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

Oil painting of Henrietta Lacks, a Black woman. She is smiling facing forward with her hands clasped in front of her body, holding a black book with gold-colored text [HOLY BIBLE]. Lacks is wearing a red dress with a white flower pattern and small belt.

“Henrietta Lacks (HeLa): The Mother of Modern Medicine”

2017

View Kadir Nelson’s portrait and tribute to Henrietta Lacks.

Primary Source

Ruins of a large brick cathedral (the roof no longer present), with a green tree at right.

Kongo, Christianity, and the Diaspora

with John K. Thornton

Learn more about Kongolese cultural practices merging with Christianity and evolving across the Atlantic.

Video

From left to right, a seated Black girl wearing a white coat and earrings; a standing Black boy wearing a dark jacket, white shirt, and thin dark tie; a seated Black woman, wearing a dark jacket over a light colored blouse and a pearl necklace; and a standing Black man, wearing a blazer emblazoned with a crest.

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

1954

Read the unanimous opinion of the Supreme Court in this foundational case.

Primary Source

A map on yellowed paper.

Kongo and the Transatlantic Slave Trade

with John K. Thornton

Explore the development and evolution of, and forms of resistance against, the Kongolese-Portuguese slave trade.

Video

Barbara Smith, a Black woman, wearing a polka dot (white dots on black fabric) shirt and speaking into a lectern microphone. In her left hand, she is holding a pamphlet entitled "United States of All."

“The Combahee River Collective Statement”

1977

Read this foundational document of Black feminism.

Primary Source

A typed title page of a book.

Establishing the Freedmen's Bureau

1865

Read the legislation creating the "bureau of refugees, freedmen, and abandoned lands" amid the US Civil War.

Primary Source

Justices of the Supreme Court, all white men, in black robes, five seated, and four standing.

Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court Ruling

1896

Read the opinion of the court leading to the legal doctrine of separate but equal.

Primary Source

A poster with a drawing of a Black aviator wearing a brown uniform and gray flight vest. Above the aviator is the phrase "Keep us flying!" in italics. Below is "BUY WAR BONDS" in a blue box.

“Should I Sacrifice to Live ‘Half-American?’”

1942

Read the letter to the editor of the Pittsburgh Courier that spawned the Double V movement.

Primary Source

Masthead of the Southwestern Christian Advocate newspaper.

Clarissa Reed Searches for Her Family

1883

Read a formerly enslaved woman’s plea for information about her lost parents and siblings.

Primary Source

Cover page for "Le Code Noir ou Edit Du Roy," featuring a royal seal at the top of the page and a round stamp from the Bibliotheque National.

Louisiana Code Noir

1724

Read a revision to the Code Noir, developed following slave codes in English colonies.

Primary Source

A Black man in a multicolored robe and cape, a gold hat with a red frill, and silver earrings, looking upward.

Nzinga Mbemba to Portuguese King João III

1526

Read a letter from the king of Kongo to the king of Portugal negotiating the slave trade system.

Primary Source

Cover of Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life, featuring a Black woman wearing a brown hat (extending down her neckline) and large gold hoop earrings encircled in a black circle with a peach background.

“Restricted West Indian Immigration and the American Negro”

1924

Read this piece on the impact of the Immigration Act of 1924 on Afro-Caribbean migration to the US.

Primary Source