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

A Black Haitian general (wearing a pointed and feathered hat, dark coat with tails and epaulets, white pants, and dark boots) holding a book next to other troops, as a priest in formal robes and holding a staff looks above toward an image of God.

Preliminary Declaration from the Constitution of Haiti

1805

Read a translation of some of Haiti’s founding principles as an independent nation.

Primary Source

Three Black men in suits and two Black women in dresses protesting, as other people protest in the background. The woman on the right, Maya Angelou, is holding a sign, the bottom of which reads "W.E.B. Du Bois."

Maya Angelou, Julian Mayfield, and Others in Ghana

1963

View an example of African American activism in Ghana.

Primary Source

“A Red Record”

1895

Read an excerpt from Ida B. Wells-Barnett’s analysis of lynchings in the US at the end of the nineteenth century.

Primary Source

Malcolm X, a bespectacled Black man, wearing a dark suit, dark patterned tie, and white shirt, with a large ring on his left finger. He is sitting in an upholstered chair or sofa and smiling with his head in his right hand (leaning on the armrest of the chair or sofa).

The Ballot or the Bullet Speech

1964

Read Malcolm X’s speech on methods to reach equality and the potency of both political activism and armed self-defense.

Primary Source

Arkansas Petition for Freedmen’s Rights

1869

Read a petition on behalf of formerly enslaved African Americans on indigenous territory requesting tribal citizenship and benefits.

Primary Source

Am I Not a Woman and a Sister?

ca. 1833

View this visual representation of a rallying cry for abolition among Black women.

Primary Source

The Roots in performance on stage at the House of Blues — band members include (left to right) a saxophonist, trumpeter, keyboardist, guitarist, vocalist (Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter, wearing a white shirt, jeans, sunglasses and a dark hat while holding a microphone), drummer (Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, behind the drum kit, wearing a black t-shirt), sousaphonist, and percussionist.

“Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around”

2012

Watch a modern performance of a classic song from the Black Freedom struggle.

Video

Two water fountains: at left, a larger water fountain labeled "white" and a smaller fountain labeled "colored." The labels appear above the fountains.

Segregated Water Fountains

n.d.

See another example of how Jim Crow discrimination was made manifest in the built environment.

Primary Source

AP African American Studies Resource Library