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

Black and white photo of a middle-aged Black woman with shoulder length hair and wearing a large white flower pin being sworn in as the borough president of Manhattan.

Constance Baker Motley: A Trailblazer in the Legal Profession

by Gary L. Ford, Jr.

Read about the life and work of Constance Baker Motley, the only woman who argued desegregation cases in courts in the racially segregated South during the Civil Rights Movement from 1946 to 1964.

Essay

Jackie Robinson

with Jason Butler, Taína Quiñones, and Sandra Trenholm

Explore a comic book about Jackie Robinson’s rookie year and letters written by Richard Nixon and Robert Kennedy to Jackie Robinson about the Civil Rights Movement.

Video

Read an overview of the landmark moments of the Civil Rights Movement in the twentieth century.

Ten Ways to Teach Rosa Parks

by Jeanne Theoharis and Say Burgin

Read about ten common misconceptions about Civil Rights legend Rosa Parks.

Essay

Title page of an aging book, with "William Parker" handwritten in cursive at the top of the page. The book's title is, "A narrative of the proceedings of the black people, during the late awful calamity in Philadelphia, in the year 1773: and a refutation of some censures thrown upon them in some late publications."

Black Volunteers in the Nation’s First Epidemic

1794

Read Absalom Jones and Richard Allen’s narrative of the African American community’s response to the 1793 yellow fever epidemic.

Primary Source

Scan of the first page of the report titled "Voting Restrictions in the 13 Southern States", featuring a map of the United States with 13 Southern states highlighted in red.

Voting restrictions for African Americans

1944

Investigate a pamphlet that documented cases of voter suppression in southern states written by a group of southern editors and writers.

Primary Source

The Life and Work of Phillis Wheatley

with Krystal Mackie, Jeanette Providence, and Sandra Trenholm

Discover the eighteenth-century poet who was enslaved, became free, and built a lasting legacy.

Video

Screenshot of thumbnail of video, featuring the title on crumpled paper above a collage of archival photos.

African American Experiences, 1878-Present

with Kellie Carter Jackson, Charles McKinney, and Yohuru Williams

Dive into a panel covering African American experiences after Reconstruction with three historians.

Video

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.