UC Irvine Libraries continue to grow our collections on Black history and related topics that help document and honor the works of Black people. To celebrate Black History Month, this guide gathers a partial list of available online resources, archival materials, and media (both fiction and nonfiction) as well as recent book additions to the Libraries. Although some online materials are only accessible to faculty, staff, and students with a valid UCInetID, many of the resources are open to the public and all are available throughout the year as part of UC Irvine Libraries’ ongoing effort to foster learning and increase access to a wide variety of scholarship.

For research help with African American studies and related topics, contact Research Librarian for Interdisciplinary Studies Melissa Beuoy at melissa.beuoy@uci.edu or visit guides.lib.uci.edu for a complete list of Libraries’ Research Guides.

Online Resources

• Celebrating One and All: Black History Research Guide
• African American Studies Research Guide
• Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2025 curated collection of books and streaming media
• Curated collection of films on Kanopy (requires UC Irvine login)
• Black history documentaries on Docuseek (requires UC Irvine login)
• African American authored fiction books on OverDrive (requires UC Irvine login)
• African American biographies and autobiographies on OverDrive (requires UC Irvine login)
• kweliTV, a streaming platform that celebrates the global Black experience through curated indie films, documentaries, web shows, and more, representing the entire African diaspora (requires UC Irvine login)
• The HistoryMakers, the nation’s largest African American oral history video collection (requires UC Irvine login)
• In Our Own Words: The UCI Black Alumni Oral History Project documents the lived experiences of UC Irvine’s Black alumni with a focus on their time as students at UC Irvine

Special Collections and Archives

Expand your knowledge of Black history, including on the UC Irvine campus, by browsing some of Special Collections and Archives’ materials in the Online Archive of California. Collections span from as early as the 1890s to the 2020s. Try different search terms for additional collections and see the Before Your Visit webpage for more information about requesting and accessing Special Collections and Archives’ materials.

Recent Additions

In addition to online resources and archival materials, recent acquisitions of books in the UC Irvine Libraries' circulating collection focus on the history, art, contributions, and experiences of Black people:

• Black Artists in America: From Civil Rights to the Bicentennial, by Celeste-Marie Bernier, Earnestine Lovelle Jenkins, and Alaina Simone, features work from the 1950s to the 1970s that responded to the cultural, political, and social concerns of the era.
• Elevating Humanity via Africana Womanism, by Clenora Hudson (Weems), advocates synergy via unity/collectivity as a panacea for all societal ills and discusses the Africana Womanism theory – a family centered concept for all women of African descent – as a grid upon which to erect the private and public personae of all positive Africana people. 
• The Times Do Not Permit: The Musical Life of Michael Mosoeu Moerane, by Christine Lucia, is the first extended overview of the life, times, and music of Michael Mosoeu Moerane (1904–1980), a composer brought up in rural South Africa in the early twentieth century.
• Black Freedom and Education in Nineteenth-Century Cuba, by Raquel Alicia Otheguy, traces the emergence of a Black Cuban educational tradition whose hallmarks were at the forefront of transatlantic educational currents and examines how this movement pushed the island's public school system to be more accessible to children and adults of all races, genders, and classes.
• Oral and Written African Poetry and Poetics, edited by Ernest N. Emenyonu, highlights major developments and continuities in the practice of the art of poetry in the African continent.
• Vengeance Feminism : The Power of Black Women's Fury in Lawless Times, by Kali Gross, illuminates the stories of Black women who fought for their dignity on their own terms in pursuit of racial and gender justice.
• Malcolm Before X, by Patrick Parr, examines the prison years of civil rights icon Malcolm X.
• Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice, by Jessica Gordon Nembhard, chronicles the achievements and challenges of African American collective economic action and social entrepreneurship in the struggle for civil rights and economic equality.
• Social Movements and the Law: Talking about Black Lives Matter and #MeToo, edited by Lolita Buckner Inniss and Bridget J. Crawford, brings together the voices of 12 scholars and public intellectuals to explore how Black Lives Matter and #MeToo unfolded – separately and together – and how they enrich, inform, and complicate each other.
• Pain into Purpose: Mobilizing Emotions in Argentina's Black Resistance Movement, by Prisca Gayles, showcases the ways Black women exercise transnational Black feminist politics to transform pain into purpose.

Diversity of UC Irvine Libraries’ Collections

UC Irvine Libraries collect materials in all formats to support the university’s research, teaching, and public service mission.

We believe it is crucial that our collections reflect the diversity of our students, faculty, staff, and larger Orange County community. Thus, we are making an effort to collect materials that consider the needs and perspectives of historically underrepresented, marginalized, and oppressed groups. For more information, please refer to our Diversity Statement and Plan.

For additional information about UC Irvine Libraries’ efforts to celebrate diversity in its users, staff, collections, and resources, visit the UC Irvine Libraries Diversity webpage.