Research Guides: The United States in the Sixties: HIST 2900: Find Primary Sources

Featured Primary Source Database

The Sixties: Primary Documents and Personal Narratives 1960-1974 database includes diaries, letters, autobiographies and other memoirs, written and oral histories, manifestos, government documents, memorabilia, and scholarly commentary. For best results, use the Browse function to browse by historical events and subjects.

Primary Sources Collections on the Vietnam War & US Presidents in 1960s

U.S. Declassified Documents Online This link opens in a new window
Concurrent user limit: 2
U.S. Declassified Documents Online is a full-text database that provides declassified documents from the World War II, through the 1970s. It covers the Cold War, Vietnam, foreign policy shifts, the civil rights movement, and others.

Pentagon Papers
The Pentagon Papers, officially titled "Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force", was commissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara in 1967. In June of 1971, small portions of the report were leaked to the press and widely distributed.On the 40th anniversary of the leak to the press, the National Archives, along with the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon Presidential Libraries, has released the complete report.
Presidential Papers of Lyndon B. Johnson
Collections from the LBJ Presidential Library
Presidential Papers of John F. Kennedy
Digitized Collections from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum

Primary Source Collections on the Civil Rights Movement

Use the following databases and websites to locate primary sources. Note that many of these collections also contain secondary source content.

Black Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Black Historical Newspapers contains primary source material from American history and African-American culture, history, politics, and the arts. It covers the periods from the Harlem Renaissance to Civil Rights.
Black Thought and Culture This link opens in a new window
Black Thought and Culture is an electronic collection of non-fiction writings by black leaders in North America.
Includes selected writings by Malcolm X (browse by author)
Federal Surveillance of African Americans, 1920-1984 This link opens in a new window
Federal Surveillance of African Americans, 1920-1984 contains reproductions of FBI files documenting the federal scrutiny, harassment, and prosecution to which black Americans of all political persuasions were subjected.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project at Stanford University
A collection of King's most significant correspondence, sermons, speeches, published writings, and unpublished manuscripts.

Oxford African American Studies Center This link opens in a new window
Oxford African American Studies Center contains primary and secondary source articles, images, and maps dealing with African American history and culture drawn from Oxford University Press reference sources.
ProQuest History Vault This link opens in a new window
Access is guaranteed through May 2027
ProQuest History Vault includes several subject modules: Civil Rights and the Black Freedom Struggle; Southern Life, Slavery, and the Civil War; Women's Studies; Workers, Labor Unions, and Radicals; American Indians and the American West; American Politics and Society (from Kennedy to Watergate); International Relations and Military Conflicts; Latinx History; Revolutionary War and Early America.

More Primary Source Collections on the 1960s

Note that some of these collections also contain secondary source content.

New York Times Full-Text / Full-Image (1851-2020) [via ProQuest Historical Newspapers] This link opens in a new window
Full-text searchable coverage of the New York Times.
Popular Culture in Britain and America, 1950-1975 This link opens in a new window
Popular Culture in Britain and America, 1950-1975 contains substantial collections of original archival material (documents, images, and video) covering popular culture in Britain and America, 1950-1975.
Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 (Scholar's Edition) This link opens in a new window
Women and Social Movements in the United States brings together books, images, documents, scholarly essays, commentaries, and bibliographies, documenting women's reform activities and examines perspectives on women's social movements from 1600-2000.

Takin' It to the Streets: A Sixties Reader by Bloom; Alexander Bloom; Wini Breines
Call Number: E841 .T28 2011
ISBN: 9780195368352
Publication Date: 2010-11-03

The America Yawp Primary Source Reader: The 1960s
Limited collection of primary sources. Note: Owing to copyright law, post-1923 sources rely heavily upon government documents in the public domain*

Temple University

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