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

James Forten, Sailmaker

by Julie Winch

Read about James Forten, an African American craftsman and businessman in nineteenth-century Philadelphia who employed an integrated workforce.

Essay

Oprah Winfrey addressing the audience at the Women's Summit on Empowerment, Entrepreneurship, and Engagement.

Black Women in Entrepreneurship

by Andrea Smith-Hunter

Learn about the challenges and opportunities Black women entrepreneurs face, from financial barriers to networking, mentorship, and growth.

Essay

Ayesha Rascoe, a Black woman, is smiling, wearing a tan suit with a white scoop neck shirt, teardrop earrings, and bright pink lipstick. The background is a bright yellow backdrop.

HBCU Made: A Celebration of the Black College Experience

with Ayesha Rascoe

Learn more about the experience of individuals who attended an HBCU.

Video

A photograph of a bronze cast sculpture titled "Emancipation." The sculpture depicts male and female figures emerging from the tree of knowledge at the center.

Shaping the Public Imagination: The Sculpture of Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller

by Chenoa Baker

Read about the life and art of Fuller and some of her more famous pieces.

Essay

Laura Wheeler Waring, a Black woman, wearing an artist's smock and painting a portrait of a man with her right hand while holding a palette in her left. On the walls behind her are other portraits and artwork.

Laura Wheeler Waring: A Luminous Palette

by Cherene Sherrard-Johnson

Learn more about Laura Wheeler Waring’s portraiture, highlighting her luminous palette and contributions to African American art history.

Essay

Black-and-white photograph of an art gallery, with three men standing in the gallery: a white man in his Coast Guard captain uniform of dark double-breasted coat, white shirt, dark tie, and white cap with a dark brim); at center, a white man in a dark suit, light colored shirt, and dark tie; and at right, a Black man in his Coast Guard sailor uniform of dark shirt (with gold bands on the sleeves) and pants, light-colored scarf, and dark beret.

The Cubist Collage Aesthetic and the Historical Narratives of Jacob Lawrence

by Patricia Hills

Read more about Jacob Lawrence’s use of cubist collage aesthetics to depict historical narratives in his artwork.

Essay

Harriet, the Moses of Her People

1886

Read an authorized description of Tubman’s escape written by a White woman who had interviewed Tubman.

Primary Source

Title page of The Refugee: or the Narrative of Fugitive Slaves in Canada

Harriet Tubman’s reflection in The Refugee

1856

Read Tubman’s memories of enslavement and freedom in her own words.

Primary Source

Black women in coats and sweaters dancing as a multiracial crowd looks on from the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (with the Museum's colonnade in the background).

Land of a Thousand Dances

by Lucy Sante

Explore the history, and memory, of Soul Train.

Essay

An engraving of a bust of a bearded Black man wearing a black suit, white shirt, and dark bow tie, in three-quarter view looking toward the left

“An Address to the Slaves of the United States”

1843

Explore this speech, rejected by the National Colored Convention.

Primary Source

Bert Williams, a Black man, wearing a black coat and white collar.

Representation on the Stage, Screen, and Airwaves

by Kenya Davis-Hayes

Explore the history of Black performance from Reconstruction through the 1960s.

Essay

A black-and-white photograph of a young Black girl wearing a white dress, dark sweater, and dark socks and shoes, jumping rope as other Black children look on.

The Great Migration and the Making of Modern America

by Davarian L. Baldwin

Explore the impact of the “Exodus from Dixie.”

Essay

AP African American Studies Resource Library