Guides: Justice & Peace Studies: Primary Sources & Films

Primary Sources

Our Primary Sources library research guide lists our primary source collections, tools for identifying sources, and more helpful tips on searching for primary source material here at Georgetown..

Behind the Scenes of the Civil Rights Movements This link opens in a new window
Covering primarily the 1950s and 1960s, Behind the Scenes of the Civil Rights Movements provides access to primary source documents that focus on how ordinary citizens in the smaller communities viewed, participated in and lived through this historical era. When completed in 2025, the collection will include letters, general correspondence, logs, demonstration plan outlines, transportation logs and plans, meetings, worship services, photographs, newsletters, news reels, interviews and musical recordings from Black, Latine, Native American and Asian American Pacific Islander communities.

Part of Reveal Digital.
Human Rights Studies Online This link opens in a new window
A research and learning database sharing documentation, analysis, and interpretation of major human rights violations and atrocity crimes worldwide. The collection is growing to include 75,000 pages of text and 150 hours of video that give voice to the countless victims of human rights crimes in the 20th and early 21st centuries.
Revolution and Protest This link opens in a new window
Revolution and Protest Online explores the protest movements, revolutions, and civil wars that have transformed societies and human experience from the 18th century through the present. Organized around more than thirty events and areas, representing a variety of time periods, regions, and topics, upon completion, this collection will feature over 175 hours of video; 50,000 pages of primary source material (personal papers, organizations, government documents, and others); more than 50,000 pages of journals, reports, and monographs; and more than 1,000 images.
Women and Social Movements, International - 1840 to Present This link opens in a new window
A collection of primary source materials drawn from more than 300 repositories. The collection includes conference proceedings, reports of international women's organizations, publications of women's non-governmental organizations, and letters, diaries, and memoirs of international women activists dating as far back as the middle nineteenth century. Covered topics include war and peace, poverty, child labor, literacy, disease prevention, women's rights and gender inequality.

Plowshares Digital Archive
A collaboration of Earlham, Goshen, and Manchester colleges, the Plowshares Digital Archive for Peace Studies provides primary documents - including minutes, diaries, correspondence, pamphlets, newspapers and periodicals - ranging in date from the 1700s to the present. The archive chronicles the social justice efforts of the students and faculty of these colleges as well as the members of their affiliated historic peace-churches - Quakers, Mennonites and the Church of the Brethren.

Government, Law, & NGO Publications

govinfo.com
Provides full text access to government publications from all three branches of the U.S. federal government. (This database from the Government Printing Office replaces FedSys.)

HeinOnline This link opens in a new window
One of the premier sources for legal and political information. Full-text law journals are a major part of the database, but HeinOnline also includes deep historical collections of U.S. federal government documents.
Titles digitized include the Congressional Record, the Federal Register, bills and public laws in the Statutes at Large, the United States Code, the Code of Federal Regulations, selected legislative histories, Supreme Court documents, Presidential documents, and more. Search the Sources of Compiled Legislative History database by Public Law or Bill number, from the 37th to the 107th Congress. The U.S. Federal Legislative History Title Collection has full text legislative histories on significant legislation in banking, civil rights, labor, digital rights, the USA PATRIOT act, and other selected laws.

HeinOnline: Civil Rights & Social Justice
A database within HeinOnline, Civil Rights & Social Justice pulls together law journal articles, legislation, legislative histories, CRS and GAO reports, Supreme Court cases, and publications from the Commission on Civil Rights. The brief introduction to the database and the accompanying LibGuide provide context and search tips.

UN ODS: Official Documents of the United Nations This link opens in a new window
ODS has full text documents and covers all types of official United Nations documentation, beginning in 1993. Includes resolutions of the General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council and the Trusteeship Council from 1946 onwards. For best results, use the Advanced Search option and enter a keyword, then click on 'Lexicon' to find the best match.

Films, Images, Transcripts

Images

How to Find & Use Images

Films

Films on Demand This link opens in a new window
20,000 streaming documentaries, educational films, and instructional videos from the Films Media Group. Collections include Humanities & Social Sciences and Archival Films & Newsreels.
Filmakers Library Online This link opens in a new window
Streaming video of 1,000 documentaries on race and gender studies, human rights, globalization and global studies, multiculturalism, international relations, criminal justice, the environment, bioethics, health, political science and current events, psychology, arts, literature, and more. From Alexander Street Press.
Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
Includes TV and radio broadcast transcripts in addition to many other news sources.

IMF Videos
IMF Videos add visual context to the data generated, helping you understand complex current issues while searching for the solution. Current content includes youth unemployment, the Joint Vienna Institute, the IMF's training collaboration with Austria, and the history of the IMF.

Justice & Peace Studies

Primary Sources

Government, Law, & NGO Publications

Films, Images, Transcripts

Finding Films in HoyaSearch