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

Dark orange cover for a pamphlet edition of two speeches by Frederick Douglass

“West India Emancipation”

1857

Read Frederick Douglass’s first use of the phrase “If there is no struggle there is no progress.”

Primary Source

Masthead of The Liberator, featuring a depiction of an enslaved family next to an auctioneer, whose lectern reads "Slaves Horses & Other Cattle to be sold at 12 OO."

The Question of Naming in The Liberator

1831

Explore responses to questions of Black identity and nomenclature in the famed abolitionist newspaper.

Primary Source

A handwritten copy of the Thirteenth Amendment

The Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments

1865, 1868, and 1870

Read the three Reconstruction Amendments.

Primary Source

Front page of The Colored American newspaper

“Why We Should Have a Paper”

1837

Read the founding manifesto of The Colored American newspaper.

Primary Source

A black-and-white engraving of Solomon Northup, a Black man wearing a white hat, shirt, and pants, sitting on a box, a broomstick leaning against his left arm. Below the image, the name Solomon Northup in handwriting and the words "In his plantation suit"

Solomon Northup Remembers the New Orleans Slave Market

1853

Read an excerpt from Northup’s autobiographical account, Twelve Years a Slave.

Primary Source

Title of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) pamphlet on "Structure and Leadership."

“Women in the Movement”

1964

Read this anonymously written memo calling out gender inequality and tokenism in the SNCC.

Primary Source

The first page of sheet music for "Lift Every Voice and Sing."

“Lift Every Voice and Sing”

1900

Read the lyrics composed by James Weldon Johnson for what has become known as the Black National Anthem.

Primary Source

Cover of the Messenger magazine for March 1920, featuring two torches held by disembodied hands on either side of a wreath, within which features the contents of that month's issue.

“Negroes, Leave the South!”

1920

Read an anonymous editorial calling on African Americans to move north, east, and west for safety and opportunities.

Primary Source

Portrait of Paul Laurence Dunbar, a young Black man, wearing a dark suit and tie and white shirt.

“We Wear the Mask”

1895

Read Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem, which poses a “mask” similar to Du Bois’s “veil.”

Primary Source

A printed poem, "On Being Brought from Africa to America" by Phillis Wheatley

“On Being Brought from Africa to America”

1773

Read Phillis Wheatley’s poem on slavery and Christianity.

Primary Source

“If We Must Die”

1919

Read Claude McKay’s defiant poem, in response to violence against African Americans following World War I.

Primary Source

A handwritten transcript of a letter

Letter from the Governor of East Florida

1739

Read a letter that points to the conflicts and alliances between the Spanish, English, Africans, and Native Americans in border regions of the Southeast.

Primary Source