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

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 a crowd picketing with signs outside a building, photographed from above.

Methods of the Major Civil Rights Organizations

by Hasan Kwame Jeffries

Take a quick look at the differing practices of the “Big Four” civil rights organizations.

Essay

First typed page of the Brown v. Board of Education decision.

The Path to Brown v. Board of Education

with Justin Driver

Learn more about the Brown v. Board case as it made its way to the Supreme Court and the Court’s historic decision.

Video

A black-and-white photograph of nine Black students, six girls and three boys, with Mayor Robert Wagner of New York City.

School Desegregation

with Justin Driver

Learn more about the immediate aftermath and impact of the Brown decision.

Video

A black-and-white photograph of W. C. Handy, a Black man wearing a dark suit, white shirt, and light tie, holding a trumpet.

Origins of the African American Musical Tradition

with Charles Hughes

Learn more about how musical and performative traditions from Africa and diaspora became modern American genres.

Video

A bird's-eye-view map of Memphis, Tennessee, with riverboats in the Mississippi River foreground

The Memphis Sound

with Charles Hughes

Learn how Memphis became a major cultural and musical hub.

Video

A collage of three photographs on a dotted orange background. Clockwise from left: A black-and-white photograph of Bo Diddley, a Black man wearing a dark shirt with ornamental stripes on the sleeves and a dark hat. He is playing a guitar with a rectangular head while singing into a microphone; A black-and-white photograph of Sister Rosetta Tharpe, a Black woman in a dark colored dress, looking upward with her guitar hanging by its strap on her shoulder; and a color photograph of Little Richard, a Black man

Bo Diddley, Little Richard, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe

with Charles Hughes

Learn more about these three trailblazing musicians.

Video

A written legal document from 1781 certifying Cuffee Wells' purchase of freedom.

Doctor Cuffee Saunders

1781

Read about how Cuffee Wells Saunders gained his freedom.

Primary Source

A black-and-white photograph of Willie O'Ree, a Black man, coming off the ice wearing a white Boston Bruins uniform.

The Desegregation of Hockey

with George and Darril Fosty

Learn about the path toward Willie O’Ree breaking the color barrier in the National Hockey League.

Video

Black men and women laying on the ground and standing (those standing holding tools, such as washboards and basins and an axe) in front of Union soldiers in uniform, themselves in front of a house.

Civil War “Contrabands”

1861–1865

View two photographs of self-emancipated people described as “contrabands” of the Union Army during the Civil War.

Primary Source

A multicolored map of Oklahoma and Indian territories.

Emancipation on Indigenous Lands

with Jeffrey Kerr-Ritchie

Learn more about the reach of the Thirteenth Amendment in American Indian nations.

Video

A color photgraph of Shareef Abdur-Rahim, a light-skinned Black man wearing a white Portland Trail Blazers uniform, holds a basketball as Reggie Evans (a dark-skinned Black man in a green and yellow Seattle SuperSonics uniform) defends.

A Thematic Conversation with Shareef Abdur-Rahim

2025

Learn more about Abdur-Rahim’s path to the NBA, Team USA, the G League, and making a place for Muslim professional athletes.

Video