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

Henri Christophe, a Black man, in military uniform (blue double-breasted jacket with tails, white shirt, white pants, yellow boots), holding a sabre and dark hat in his right hand with his left in his jacket pocket.

The First and Last King of Haiti

with Marlene L. Daut

Explore the life, career, and brief reign of Henri Christophe.

Video

A yellowed four-fold pamphlet featuring the photograph (at top left) of Stanley Dones, a Black man wearing a dark jacket, white shirt, and dark tie, placing his right hand upon his chin.

Black Land Ownership in the Jim Crow Era

with Alison Rose Jefferson and Sandra Trenholm

Explore the history of the Black-owned Eureka Villa housing development in 1920s California.

Video

Hidden History: African American Women During Reconstruction

with Rebecca Czuchry

Explore responses by Black Texan women to racial violence in the wake of the Civil War.

Video

An engraving showing a hall with benches, a speaker at a rostrum in front and several Black men and women in formal wear looking for seats.

Emigration, Anti-Emigration, and Transatlantic Abolitionism

with Nemata Blyden

Learn more about the impact of the Fugitive Slave Act, the Dred Scott decision, and the Civil War on emigration.

Video

Metal of a shirtless man wearing shorts and holding a spear. His let wrist has a chain that has been broken.

Commonalities and Differences in Maroon Communities

with Ana Lucia Araujo

Understand how maroon communities emerged and sustained themselves across the African diaspora.

Video

Map of Pernambuco, Brazil, with ships off the coast and an inset depiction of Black men wearing white pants in a field.

The Palmares Quilombo

with Ana Lucia Araujo

Learn more about one of the most significant maroon communities in the Americas.

Video

A silhouette head-and-shoulders portrait of Paul Cuffe, above a sailboat and within an octagon with the text "Captain Paul Cuffee, 1812."

The Nineteenth-Century Emigrationist and Anti-Emigrationist Movements

with Nemata Blyden

Explore the key figures, sites, and concepts of both the emigrationist and anti-emigrationist movements.

Video

A black historical marker with white text and the seal of the Georgia Historical Society at top.

White Supremacy in the Early Twentieth Century: Causes and Responses

with Adriane Lentz-Smith

Take a deep dive into the proliferation of white supremacist violence in the 1910s and 1920s, and responses from Black communities.

Video

Three boys playing atop the roof of a blue car, in front of an apartment building with graffiti written on the ground floor.

The Influence of the 1960s and 1970s on Hip-Hop

with Jeff Chang

Explore the importance of place and community on the development and growth of hip-hop in its earliest days.

Video

A color photograph of W. E. B. Du Bois, wearing a brown pinstriped suit, white shirt, and blue-and-gray checked tie, against a background of multicolored spirals.

“I Lifted Up Mine Eyes to Ghana”

by Keisha N. Blain

Explore W. E. B. Du Bois’s relationship with and advocacy for the anticolonial movement.

Essay

A handwritten document in script.

“Petition of the People of Colour, Freemen,” Philadelphia

1799

Explore this petition referencing the Constitution and the Bill of Rights in support of Black freedom.

Primary Source

A printed page from the newspaper The Freeman's Journal, September 21, 1781.

“Negroes Who Obtained Freedom”

1781

Read a plea from free Black people in Philadelphia to protect their freedom.

Primary Source