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

From left to right: a Black woman wearing a white vest and plaid pants kneeling with head raised; John Lewis, a Black man wearing a white button-down shirt, black pants, and black shoes, kneeling with head bowed while holding a notepad in his left hand; a Black girl wearing a white shirt, shorts, and shoes, kneeling with head bowed; and a Black man wearing a white button-down shirt, black pants, and black shoes, kneeling with head bowed. All are in front of a brick building with ground-floor windows.

John Lewis at a Prayer Demonstration

1962

View a photograph of members of the SNCC kneeling in prayer in Cairo, Illinois.

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A black-and-white photograph of an elderly Black man in a white robe and black kufi hat sitting with eyes closed, plucking a guitar made of a calabash squash.

“Griot Basimana, Mali”

1970

View this photograph, an example of the persistence of African learning traditions.

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Medal podium at the 1968 Olympic Games. Tommie Smith (the gold medalist, center), a Black man, is wearing a dark blue Team USA jacket (with red and white trim), the gold medal around his neck, and his right hand in a Black Power salute with a black glove on his clenched right fist. John Carlos (bronze medalist, right), a Black man, is also wearing a Team USA uniform (with an unzipped jacket) and mirrors the salute with his left hand. Peter Norman (left), a white man, is wearing a green jacket.

Tommie Smith and John Carlos during XIX Summer Olympics

1968

View a key example of sports as a platform for the Black freedom struggle.

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Elijah Muhammad, a Black man wearing a beret, barely visible above a lectern and a bank of microphones. He is flanked on his stage by two Black men on his right (one in a dark suit, white shirt, and dark bowtie, and another in a Fruit of Islam uniform of beret, dark jacket, and white shirt) and a Black woman (in a white robe and headwear) and Black man (in a dark suit, white shirt, and dark necktie), and behind him are several Black men in dark suits and ties and Black women in white robes and headwear.

Elijah Muhammad Addressing Black Muslims

1966

View Elijah Muhammad, leader of the Nation of Islam, speaking to congregants.

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An open-topped car with four passengers in a parade. The driver is a Black man with a dark jacket, white shirt, dark tie, and dark driver's cap. In the back seat, from left to right, is a Black man in a military uniform; a Black man wearing academic regalia; Marcus Garvey, a Black man, wearing a military uniform and holding a sword. Next to the car is a Black man wearing a dark jacket, white shirt, and striped tie. In the background are apartment buildings, where Black people are looking on at the parade.

Marcus Garvey in Harlem

1924

View another photograph of Garvey and an entourage, as captured by James Van Der Zee.

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“Nonviolence and Racial Justice”

1957

Explore Martin Luther King’s philosophy toward nonviolent resistance.

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A black-and-white photograph of Martin Luther King Jr. speaking at a lectern. Login Required message is an overlay.

Why We Can’t Wait

1964

Read an excerpt from Martin Luther King’s 1964 book, focused on segregation in Birmingham prior to SCLC’s campaign there.

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A sepia photograph of Gwendolyn Bennett, a young Black woman, seated, wearing a dark jumper over a white t-shirt.

“Heritage” by Gwendolyn Bennett

1923

Explore Gwendolyn Bennett’s vision of Africa in this poem.

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A Black girl wearing sunglasses, a white blouse, and a white and black/white checkered skirt, holds a book in the crook of her left arm while walking to school. A White girl in the background screams at the Black girl as other White boys and girls, and men wearing helmets, look on.

“Little Rock”

1958

Read this poem written by Afro-Cuban poet Nicolás Guillén after the Little Rock Crisis.

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A typed flyer for a "SCHOOL BOYCOTT!" featuring a Black boy with his arms on a windowsill, looking through a broken window.

“Boycott Cripples City Schools”

1964

Read an article about a student protest led by 360,000 Black and Puerto Rican students in New York City.

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Frontispiece and title page of The Souls of Black Folk, with a photograph of the author, a Black man with a mustache and beard, signed by W. E. B. Du Bois at the bottom left.

“The Souls of Black Folk”

1903

Read excerpts from W. E. B. Du Bois’s foundational book, in which he explains his ideas of “the veil” and “double-consciousness.”

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Phillippe Mouillon, a gray-haired White man (wearing a collared white shirt), sitting next to Aimé Césaire, a Black man, wearing a gray jacket, gray shirt, and patterned blue and white tie. Both are sitting in chairs (Mouillon in a wooden chair, and Césaire in a padded office chair upholstered in black fabric), and Césaire is holding a book in each hand.

“Discourse on Colonialism”

1972

Read the preamble to Aimé Césaire’s treatise, a foundational document of the Négritude movement.

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