African & African American Studies: Getting Started

Welcome to the Fordham Libraries research guide on African-American studies. This guide highlights selected resources in the subject area of African-American studies.  For additional assistance, please contact a Reference Librarian.

When searching a database or the library catalog, use the following recommended keywords or subject words for African-American studies material:

"African-American" OR  "Afro-American" OR "Black" OR "Negro"

Different indexing words were used during different time periods, so the best search term depends on the publication date of the material.

To locate items from a variety of dates, string all of the various search term together like this:

(African-American OR Afro-American OR Black OR Negro)

Books on African American history are usually assigned the Library of Congress Call number E185. 

Search the Fordham Library Catalog for books, ebooks, periodicals, government documents, videos, maps and other documents held within all the campuses of the Fordham University.

Also consider searching the catalog for series = "Contributions in Afro-American and African Studies"

To search for articles, click on the Articles & Databases tab of this Research Guide.  Listed there are recommended databases and journals.