As part of ProQuest’s Historical Black Newspapers Collection, the Los Angeles Sentinel archive provides access to 70 years of stories from one of the most influential Black-owned papers in the United States
Shortly after its founding in 1933, the Los Angeles Sentinel launched a campaign arguing that Black residents should boycott stores that refused to hire Black workers (“About,” n.d.). The campaign took off in Los Angeles after Leon Washington, Jr., the paper’s publisher, was arrested for picketing in front of a local furniture company. This action led to an uptick of activity against discrimination in the neighborhood by local residents and cemented the Sentinel as an important voice in the Black community (Anderson, 1976). Today, as one of Los Angeles’s longest-standing and most influential Black-owned newspapers, the Sentinel continues to provide its readers a uniquely Black and Angeleno perspective on local, national, and international news.
The paper’s archives, available through ProQuest’s Historical Black Newspapers Collection, offer a rich resource for users interested in history, African American studies, and urban California.
ProQuest’s Historical Black Newspapers Collection contains 14 highly influential papers, with issues available from as far back as 1893 (“ProQuest Historical Newspapers,” n.d.). As part of this collection, the Los Angeles Sentinel archive offers a look into the dynamic past of an African American community and gives researchers, students, teachers, and other curious users an opportunity to learn about key times in American history through a perspective often overlooked by other sources.
The ProQuest collection includes issues of the Los Angeles Sentinel from 1934 to 2010, allowing a nearly complete look into the work of the various writers, editors, and publishers who have called the paper home. It also offers readers valuable insights into critical events in recent California history, such as the arrival of the Dodgers, the Watts Uprising, and the assault of Rodney King.
Depending on how the institution has set it up, the product opens on the standard ProQuest interface for either basic search (Figure 1) or advanced search (Figure 2), which allows the user to construct a search with Boolean operators and to target search terms to newspaper-specific fields, such as dateline, along with more common fields, such as the full text and titles.
The advanced search also allows pre-search filtering by document type. For example, users can search articles, birth notices, ads, obituaries, and marriage announcements. Other key search features that will be familiar to users of ProQuest products include date filtering, options to customize your results page, recent search history, tips, guides to the field codes, and variant spelling options.
Retrieval is also straightforward. From the search results, users can view the metadata for an article by clicking on “Abstract/Details” or open the full text in the form of a scanned copy. In full-text mode, the “Page view” option shows the article in the context of the full newspaper page. It is sometimes possible to highlight some of the text on a scan.
Accessibility could be improved by providing more full-text options and optimizing PDFs.
If users have access to other ProQuest products, they will be included among the suggested sources. When I performed a search for “Los Angeles Lakers,” for example, I was recommended news articles from our other ProQuest collections.
The Sentinel can be bundled with other newspapers in the Historical Black Newspapers Collection or ProQuest’s Historical Newspapers: Global Collection. The price varies based on the number of newspapers requested and the type, geographic location, and size of the institution.
Usage reports, including COUNTER5 reports, are available through the ProQuest Administrator Module common to the entire ProQuest platform. For librarians new to this platform, ProQuest offers several options for support.
Data mining is prohibited. For ProQuest’s newspaper resources, extracting of data, such as exports of search results, is allowed.
Authentication methods include IP authentication/EZProxy, referring URL, library barcode, Shibboleth, Clever, single sign on with Google, SAML, and combined methods (“Proquest Authentication,” n.d.).
While I’ve focused here on the Sentinel, the Historical Black Newspapers Collection includes 13 other newspapers. Libraries should consider regional priorities in scholarship when deciding which to purchase; other available papers cover cities including Houston, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Atlanta (“ProQuest Historical Newspapers,” n.d.). Additionally, the time period covered by each paper varies.
Some newspaper archives have also moved online and become openly accessible. For example, the California Digital Newspaper Collection and the Library of Congress provide free access to many historic newspapers, though not the Sentinel. While these platforms may suffice depending on research needs, they provide a different experience. For example, the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America collection displays small images of the full page on which search terms appear and does not allow users to filter between document types, such as advertisements or front-page articles. Additionally, many major newspapers are still only accessible through proprietary platforms.
Readex’s African American Newspapers includes different titles from ProQuest’s collection but fills a similar niche. The available titles are far more wide-ranging, and their time frame is wider, if less recent.
When evaluating paid options, it is important to consider information needs of your users and the mission of your institution. Another factor to consider is whether the archive will grow: as the Los Angeles Sentinel continues to publish, new issues will eventually be added to the ProQuest collection.
My institution is based in L.A.; our library patrons value access to the Los Angeles Sentinel, which offers an important perspective on local historical events, and which is relevant to many of our classes and researchers. For example, I recently worked with a student in our California history course researching the history of bodybuilding around Venice beach. Through searches for “Venice beach” and “Muscle beach,” we found photos from the paper’s sports section showing a staff writer for the Sentinel and a neighborhood figure participating in a local bodybuilding competition during the 1990s. The images speak to representation in bodybuilding culture at the time—both participants were Black and one had competed in a seniors competition—and showcased the draw of these competitions among all city residents, as both men were from inland Los Angeles. For your institution, the regional focus of the Sentinel may or may not be appealing.
The primary strength of the larger Historical Black Newspapers Collection is the in-depth access it offers to significant newspapers for Black Americans. The completeness of each paper’s archive is impressive, and the materials in the collection offer valuable insights into American history over the last 100 years.
On the other hand, the number of titles available is limited, and the collection excludes smaller newspapers and more marginalized voices.
The platform’s features are straightforward and easier to use than those of many free newspaper collections. It is also well-integrated with other ProQuest resources; the backend will be familiar for existing ProQuest users.
Librarians considering a product in this subject area should weigh the options and consider how it might complement freely available resources.
Overall, I recommend the Los Angeles Sentinel archive to libraries that want to expand their patrons’ access to historic newspapers and Black-owned media.
While there are many factors to consider, from which part of the larger collection might be best for your library to how to deal with accessibility issues, the Sentinel offers a deep look into the past from an important perspective.
About. (n.d.). Los Angeles Sentinel. Retrieved April 24, 2025 from https://lasentinel.net/about
Anderson, E.F. (1976). The development of leadership and organization building in the black community of Los Angeles from 1900 through World War II. [Order No. DP32431]. University of Southern California.
Proquest accessibility. (n.d.). Proquest. Retrieved April 24, 2025 from https://about.proquest.com/en/about/proquest-accessibility/
ProQuest authentication: Authentication support by platform (n.d.). Proquest. Retrieved April 24, 2025 from https://support.proquest.com/s/article/ProQuest-Authentication-Authentication-Support-by-Platform?language=en_US
ProQuest historical newspapers: Black newspaper collection (n.d.). ProQuest. Retrieved April 24, 2025 from https://about.proquest.com/en/products-services/histnews-bn/
10.1146/katina-070825-1
