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

Augusta Savage, a Black woman, smiling and looking to her left as she holds a small sculpture of an antelope or similar creature in her hands.

Searching for Augusta Savage

with Jeffreen M. Hayes

Learn more about Savage’s art amid the New Negro movement and Harlem Renaissance.

Video

Vinyl record with a brown Columbia records label, adorned with red, white, and blue banners, and the title and artist ("Hope I'll Join the Band," Fisk University Jubilee Singers.)

Songs of the Fisk Jubilee Singers

1909–1924

Listen to early recordings of spirituals recorded and popularized by the Fisk Jubilee Singers.

Video

A stylized post of (from top to bottom) a bearded man atop a horse, held up by a woman.

Òpó (veranda post)

by Olowe of Ise

View a modern example of Yoruba art and design traditions.

Primary Source

A gold staff with two human figures on either side of a spider web.

Staff of Office (ȯkyeame)

Nineteenth to Early Twentieth Century

View an example of a staff held by high ranking officials in West Africa.

Primary Source

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 black-and-white photograph of James Weldon Johnson, a Black man wearing a light colored blazer, white shirt, and dark bow tie, seated at a desk, turning left toward the camera. He is holding a telephone in his left hand.

“Lift Every Voice and Sing” as a Hymn to America

by Noelle Morrissette

Explore the meaning and the impact of James Weldon Johnson and John Rosamond Johnson’s hymn.

Essay

The Tomb of Askia, a mud building covered in spikes, surrounded by two sets of walls. On the other side of the outer wall, cattle walk behind three children.

Conducting Archaeology in the Sudanic Empires

with Mamadou Cissé

Learn more about the process of, and challenges in, studying the history of Gao, capital of the kingdom of Songhai.

Video

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

A brick building with two round sections on either side, connected via a colonnade topped by a white steeple and flagpole in front of a brick fence.

“Petition to the Virginia House of Delegates”

1784

Read this plea written by Sarah Greene, a formerly enslaved woman caught in a legal fight.

Primary Source

A black-and-white photograph of a Black man wearing a dark top hat and suit riding a horse leading a procession including a band of musicians down a dirt road

Freedom Days in American History

with Jeffrey Kerr-Ritchie

Learn more about the long history of celebrating emancipation, from January 1, to August 1, to Juneteenth.

Video

Detail from a multicolored map depicting enslaved population by county in the South, along with government farms and camps set up by the Union Army during the Civil War.

Emancipation: Separating Myth from Fact

with Jeffrey Kerr-Ritchie

Break down common misconceptions about the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment in this video.

Video