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

John Lewis, a Black man, wearing a dark jacket and tie and white shirt, speaking in front of two microphones on a table.

“The Revolution Is at Hand”

1963

Read the draft of John Lewis’s original planned speech for the March on Washington.

Primary Source

A page from a book focused on a title of legislation, "An Act for the Better Ordering and Governing of Negroes and Slaves."

South Carolina Slave Code

1740

Read excerpts from this slave code enacted in a British colony.

Primary Source

A typed notice on American Red Cross letterhead

“Statement of Policy Regarding Negro Blood Donors”

1942

View an impact of Jim Crow segregation on medical care during World War II.

Primary Source

A portrait of a Black man with long black hair wearing a white turban, white robe, and necklace.

Ayuba bin Suleiman Diallo to His Father

ca. 1733

Read a translation of the letter that helped to secure Diallo’s freedom from enslavement.

Primary Source

Seated, from left to right, a Black man wearing a white shirt, kente cloth robe, and glasses; a Black woman wearing a white shirt; Pat Nixon, a White woman, wearing a light-colored dress with a white collar and a white hat; Richard Nixon, a White man, wearing a dark suit, white shirt, and dark tie; and K.A. Gbedeman, a Black man, wearing a light-colored shirt and kente cloth robe.

“M. L. King Meets Nixon in Ghana”

1957

Read this piece from the Pittsburgh Courier that connects the Black Freedom struggles in Ghana and the US.

Primary Source

A typed act of Congress.

Maintaining the Freedmen’s Bureau

1866

Read the legislation that extended the life of the Freedmen’s Bureau.

Primary Source

A panoramic image of a mosaic featuring spirals and circles on a blue field.

“Funktional Vibrations”

by Xenobia Bailey

Explore a mosaic connecting visual art with music.

Work of Art

A train platform with, at center, a wrought-iron sculpture of a man wearing a suit and hat while holding a suitcase.

“Hear the Lone Whistle Moan” / “copacetic”

by Alison Saar

View two pieces paying homage to the Harlem Renaissance.

Work of Art

A mosaic featuring a black and white portrait of Audre Lorde surrounded by bursts of gold, white, and black tiles.

“Audre Lorde” in “Beacons”

by Rico Gaston

View a mosaic portrait of Lorde installed in the New York City subway system.

Work of Art

A white tile mosaic mural of several Black people airborne above buildings.

“Flying Home: Harlem Heroes and Heroines”

by Faith Ringgold

View a fantastical homage to Harlem history through this work of art in the New York City subway.

Work of Art

A photograph with impressionist, multicolored mosaic mural of people on a subway train in the background, with beams holding up a subway station in the foreground of the photograph.

“New York in Transit”

by Jacob Lawrence

View Jacob Lawrence’s last public work, a mosaic mural in New York City's Times Square subway station.

Work of Art

Handwritten document in French headlined "Edit du Roi" [Edict from the King].

Louisiana Code Noir

1685

Read this excerpt from France’s original colonial slave code.

Primary Source