Otis College LibGuides: Black Lives Matter: Further Research

About These Resources

The resources below are a good place to START learning more about the issues and topics discussed in this guide. it is not a definitive list.

Please send us suggestions and comments.

Recommended Databases

Gale in Context: Opposing Viewpoints This link opens in a new window
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This database is a good place to start your research. You can search by topic and issue. it contains curated material drawn from a variety of web sites, scholarly articles, newspapers, statistics, podcasts, images, and more, to highlight different perspectives.

The Featured Viewpoints section will give you an overview of the current trends and arguments around an issue.
Civil Rights and Social Justice This link opens in a new window
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Part of the HeinOnline Social Justice Suite. Brings together a diverse offering of publications covering civil rights in the United States as their legal protections and definitions are expanded to cover more and more Americans.
Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law This link opens in a new window
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Part of the HeinOnline Social Justice Suite. Brings together all essential legal materials on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world. This includes every statute passed by every colony and state on slavery, every federal statute dealing with slavery, and all reported state and federal cases on slavery.
Independent Voices This link opens in a new window
Hosted on JSTOR. Open access digital collection of alternative press newspapers, magazines and journals, drawn from the special collections of participating libraries. These periodicals were produced by feminists, dissident GIs, campus radicals, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Hispanics, LGBT activists, the extreme right-wing press and alternative literary magazines during the latter half of the 20th century.

Institutionalized Racism: A Syllabus
Curated list of resources in and compiled by JSTOR
The 1619 Project
Ongoing initiative from The New York Times Magazine that began in August 2019, the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.
Black Freedom Struggle in the United States
Access to over 1,600 primary source documents focused on six different phases of Black Freedom, from 1790-today. Free via ProQuest; no login required.
Black Lives Matter articles
Selection of hand-picked articles covering art, music, activism, politics, and more. From Exact Editions. Free
Civil Rights Digital Library
Contains a plethora of primary sources, including images, sound and video from the University of Georgia and other collections
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Not available via HTTPS

Finding Artists and Designers of Color

Decentering Whiteness in Design History Resources
Collaborative bibliography meant to help instructors of design history decenter whiteness in their classes
Artsy: The Art Genome Project
Search artsy.net by over 1,000 topics such as "Engaged with Contemporary Chinese Art" or "African Diaspora". Focuses on the current art gallery and auction markets
BIPOC Artists and Designers
Created by faculty at Parsons, it is an extensive, and ongoing live document of BIPOC Artists & Designers organized by disciplines as follows: Visual Art, Fashion, System Designs, Socially Engaged Projects, & Constructed Environments
#FromMarginToCenter Initiative
Highlights contemporary artists and designers across a broad range of identities. Developed by the Ricker Library of Architecture and Art at UIUC.
Image of the Black in Western Art
Research project and photo archive begun in the 1960s as a response to segregation in the United States by influential art patron Dominique de Menil. Now under the W. E. B. Du Bois Research Institute at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University
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Some pring voumes are in Library's copllection. Image archive on ARTstor is restricted access
Japanese American National Museum (JANM) Collections Online
Search the museum's collection
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Not available as HTTPS
National Museum of the American Indian: Collections Search
Search over 132,000 objects in the museum's collections.
People of Color in European Art History
Static Resources page with links to many resources on BIPOC as subjects and creators throughout history

Statistics, Maps, and Visualizing Data

CAUTION: Data Manipulation

Whenever you are working with statistics, be mindful of the underlying data:

Who gathered the data? Why are they gathering it?
How did they collect the data? Was the data self-reported?
What questions were asked? Did they including leading questions?
What is the sample size? Is it large enough to be significant?
Who is reporting the data? Why?

Learn more about thinking critically about statistics:

Mona Chalabi: 3 Ways to Spot a Bad Statistic: TED talk

No BS (Bad Stats) by Ivory A. Toldson What if everything you thought you knew about Black people generally, and educating Black children specifically, was based on BS (bad stats)? Ivory A. Toldson uses data analysis, anecdotes, and powerful commentary to dispel common myths and challenge conventional beliefs about educating Black children. With provocative, engaging, and at times humorous prose, Toldson teaches educators, parents, advocates, and students how to avoid BS, raise expectations, and create an educational agenda for Black children that is based on good data, thoughtful analysis, and compassion. No BS helps people understand why Black people need people who believe in Black people enough not to believe every bad thing they hear about Black people.
Call Number: E-Book
ISBN: 9789004397040
Publication Date: 2019-02-01
How to Lie with Statistics by Darryl Huff; illustrated by Mel Calman
Call Number: E-book
ISBN: 0140136290
Publication Date: 1954
Book introducing statistics to a general audience

Data Literacy
Research guide about statistics and information literacy created by MLIS students at Pratt
Correlation Does Not Imply Causation
Introduction to correlation vs. causation when evaluating statistics
Polling methods are changing, but reporting the views of Asian Americans remains a challenge
Pew Research Center report by Courtney Kennedy and Neil G. Ruiz, July 1, 2020
The Problem with Statistics... TikTok collaboration by wordy.talk and alex.on.keys about the dangers of over-reporting and under-sampling

Black Lives Matter

Other Resources

Related Otis Guides

About These Resources

Recommended Databases

Finding Artists and Designers of Color

Statistics, Maps, and Visualizing Data

CAUTION: Data Manipulation