African American Historical Newspapers online

The Pittsburgh Courier Historical Archive has just been added to the Penn Libraries website. It includes full page and article images with searchable full text from 1911-2002. The collection includes digital reproductions providing access to every page from every available issue.

As Penn librarian Nick Okrent explains: "At its height in the 1940s the Pittsburgh Courier was one of the most important African American newspapers in the country, had a national circulation of over 350,000 and was as widely read as the Chicago Defender and Baltimore Afro-American. It is famous for its coverage of racial stereotypes in popular media, segregation in the military, Jim Crow in the South and African American figures in sports, and is a vital source of information about the Great Migration."

Other African American newspapers available online include:

The Chicago Defender, 1910-1975
Ethnic News Watch, database of multiple titles, 1959-present
African American Newspapers: The 19th Century
The Baltimore African American, 1902-1978 (free registration required)
The Washington Bee, 1900-1910