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

Etching of Rev. Richard Allen, wearing a jacket and white shirt and looking directly ahead.

Richard Allen, Jarena Lee, and the Second Great Awakening

by Margaret Washington

Read about the founding of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Essay

A wedding near a fireplace. The groom is a Black man wearing a dark coat, white pants, and a white shirt. The bride is a Black woman wearing a white dress. Groomsmen and bridesmaids are behind the couple, and the officiant (wearing a dark coat and pants and holding a book) is faced in the couple's direction. Behind the officiant are more witnesses, a bassist, and a clarinetist (the latter musicians sitting).

Dressing Freedom: The Wedding Clothing of Freed People

by Brenda E. Stevenson

Explore the importance of wedding clothing for freed people during Reconstruction.

Essay

A wood sculpture, painted black, in the form of a standing female figure with arms at sides apart from torso, hands on hips, and feet and legs apart; on her head there is a double-ax motif.

Yorùbá Oshe Shango Ceremonial Wand

19th or 20th Century

View this contemporary piece honoring a traditional Yoruba god.

Work of Art

Scan of a page from Phillis Wheatley's book of poems, 1773.

Phillis Wheatley’s poem on tyranny and slavery

1772

Take a deep dive into one of Wheatley's best-known poems.

Primary Source

Scan of Dunmore's Proclamation as printed on December 6, 1775.

Lord Dunmore's Proclamation

1775

Learn more about the proclamation offering freedom to enslaved people who joined the British army.

Primary Source

A scan of the sheet music for Jairus Lincoln's Hymn 17.

American Antislavery Writings

1737–1862

Listen to the words of nine antislavery activists, including Phillis Wheatley, David Walker, Jairus Lincoln, and Frederick Douglass, in poetry, oration, and song.

Interactive

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

Black soldiers in dark Union Army uniforms, jackets with sashes and epaulets, and caps with a horn embroidered on the bill, looking at the camera while holding their rifles.

The Men of Company E

with Matthew Pinsker

Explore different points of view of Black soldiers in a postwar photograph.

Video

Black women wearing white shirts (with a blue ridged neckline) and blue skirts, and Black men in white shirts, white pants, and brown hats, cutting sugar cane.

Sexuality and Slavery: Reclaiming Intimate Histories in the Americas

with Daina Ramey Berry and Leslie Harris

Learn how sexuality was a point of both exploitation and resistance for enslaved people.

Video

A Black woman with braided hair smiling while wearing a white shirt with a floral print.

Black Women and Educational Activism in Antebellum America

with Kabria Baumgartner

Explore how antebellum Black women became educators and activists, and the story of the first integrated classroom in the US.

Video

The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks

with Jeanne Theoharis

Learn how examining Rosa Parks’s life challenges perceptions of her as an accidental actor in the civil rights movement.

Video

Photograph of Prof. Keisha Blain, a Black professor, smiling while wearing a white jacket over a textured green shirt, black glasses, and gold earrings.

Fannie Lou Hamer’s Enduring Message to America

with Keisha N. Blain

Explore Fannie Lou Hamer’s life and civil rights organizing career.

Video