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Selected Images
Actress Hattie McDaniel at her dressing table mirror, 1940
From Los Angeles Times Photographic Collection, UCLA Library Digital Collections
Crowd outside the Banco Theatre in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, for screening of Oscar Micheaux's film The Betrayal, ca. 1948
From Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library Digital Collections
Introduction and Scope
This guide was created in the 2023-2024 school year by UCLA Arts Library Research Assistant Riona Tsai, in collaboration with Diana King. It identifies major resources on Black and African American film and television at UCLA and via online sources. Scope includes representation of Black people in U.S. cinema and television, Black creative artists who contributed significantly to Hollywood and U.S. independent media, and the creative work of Black artists and media companies in the United States.
UC Library Search
- UC Library Search This link opens in a new window
UC Library Search is the unified discovery and borrowing system for all 10 UC Campuses. Select the UCLA Library Catalog scope to search holdings of materials owned by the UCLA Library and other UCLA collections, whether online or in print. Does not contain full-text articles or article citations. Select the Articles, books and more scope to search for materials in all 10 UC campuses. More information in this guide.
African American Studies Resources
- African American Experience This link opens in a new window
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Reference books, monographs, primary documents, manuscripts, speeches, court cases, quotations, advertisements, and statistics concerning African American history and culture. Contains over 4,000 interviews with former slaves; 67 Negro University Press texts from the late 1700s to the early 1970s.
- Black Studies Center This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Historical and current material for researching the past, present and future of African-Americans, the wider African Diaspora, and Africa itself. It is comprised of several cross-searchable component databases, including International Index to Black Periodicals, Black Literature Index and Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience (interdisciplinary essays written by leading scholars on the Black Experience). - Black Studies in Video This link opens in a new window
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Streaming video access to documentaries, newsreels, interviews and archival footage surveying the evolution of black culture in the United States. Includes access to the African American Classics collection from California Newsreel. - Black Thought and Culture This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Full text collection of non-fiction published prose and oratory by leading African Americans. Writing is focused on research in black studies, political science, American history, music, literature, and art.
- UCLA Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American StudiesIncludes library and programming information, as well as research reports from the Center.
- Umbra: Search African American History This link opens in a new windowFree digital platform that brings together primary source content from numerous cultural institutions documenting African American history and culture. Includes images, text, sound, video, and physical objects.
Connecting from Off-Campus: VPN and Proxy Tutorials
The Library's online subscription resources can always be accessed from computers and wireless networks on campus. However, off-campus access is restricted to current UCLA, students, faculty, and staff who have set up their computer using one of the methods below. Click on the other tabs to see how four Bruins got their computers set up and ready to go for remote access!
If you still need help, you can contact the UCLA IT Support Center at (310) 267-4357 or help@it.ucla.edu. They provide 24/7 phone support.
- Virtual Private Networking (VPN)A program you can download and install, or use the built-in version on many computers or mobile devices. VPN software must be logged on manually before you access a restricted site, but works for all programs on your computer. It stays connected until you log off.
- UCLA Online Proxy ServerA simple browser setting which will automatically divert you to a UCLA logon page when you first access a restricted site.
VPN on Mac with Natalie
"I chose VPN for my mac because I need to be able to access the full text of articles on different browsers." - Natalie, Environmental Science
VPN on Windows with Michael
"I chose VPN because I like the security it provides and the control it gives me as a user to manually enable or disable it when I'm browsing online." - Michael, Public Affairs
VPN on Chromebook with Nadia
"I chose VPN because it is really simple to use!" - Nadia, Public Affairs
Proxy on Mac with Kate
"I chose Proxy because I prefer logging in through a web browser without having to download any software on my computer." - Kate, Ethnic Studies