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

A black-and-white photograph of a young Black girl wearing a white dress, dark sweater, and dark socks and shoes, jumping rope as other Black children look on.

The Great Migration and the Making of Modern America

by Davarian L. Baldwin

Explore the impact of the “Exodus from Dixie.”

Essay

Detail from an 1805 broadside showing restraining devices used on enslaved peoples

Global Africans and Transatlantic Slaving to the United States

by Kwasi Konadu

Explore the origins of and predecessors to the transatlantic slave trade.

Essay

Map of the Kongo River.

Afonso and the Slave Trade

by John K. Thornton

Explore the origins and evolution of the slave trade in Kongo and Portugal.

Essay

A color print of Toussaint L'Ouverture, a Black soldier, wearing a Haitian cavalry uniform (black hat with a gold frill and white flower, blue jacket with gold trim and epaulets, white pants, and black boots) holding a sword atop a brown horse with a red and gold saddle.

Haiti and the Age of Abolition

by Marlene L. Daut

Understand the legacy of the Haitian Revolution and its global impact.

Essay

A photocopied cover of a curriculum catalog. At right, a black panther pouncing below the text "Black Studies Curriculum."

Black Studies: Its Origin and Place in the Twenty-First Century

by Abul Pitre

Develop an understanding of the birth and evolution of African American Studies, Black Studies, and other adjacent fields.

Essay

A port in a medieval city, with Black and White people on boats and walking about on land

“Chafariz d’El Rei” [The King’s Fountain]

ca. 1570–1580

Explore the role of Africans in Portugal in the sixteenth century through this painting and essay.

Work of Art

A round stone tower next to a tree, flanked on all sides by stone walls

Great Zimbabwe

by Nancy Demerdash

Take a closer look at the kingdom of Zimbabwe and its greatest surviving architectural achievement.

Essay

Obverse of coin with half-length bust of Ezanas right, crowned, holding stick or scepter, flanked by two wheat stalks, and Greek letters around the outside, the whole in a beaded circle

Aksumite Coin

340–400

Examine this coin and its representation of ancient Ethiopia as a trading hub.

Work of Art

The interior of the Dexter Avenue Memorial Baptist church, with light streaming in through multicolored stained-glass windows.

Young Black adults less Protestant than their elders

2021

Compare generational statistics of religious affiliation among Black Americans.

Secondary Source

Scan of the US Constitution, printed in September 1787.

Race and the American Constitution: A Struggle Toward National Ideals

by James Oliver Horton

Read how both pro-slavery and anti-slavery movements used the Constitution to promote their beliefs.

Essay

An engraving shows four people doing various tasks with harvested tobacco in an open shed, including pulling pieces of the leaves apart, and winding rope.

The Origins of Slavery

by Ira Berlin

Gain a greater understanding of the slave trade and the forced migration and diaspora of Africans.

Essay

Scan of a black and white photograph of a mix of Black men, women, and children and a few white men and women, some carrying American flags, walking through a town.

The Civil Rights Movement

by Taylor Branch

Read an essay taking a bird's-eye view of the Civil Rights Movement.

Essay