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

A color photograph of two Black teammates from the Oakland Raiders in the team uniform kneeling on one knee as coaches and staff around them stand with right hands over their hearts.

Athletes in Protest

with Kevin Blackistone

Learn about the long path to protests led by Colin Kaepernick and their aftermath.

Video

A color photograph of a bronze statue of Octavius V. Catto in a three-piece suit and bowtie, leaning forward, hands open, in the courtyard of Philadelphia City Hall.

Using Sports to Contest Discrimination

with Kevin Blackistone

Learn about the long history of Black athletes using sports as a platform to advocate for racial equality.

Video

Image of a Benjamin Banneker postal stamp featuring a portrait of Banneker with a smaller, full-body illustration of Banneker with a telescope in the foreground.

African American Scientists

with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Learn more about some of the most notable African American scientists and their discoveries, from Benjamin Banneker to Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Video

A color photograph of a blue historical marker with yellow text for the Free African Society, in front of a gray stone building.

“Preamble and Articles of Association of Free African Society”

1787

Explore the founding document of Philadelphia's Free African Society, only the second Black mutual aid society in the country.

Primary Source

A white historical marker with black text for Benjamin Banneker's birthplace and home.

Benjamin Banneker on Solar Eclipses

1789

Read Banneker’s letter analyzing the science of eclipses.

Primary Source

Drawing of various sections of the cicada.

Benjamin Banneker’s Study of the Cicada

1800

Read Banneker’s derivation of the seventeen-year cycle of the cicada, one of the first scientists to make this observation.

Primary Source

James Baillie's 1845 color lithograph depicting the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, with American and French officers lined up on the left and right to receive the arms of the British army in 1781.

Preamble to “A Sermon on the Capture of Lord Cornwallis”

1782

Read the dedication that introduces this sermon, the first recorded use of the term “African American.”

Primary Source

Prince Demah’s signature and a blotted-out seal on heavy cloth paper.

Last Will and Testament of Prince Demah

1778

Read this final record from Demah’s life and career.

Primary Source

A black-and-white photogrpah of Fidel Castro (a dark-haired, bearded, light-skinned Latino man wearing a dark shirt and pants) and Malcolm X (a light-skinned Black man wearing horn-rimmed glasses, a dark trench coat, and a white shirt and dark tie) smiling while sitting on a bed in a hotel room.

Diasporic Solidarity and the Cuban Revolution

with Danielle Pilar Clealand

Learn more about the African American community’s response to the Cuban Revolution in the 1950s and 1960s.

Video

A color photograph of a multicolored mural featuring images of crowds of protesters, Yuri Kochiyama (a Japanese American woman depicted wearing a red shirt and white bandana) speaking into a megaphone, and Malcolm X (a Black man depicted wearing a light-colored suit, blue shirt, and red tie and holding a newspaper). Above them is a depiction of Earth flanked by bridges.

Black and Latino Solidarity Movements

with Danielle Pilar Clealand

Learn more about Chicano, Puerto Rican, and other solidarity movements and their relation to the Black freedom struggle.

Video

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

AP African American Studies Resource Library

Athletes in Protest

with Kevin Blackistone

Using Sports to Contest Discrimination

with Kevin Blackistone

African American Scientists

with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

“Preamble and Articles of Association of Free African Society”

1787

Benjamin Banneker on Solar Eclipses

1789

Benjamin Banneker’s Study of the Cicada

1800

Preamble to “A Sermon on the Capture of Lord Cornwallis”

1782

Last Will and Testament of Prince Demah

1778

Diasporic Solidarity and the Cuban Revolution

with Danielle Pilar Clealand

Black and Latino Solidarity Movements

with Danielle Pilar Clealand

Josiah Thomas Walls

ca. 1870

Radical Members of the South Carolina Legislature

1872

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