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

A color illustration of an olive-skinned, gray-haired/bearded St. Luke (with ceremonial halo) writing in Ge'ez.

African-European Interactions Through the Sixteenth Century

by Matthew Salvadore

Learn more about early connections between Africa and Europe.

Essay

A hand-colored map of the world in two hemispheres, with routes of the African slave trade and a star on the state of Georgia.

The Color Line and “Double Consciousness”

by Trudier Harris

Examine the importance of “the mask,” “the veil,” and “the color line” in works by Dunbar, Du Bois, and Ellison.

Essay

Lines of women primarily in white dresses and hats marching in formation. Between the first and second lines, a man in a dark suit and hat holds a sign reading "RACE PREJUDICE IS THE OFFSPRING OF IGNORANCE AND THE MOTHER OF LYNCHING."

The New York Silent Protest Parade in Photographs

1917

Explore this response to white supremacist violence led by the NAACP.

Primary Source

A black-and-white photograph of Carter G. Woodson, a Black man, wearing a dark jacket, white shirt, and polka-dotted tie.

The Black Diaspora and African American Studies

with Jo Von McCalester

Learn how Carter Woodson, W. E. B. Du Bois, and others developed the foundations of African American Studies.

Video

Josiah Thomas Walls

ca. 1870

Explore another example of a Black elected official during Reconstruction.

Primary Source

A collage of portraits of Black and white men in suits and ties in seven rows.

Radical Members of the South Carolina Legislature

1872

View a composite portrait of Reconstruction-era elected officials.

Primary Source

The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America

with Khalil Gibran Muhammad

Explore the history of race, crime, and modern US history.

Video

Traveling Black: A Story of Race and Resistance

with Mia Bay

Learn more about the impact of Homer Plessy on segregation and discrimination of railroad travel.

Video

The image is a black-and-white portrait of Langston Hughes, the renowned African American poet, playwright, and leader of the Harlem Renaissance. He is shown from the chest up, wearing a suit with a tie and a sweater vest underneath. He has a warm smile and is looking slightly downward, with soft lighting casting gentle shadows on his face. The background is plain, and the photograph has a classic, vintage feel, likely taken in the mid-20th century.

“I Too”: Langston Hughes’s Afro-Whitmanian Affirmation

by Steven Tracy

Explore Hughes' "I, Too" poem, its connection to Walt Whitman, and its role in affirming Black identity in America.

Essay

Handwritten fragment of Abraham Lincoln's last Annual Message supporting the Thirteenth Amendment

Abraham Lincoln and the Passage of the Thirteenth Amendment

by Allen C. Guelzo

Explore Lincoln’s role in the abolition of slavery through the Thirteenth Amendment.

Essay

The image is a sepia-toned portrait of Ida B. Wells, the African American journalist, activist, and anti-lynching crusader. She is shown from the chest up, wearing a high-collared, intricately embroidered lace dress with ruffled details. Her hair is styled in an elegant updo, and she has a composed, determined expression while gazing slightly to the side. The soft lighting and classic photographic style suggest it was taken in the late 19th or early 20th century.

The Persistence of Ida B. Wells: Reform Leader and Civil Rights Activist

by Kristina DuRocher

Learn more about Wells’s fight against lynching, her journalism, and her leadership in the civil rights movement.

Essay

Group of African Americans, marching near the Capitol building in Washington, D.C.

History of Race Relations in America

with David Blight, Kellie Carter Jackson, and Manisha Sinha

Explore the importance of Black history and the history of race relations in America in this panel discussion.

Video