice engages with the power of performance art, site-specific installations, and community organizing to install sacred and safe spaces for the community to rest together. We facilitate immersive workshops and curate performance art that examines rest as a radical tool for community healing. We believe rest is a form of resistance and name sleep deprivation as a racial and social justice issue."
*Most active on social media, especially Instagram.
Dept. of African American Studies (WSU)
- Research AreasFind the special areas of interest and research for faculty here.
- AFAM Studies DepartmentLearn more about AFAM studies and faculty.
Books
The New Jim Crow by ISBN: 9781620975459Publication Date: 2020Author, civil rights litigator, and legal scholar Michelle Alexander demonstrates that, by targeting Black men through the "War on Drugs" and destroying communities of color, America's justice system serves as a present-day system of racial control—even as it adheres to the belief of colorblindness.
Are Prisons Obsolete? by ISBN: 1583225811Publication Date: 2003Since the 1980s prison construction and incarceration rates in the U.S. have been rising exponentially, evoking huge public concern about their proliferation, their recent privatisation and their promise of enormous profits. But these prisons house hugely disproportionate numbers of people of colour, betraying the racism embedded in the system, while studies show that increasing prison sentences has had no effect on crime. Here, esteemed civil rights activist Angela Davis lays bare the situation and argues for a radical rethinking of our rehabilitation programmes.
Stamped from the Beginning by ISBN: 9781568584638Publication Date: 2016The National Book Award winning history of how racist ideas were created, spread, and deeply rooted in American society. Some Americans insist that we're living in a post-racial society. But racist thought is not just alive and well in America -- it is more sophisticated and more insidious than ever. And as award-winning historian Ibram X. Kendi argues, racist ideas have a long and lingering history, one in which nearly every great American thinker is complicit.
Illusions of Emancipation by ISBN: 9781469648361Publication Date: 2019In this sweeping reappraisal of slavery's end during the Civil War era, Joseph P. Reidy employs the lenses of time, space, and individuals' sense of personal and social belonging to understand how participants and witnesses coped with drastic change, its erratic pace, and its unforeseeable consequences. Emancipation disrupted everyday habits, causing sensations of disorientation that sometimes intensified the experience of reality and sometimes muddled it. While these illusions of emancipation often mixed disappointment with hope, through periods of even intense frustration they sustained the promise that the struggle for freedom would result in victory.
Emancipation Without Equality by ISBN: 9781625343956Publication Date: 2018Covering a period roughly bookended by two international forums, the 1884-1885 Berlin Conference and the 1911 Universal Races Congress, Emancipation without Equality chronicles how activists of African descent fought globally for equal treatment and access to rights associated with post-emancipated citizenship. While Euro-American leaders created a standard to guide the course of imperialism at the Berlin Conference, the proceedings of the Universal Races Congress demonstrated that Pan-Africanism had become a visible part of a growing, global, anti-imperialist protest.
Juneteenth Texas by ISBN: 1574410180Publication Date: 1996-10-01Volume of essays about African-American folklore, including reminiscences of African-American folk culture in Texas, studies of specific genres of folklore, information about Texas-African food-ways, studies of specific performers, information about songs and other folklore.
Expanding the Frontiers of Civil Rights by ISBN: 0814343295Publication Date: 2017Although historians have devoted a great deal of attention to the development of federal government policy regarding civil rights in the quarter century following World War II, little attention has been paid to the equally important developments at the state level. Few states underwent a more dramatic transformation with regard to civil rights than Michigan did.
Juneteenth by Call Number: PS 3555 .L625 J86 1999ISBN: 0394464575Publication Date: 1999Shot on the Senate floor by a young Black man, a dying racist senator summons an elderly Black Baptist minister from Oklahoma to his side for a remarkable dialogue that reveals the deeply buried secrets of their shared past and the tragedy that reunites them.
- Library of Congress: Ralph Ellison's "Juneteenth""The following guest post was written by Barbara Bair, curator of literature, culture and the arts in the Library’s Manuscript Division".
Foundation & Philosophy of the United States
The Declaration of Independence, Consitution and Bill of Rights are collectively known as "The Charters of Freedom". Take a look at the links below to see scans of the original images and read the contents of each document.
- 13th AmendmentAmendment 13 was passed by Congress 1/31/1865 and ratified 12/6/1865. It reads as follows:
Section 1.
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Section 2.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. - Charters of FreedomThe Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights and Constitution.
- National ArchivesAn archives is a place where people can go to gather firsthand facts, data, and evidence from letters, reports, notes, memos, photographs, and other primary sources.
The National Archives is the U.S. Government’s collection of documents that records important events in American history. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is the Government agency that preserves and maintains these materials and makes them available for research.
Black Owned Financial Insitutions
- First Independence Bank (Detroit)"First Independence Bank opened its doors on May 11, 1970. We have served the banking needs of the Detroit Metropolitan area for over 50 years and remain one of two banks headquartered in the City of Detroit, as well as the only African American‐owned bank headquartered in the State of Michigan.".
- Greenwood (Mobile Banking)"It’s no secret the current financial system has failed at keeping wealth in the Black and Latino community. Our communities suffer from a lack of wealth, money circulation in the Black community, and generational transfer. That is why we created a new Black owned financial institution. A mobile banking platform inspired by the early 1900’s Greenwood District, where recirculation of Black wealth occurred all day, every day, and where Black businesses thrived. Today’s Greenwood is a Black owned banking system developed by us, for us.."
Founder: Ryan Glover, co-founders: Andrew Young and Michael "Killer Mike" Render. - Activist Michael Render on Bank Inequity"One of the keys to bridging that racial gap is to ensure that Black and Latinx Americans can access financing — something mainstream banks have neglected to do for generations, according to the nonprofit National Community Reinvestment Coalition".
- Minority Depository Institutions List (FDIC)"The FDIC’s Statement of Policy Regarding Minority Depository Institutions (MDIs) outlines two definitions of how FDIC-insured commercial banks and savings associations may qualify for MDI status. An MDI may be a federal insured depository institution for which (1) 51 percent or more of the voting stock is owned by minority individuals; or (2) a majority of the board of directors is minority and the community that the institution serves is predominantly minority. Ownership must be by U.S. citizens or permanent legal U.S. residents to be counted in determining minority ownership".