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

Scan of the front page of the Pacific Stars and Stripes Newspaper from August 30, 1963, featuring a large image of the 1963 March on Washington.

The March on Washington

with Bryson Bruce, Jermain Corbin, and Sandra Trenholm

Explore archival materials related to the March on Washington and the ensuing press coverage.

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

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

Mary McLeod Bethune seated at her desk in Bethune-Cookman College.

Mary McLeod Bethune’s Impact

with Noliwe Rooks

Learn about Mary McLeod Bethune’s life, her involvement in politics and civil rights, and her work’s lasting impact.

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

Hidden History: African American Women During Reconstruction

with Rebecca Czuchry

Explore responses by Black Texan women to racial violence in the wake of the Civil War.

Video

A bespectacled Shirley Chisholm looking to her right while wearing a dark turtleneck and necklaces.

Shirley Chisholm: Champion of Black Feminist Power Politics

with Anastasia C. Curwood

Learn more about Chisholm’s life and career.

Video

Martin Luther King Jr. in a dark suit and tie and white shirt, looking out from a balcony at the street below.

Essential Methods of the Major Civil Rights Organizations

with Hasan Kwame Jeffries

Learn more about the major civil rights organizations of the 1950s and 1960s and their typical day-to-day operations.

Video

A black-and-white photograph of Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. (a Black soldier in uniform and sunglasses), Joe Louis (a Black man wearing a light colored suit and a dark bowtie), Thurgood Marshall (a Black man wearing a dark suit and white shirt, his head resting on his crooked right arm), and Daisy Lampkin (a Black woman wearing a light colored dress and dark hat) seated outside under an open-air tent.

NAACP Civil Rights Convention

1947

View this photograph of four activists in the wake of the Double V movement taken by Joe Schwartz.

Primary Source

Two maps side by side, of Oak Park and surrounding towns/neighborhoods in 1950 and 2010. The 1950 map shows an almost exclusively White population; the 2010 map shows a diverse community surrounded by an overwhelmingly Black neighborhood to the east and overwhelmingly Latino towns to the south.

Responses to and Impact of Housing Discrimination

with Richard Rothstein

Learn more about how African Americans fought against housing discrimination.

Video

A color photograph of a crowd gathering around the reflecting pool in Washington, the Washington Monument, and the Capitol rotunda in the distance. In the foreground, a White man holds a red-and-white sign reading "We march for jobs for all now!"

The Power of Nonviolent Resistance in the Civil Rights Movement

by Hasan Kwame Jeffries

Learn more about the impact and successes of nonviolent organizing during the Civil Rights Movement.

Essay

A black-and-white photograph of several Black women in dresses holding signs in support of voter registration.

Black Women and Grassroots Organizing

by Robert F. Jefferson Jr.

Explore the history of local activism led by Black women in the twentieth century.

Essay