Dictionaries and Encyclopedias
African-American Writers : A Dictionary
Call number: PS153.N5A3444 2000, Arts & Humanities Library reference collection, 2nd Floor Pattee Library
This unique title profiles several hundred African American fiction and nonfiction writers from Colonial times to the present.
Civil Rights in the United States
Call number: E184.A1C47 2000, Social Sciences Library reference collection, 2nd Floor Paterno Library
This 2-volume work examines the efforts of our diverse nation to secure civil rights for all its people including African-Americans, Native-Americans, Chicanos, women, Asian-Americans, workers, gays & lesbians, children, seniors, and numerous others.
Dictionary of Afro-American Slavery
Call number: E441.D53 1997, Arts & Humanities Library reference collection, 2nd Floor Pattee Library
Alphabetical list and signed entries, terms, concepts, associations, and people important to an understanding of African American slavery in the United States. Includes maps, tables, chronology, brief bibliographies.
A Dictionary and Catalog of African American Folklife of the South
Call number: GR110.A47P93 1999, Arts & Humanities Library reference collection, 2nd Floor Pattee Library
More than 1,900 sources are divided into seven chapters, including "General Works", "Folk Music", and "Myths, Tales and Customs".
The African American Encyclopedia
Call number: E185.A253 2001, Social Sciences Library reference collection, 2nd Floor Paterno Library
This encyclopedia retains its three-tiered approach, with short entries of less than a page, signed articles of two or three pages, and five- to seven-page essays that focus on more general topics.
Black Women in America : an Historical Encyclopedia
Call number: E185.86.B542 1993, Arts & Humanities Library reference collection, 2nd Floor Pattee Library
This two-volume encyclopedia contains more than 600 entries describing the lives of prominent African American women.
Encyclopedia of African-American Civil Rights : From Emancipation to the Present
Call number: E185.61.E54 1992, Arts & Humanities Library reference collection, 2nd Floor Pattee Library
Covers the general area of civil rights since the Emancipation Proclamation, and contains over 800 entries written by 157 experts in African American history. In addition to people, important laws, books, newspapers, journals, events, and landmark court cases are covered. All entries provide bibliographies and are cross-referenced.
Encyclopedia of African-American culture and history
Call number: E185.E54 1996, Arts & Humanities Library reference collection, 2nd Floor Pattee Library
2nd edition is available online via the Gale Virtual Reference Library (with a Penn State Access Account)
Covers all aspects of the African American experience: biographies, events, legal cases, profession, sports, and places.
Encyclopedia of African-American Education
Call number: LC2717.E53 1996, Education & Behavioral Sciences Library reference collection, 5th Floor Paterno Library
A comprehensive guide to significant issues, policies, historical events, and persons associated with the education of African Americans in the United States.
Encyclopedia of African American Religions
Call number: BR563.N4E53 1993, Arts & Humanities Library reference collection, 2nd Floor Pattee Library
Covers African American religious leaders, groups, and major issues in African American religious life, as well as a chronology and a directory.
The New Encyclopaedia Britannica
Call number: AE5.E363, Social Sciences Library reference collection, 2nd Floor Paterno Library.
Besides the ability to search the complete text of the Encyclopaedia, it also provides access to the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary.
Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance
Call number: NX512.3.A35E53 2004, Arts & Humanities Library reference collection, 2nd Floor Pattee Library
This encyclopedia examines the political, economic, and social environment, as well as the artistic and cultural events of the Harlem Renaissance.
International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences [electronic resource]
This encyclopedia comprises 4,000 articles commissioned by 52 Section Editors and includes 90,000 bibliographic references as well as comprehensive name and subject indexes.
The Oxford Companion to African American Literature
Call number: PS153.N5O96 1997, Arts & Humanities Library reference collection, 2nd Floor Pattee Library
Brief biographies of more than 400 black writers, entries on some 150 works, and a host of entries on characters from novels, stories, and plays.
Encyclopedia of Minorities in American Politics
Call number: E184.A1E574 2000, Social Sciences Library reference collection, 2nd Floor Paterno Library
Covers people, events, court cases, movements, and organizations that have shaped the politics and struggles of African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans and Asian Americans.
The Malcolm X Encyclopedia
Call number: BP223.Z8L57626 2002, Social Sciences Library reference collection, 2nd Floor Paterno Library
The major section of this volume consists of 500 essays that create a cross-disciplinary, textured description of the man, his life, his times, and events.
The African-American Almanac
Call number: E185.P55, latest edition in the Arts & Humanities Library reference collection, 2nd Floor Pattee Library, previous editions in Pattee Library Stacks, Level 1
A list of Black Firsts, documents, essays on history, film, art, the military, and organizations.
Online Encyclopedias
Gale Virtual Reference Library
A collection of more than 400 reference sources. Find titles for African American Studies under "Multicultural Studies" in the Gale Virtual Reference Library database.
Oxford African-American Studies Center
The "Oxford African American Studies Center" combines the authority of carefully edited reference works with sophisticated technology to create the most comprehensive collection of scholarship available online to focus on the lives and events which have shaped African American and African history and culture."
