AP African American Studies Resource Archive | Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

Title page of My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass

“Treatment of Slaves on Lloyd’s Plantation”

1855

Read Frederick Douglass’s recollection of plantation life in Maryland from his second autobiography.

Primary Source

A bespectacled Shirley Chisholm looking to her right while wearing a dark turtleneck and necklaces.

Shirley Chisholm: Champion of Black Feminist Power Politics

with Anastasia C. Curwood

Learn more about Chisholm’s life and career.

Video

A written legal document from 1781 certifying Cuffee Wells' purchase of freedom.

Doctor Cuffee Saunders

1781

Read about how Cuffee Wells Saunders gained his freedom.

Primary Source

A black-and-white photograph of several Black men in army uniforms (dark double-breasted coats, dark gloves, dark hats) standing aboard a ship, rigging visible in the left midground and cargo in the right foreground and midground.

Resistance and Resilience: Black Service in World War I

with Adriane Lentz-Smith

Learn more about African American service in the war to “make the world safe for democracy,” while also dealing with racism at home.

Video

Martin Luther King Jr. in a dark suit and tie and white shirt, looking out from a balcony at the street below.

Essential Methods of the Major Civil Rights Organizations

with Hasan Kwame Jeffries

Learn more about the major civil rights organizations of the 1950s and 1960s and their typical day-to-day operations.

Video

A black-and-white photograph of Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. (a Black soldier in uniform and sunglasses), Joe Louis (a Black man wearing a light colored suit and a dark bowtie), Thurgood Marshall (a Black man wearing a dark suit and white shirt, his head resting on his crooked right arm), and Daisy Lampkin (a Black woman wearing a light colored dress and dark hat) seated outside under an open-air tent.

NAACP Civil Rights Convention

1947

View this photograph of four activists in the wake of the Double V movement taken by Joe Schwartz.

Primary Source

Two maps side by side, of Oak Park and surrounding towns/neighborhoods in 1950 and 2010. The 1950 map shows an almost exclusively White population; the 2010 map shows a diverse community surrounded by an overwhelmingly Black neighborhood to the east and overwhelmingly Latino towns to the south.

Responses to and Impact of Housing Discrimination

with Richard Rothstein

Learn more about how African Americans fought against housing discrimination.

Video

A color postcard depicting a brick courthouse with a cupola and entrance pediment in Meridian, Mississippi.

The Story of a Freed Mother and Daughter

by Brenda E. Stevenson

Examine one family’s story in the context of Reconstruction.

Essay

A black-and-white image of a photograph of twelve Black men in three rows of four (and a child on one man's knee, second row left), all wearing dark suits and hats, superimposed on a photograph of Niagara Falls.

Resistance to Jim Crow During the Nadir

with Mia Bay

Explore how African Americans organized against the pernicious racism of Jim Crow.

Video

A color photograph of a crowd gathering around the reflecting pool in Washington, the Washington Monument, and the Capitol rotunda in the distance. In the foreground, a White man holds a red-and-white sign reading "We march for jobs for all now!"

The Power of Nonviolent Resistance in the Civil Rights Movement

by Hasan Kwame Jeffries

Learn more about the impact and successes of nonviolent organizing during the Civil Rights Movement.

Essay

A black-and-white photograph of several Black women in dresses holding signs in support of voter registration.

Black Women and Grassroots Organizing

by Robert F. Jefferson Jr.

Explore the history of local activism led by Black women in the twentieth century.

Essay

A photograph of a large brick hospital building with multiple wings.

Black American Contributions to Modern Medicine

by George Aumoithe

Learn more about how Black medical professionals overcame obstacles in the field and innovated despite exclusion.

Essay