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

“UNLADYLIKE2020: Gladys Bentley”

with Lorraine Toussaint and Lisa Wilkerson

Learn more about this trailblazing pianist, musician, and drag entertainer.

Video

Title page for The Urban League Bulletin magazine.

The National Urban League and the Great Migration

with Marc H. Morial

Learn more about the impact of the National Urban League over its more than 100-year history.

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 photograph of a Black man wearing a light-colored shirt, tie, and hat, and dark suspenders, under a sign reading "Colored Waiting Room."

The Impact of Jim Crow Laws

with Mia Bay

Explore the origins of Jim Crow legislation and how it impacted Black mobility during the nadir.

Video

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 black-and-white photograph of Black and white soldiers on decks of a large ship.

360th [or 366th] Colored Regiment Arriving in New York

1919

See an example of Black service in World War I.

Primary Source

A color print of Wilberforce University showing seven small tan and white buildings and a large T-shaped white building with a brown roof surrounding a quadrangle of lawns, paths, and trees.

The Founding of Black Colleges

by Jelani M. Favors

Learn more about the birth and evolution of historically Black colleges and universities.

Essay

A hand-colored map of the world in two hemispheres, with routes of the African slave trade and a star on the state of Georgia.

The Color Line and “Double Consciousness”

by Trudier Harris

Examine the importance of “the mask,” “the veil,” and “the color line” in works by Dunbar, Du Bois, and Ellison.

Essay

Lines of women primarily in white dresses and hats marching in formation. Between the first and second lines, a man in a dark suit and hat holds a sign reading "RACE PREJUDICE IS THE OFFSPRING OF IGNORANCE AND THE MOTHER OF LYNCHING."

The New York Silent Protest Parade in Photographs

1917

Explore this response to white supremacist violence led by the NAACP.

Primary Source

Josiah Thomas Walls

ca. 1870

Explore another example of a Black elected official during Reconstruction.

Primary Source

A collage of portraits of Black and white men in suits and ties in seven rows.

Radical Members of the South Carolina Legislature

1872

View a composite portrait of Reconstruction-era elected officials.

Primary Source

The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America

with Khalil Gibran Muhammad

Explore the history of race, crime, and modern US history.

Video