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

A typed flyer for a "SCHOOL BOYCOTT!" featuring a Black boy with his arms on a windowsill, looking through a broken window.

“Boycott Cripples City Schools”

1964

Read an article about a student protest led by 360,000 Black and Puerto Rican students in New York City.

Primary Source

Phillippe Mouillon, a gray-haired White man (wearing a collared white shirt), sitting next to Aimé Césaire, a Black man, wearing a gray jacket, gray shirt, and patterned blue and white tie. Both are sitting in chairs (Mouillon in a wooden chair, and Césaire in a padded office chair upholstered in black fabric), and Césaire is holding a book in each hand.

“Discourse on Colonialism”

1972

Read the preamble to Aimé Césaire’s treatise, a foundational document of the Négritude movement.

Primary Source

Toni Morrison, a Black woman wearing a multicolored sweater, white blouse, and black pants, next to her son Harold (wearing a brown sweater and khaki pants) and Slade (wearing a black shirt and red pants), in front of a multi-story house and trees.

“Culture Zone; Black to the Future”

by Walter Mosley

Read this column on the history of, and potential for, Afrofuturism and Black writers in science fiction.

Essay

Typed Black Panther Ten-Point platform in a newspaper.

The Black Panther Party’s Ten-Point Program

1966

Read the Black Panther Party’s guiding manifesto.

Primary Source

A lithographic print juxtaposing two black faces stylized as African masks framed by yellow circular emblems with a black panther in the center. The words [BLACK IS / BEAUTIFUL] are inscribed around each panther. The print appears in quadrants, with one face in three-quarter view in the top left and the other face appearing straight on in the lower left. The panther emblems appear in a grid in the top right and bottom left quadrants, with the top and bottom rows extending across the full print.

“Negro Es Bello II”

1969

View an example of art from the Black Arts movement by Elizabeth Catlett.

Primary Source

A vertical timeline from the 1600s to the 2000s noting direct influences from one genre of African American music traditions in pink lines and indirect cross-influences with white arrows.

The Evolution of African American Music

by Portia K. Maultsby

View how African American music evolved over the course of four hundred years through this timeline.

Secondary Source

“Hey Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean”

ca. 1952

Watch Ruth Brown’s live performance of an early R&B song.

Video

Colin Powell, a gray-haired, bespectacled Black man, wearing a black jacket, white shirt, and polka dot (white dots on black fabric) tie

Commencement Address by Gen. Colin Powell

1994

Watch Gen. Powell’s speech at one of the premier historically Black universities.

Video

Charles Mingus, a Black man wearing a white or light-colored turtleneck and a dark vest, playing an upright bass.

“Original Faubus Fables”

1960

Hear Charles Mingus's musical retort to Arkansas Governor and segregationist Orval Faubus.

Video

Oil painting of Henrietta Lacks, a Black woman. She is smiling facing forward with her hands clasped in front of her body, holding a black book with gold-colored text [HOLY BIBLE]. Lacks is wearing a red dress with a white flower pattern and small belt.

“Henrietta Lacks (HeLa): The Mother of Modern Medicine”

2017

View Kadir Nelson’s portrait and tribute to Henrietta Lacks.

Primary Source

From left to right, a seated Black girl wearing a white coat and earrings; a standing Black boy wearing a dark jacket, white shirt, and thin dark tie; a seated Black woman, wearing a dark jacket over a light colored blouse and a pearl necklace; and a standing Black man, wearing a blazer emblazoned with a crest.

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

1954

Read the unanimous opinion of the Supreme Court in this foundational case.

Primary Source

Barbara Smith, a Black woman, wearing a polka dot (white dots on black fabric) shirt and speaking into a lectern microphone. In her left hand, she is holding a pamphlet entitled "United States of All."

“The Combahee River Collective Statement”

1977

Read this foundational document of Black feminism.

Primary Source