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

A green book cover with gold text reading "Harriet, the Moses of Her People"

Harriet, the Moses of Her People

1886

Read an authorized description of Tubman’s escape written by a White woman who had interviewed Tubman.

Primary Source

Title page of The Refugee: or the Narrative of Fugitive Slaves in Canada

Harriet Tubman’s reflection in The Refugee

1856

Read Tubman’s memories of enslavement and freedom in her own words.

Primary Source

Black women in coats and sweaters dancing as a multiracial crowd looks on from the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (with the Museum's colonnade in the background).

Land of a Thousand Dances

by Lucy Sante

Explore the history, and memory, of Soul Train.

Essay

A color photograph of four people in a park: a Black woman wearing a black shirt and headband; a Black man wearing a white t-shirt, chain with large star, black undershirt, glasses, and backward black baseball cap; a Black man wearing a red polo shirt, black plastic-frame glasses, and a red New York Yankees cap; and a Black man with a black vest and t-shirt, two chains, sunglasses, and a black baseball cap.

Hip-Hop in Cedar Park

by NYC Parks

Hear from DJ Kool Herc and others as they remember the early days of hip-hop in the Bronx.

Video

Fannie Lou Hamer, a Black woman, speaking while wearing a floral-patterned dress.

Black Women’s Leadership and Organizing in the Civil Rights Movement

by Keisha N. Blain

Explore the civil rights leadership of JoAnn Robinson, Ella Baker, and Fannie Lou Hamer.

Essay

An engraving of a bust of a bearded Black man wearing a black suit, white shirt, and dark bow tie, in three-quarter view looking toward the left

“An Address to the Slaves of the United States”

1843

Explore this speech, rejected by the National Colored Convention.

Primary Source

Color print of a Black Union soldier in uniform (blue wide brimmed hat with an emblem, blue double-breasted coat with a black belt and gold US belt buckle and red sashes, blue pants, black shoes), holding a sword in his right hand and its sheath in his left; a large American flag flies over his head and there are military tents and a Black soldier in the background.

Martin R. Delany on Emigration

1852

Learn more about the many emigration and colonization pathways for formerly enslaved people.

Primary Source

A handwritten letter in cursive

An Account of the Stono Rebellion

1739

Explore James Oglethorpe’s account of the Stono Rebellion in South Carolina.

Primary Source

Color portrait of a smiling, bare-chested Black man, with grayscale vignettes of the same man shown in a boxing ring facing an opponent, and standing facing out wearing boxing shorts and gloves; at the top are the words "Jack Johnson: The Galveston Giant"

Jack Johnson

by Eddie Flier

View this artistic homage to boxing champion Jack Johnson.

Work of Art

A black-and-white photograph of a serious young Black man in a military uniform (dark coat, white gloves, light-colored pants with a dark racing stripe) holding a sheathed sword

Photograph of Charles Remond Douglass

ca. 1864

Frederick Douglass’s youngest son served in the 54th Massachusetts Infantry.

Secondary Source

Cover of the 1830 pamphlet edition of Walker's Appeal ... to the Colored Citizens of the World printed in Boston

“Walker’s Appeal”

1829

Black abolitionist David Walker wrote a powerful pamphlet on the effects of enslavement on African Americans and what enslaved people should do to escape.

Primary Source

A yellowed four-fold pamphlet featuring the photograph (at top left) of Stanley Dones, a Black man wearing a dark jacket, white shirt, and dark tie, placing his right hand upon his chin.

Black Land Ownership in the Jim Crow Era

with Alison Rose Jefferson and Sandra Trenholm

Explore the history of the Black-owned Eureka Villa housing development in 1920s California.

Video