Green River LibGuides: ENGL 248 African American Literature: Segregation

Reference Databases

Search for Background Info

Use Reference Articles from Library History and Reference Databases to get to know your topic or historical era.

Gale eBooks
Search for authoritative information in subject encyclopedias selected for courses and programs at Green River College
Biography in Context (Gale)
Full-text reference entries, magazine and journal articles, primary sources, videos, podcasts, and images covering a vast array of people from historically significant figures to present-day news makers.

History Databases

Searching History Databases

Linked below are two databases that are great sources to search for articles on historical figures or events. See also the search tips below to see how to limit your search to relevant content.

U.S. History in Context (Gale)
Full-text articles from scholarly journals, magazines, and newspapers, reference sources, primary documents, and selected websites.
History Study Center (ProQuest)
Primary and secondary sources covering global history from ancient times to the present day. Study Units offer editorially selected material on over 500 historical topics. Over 40,000 documents, articles, images and links to websites.

Search Tips: Browsing Topics

African American Perspectives

In U.S. History in Context, linked above, you can browse or search for information on historical issues and eras.

Under Browse, select "African American Perspectives" to see the articles in this collection.

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Streaming Documentary Films

Streaming Film

Films on Demand is an online streaming video service for educational films. As a GRC student, you have unlimited access from campus or from home. Check out the documentary linked elow or click directly on the Films on Demand database link to search for many other titles.

Films on Demand
Search or browse for films on many topics, such as Anthropology, Biology, Business & Economics, Careers, and many more.

image of video player - click link below to access the film

The Strange Demise of Jim Crow
Stream online in Films on Demand. Not all the civil rights victories of the ’60s were won at the cost of vicious beatings and mass arrests played out in front of television cameras. This documentary shows how many Southern cities were desegregated in a quieter fashion, with behind-the-scenes negotiations, secret deals, and controversial news blackouts. When Houston students launched boycotts of local stores, a group of black business leaders opened private discussions with the powerful Downtown Business Alliance. Realizing that integration was inevitable, the Alliance convinced its members to welcome African-Americans by promising to keep the change out of the news, while the media was threatened with pulled advertising if it didn’t cooperate. (56 minutes)

Banished
Available online in Films on Demand. Between 1860 and 1920, hundreds of U.S. counties expelled their African-American residents. The pattern was horrifically similar in almost all cases: a black man was accused of assaulting a white woman, was lynched, and then white rioters attacked black neighborhoods with guns and firebombs. After blacks fled for their lives, whites illegally assumed ownership of the abandoned property. This program places these events in the context of present-day race relations by visiting towns in Georgia, Missouri, and Arkansas where banishments took place. As black and white citizens warily explore the idea of reparations and reconciliation, the film reveals that even one hundred years later these communities tend to uphold the legacy of racial segregation. (84 minutes)