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

A black-and-white photograph of Robert Smalls, a goateed Black man, seated, wearing a dark jacket, bow tie, and vest (with pocket watch chain), and a white shirt.

Beyond the Battlefield: African American Contributions to the Civil War

with Elizabeth R. Varon

Learn more about the men, women, and children who contributed to the war effort through various means.

Video

A page from a book with the title "The Statues at Large" in large, gothic font.

Legislating Reproduction and Racial Difference

from Women and the American Story, The New York Historical

Take a deep dive into the legal doctrine of partus sequitur ventrem.

Essay

A color photograph of a row of ten female Grandassa models with natural, afro-style hair wearing dresses made from brightly colored African-inspired motifs. Three men standing on a small podium behind the models are wearing patterned dashiki shirts. The dark blue wall behind them is covered with posters advertising Black theater performances, shows, and celebrations.

Naturally ’68 at the Apollo Theater

ca. 1968

View a photograph from a key convergence of artists and models amid the Black is Beautiful movement.

Primary Source

Scan of a black and white photograph of a mix of Black men, women, and children and a few white men and women, some carrying American flags, walking through a town.

The Civil Rights Movement

by Taylor Branch

Read an essay taking a bird's-eye view of the Civil Rights Movement.

Essay

Two Black men stand talking on either side of a large sign reading "National Headquarters/March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom/Wed. Aug. 28".

The Civil Rights Movement: Major Events and Legacies

by James T. Patterson

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

Essay

A smiling white-haired Black woman in a dark dress sitting with her hands clasped in her lap in an elaborately carved high-backed wooden chair

The Slave Narratives: A Genre and a Source

by David W. Blight

Examine narratives such as Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl in this essay.

Essay

Photograph of large sculpture of Martin Luther King Jr. carved out of stone.

A Place in History: Historical Perspective on Martin Luther King Jr. Day

by James Oliver Horton

Read about the historical context for the formation of the modern civil rights movement and leadership.

Essay

A map of the coast of Liberia, with the Atlantic Ocean appearing diagonally in the middle of the map.

The First Age of Reform

by Ronald G. Walters

Learn more about the debates related to colonization in the context of other antebellum reform movements.

Essay

A photograph of a Black Civil War Union soldier in uniform in a rounded rectangular frame.

African Americans and Emancipation

by Manisha Sinha

Explore the role of military service during the Civil War on emancipation and abolition.

Essay

A group of five Black men and women hold hands and sing with a white man and woman inside a church.

Different Perspectives on the Civil Rights Movement

by Anthony J. Badger

Read about the different ways historians have challenged the dominant narrative of the Civil Rights movement since the 1960s.

Essay

A black and white etching of Haitian revolutionaries fighting French soldiers.

Connections Between the American and Haitian Revolutions

by Laurent Dubois

Understand the relationship between the Haitian Revolution and American Revolution.

Essay

An engraving of a white-haired Frederick Douglass standing at a desk, wearing a dark jacket and waistcoat, dark bow tie, and white shirt and pants, shaking the hand of another Black man wearing a white shirt, as others wait to greet him at left

Frederick Douglass: From Slavery to Freedom

by Steven Mintz

Read about Frederick Douglass from his childhood and youth as an enslaved person and his legacy as a leading abolitionist and equal rights advocate.

Essay

AP African American Studies Resource Library