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

Front page of the Spotlight on Africa newsletter for April 20, 1954, featuring a group of Black women sitting and standing in a group photo.

Black Internationalism and the Expansive Meanings of Freedom

by Merve Fejzula

Learn more about how those in the Black Freedom struggle came together across the African continent and diaspora in the 1930s through the 1970s.

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

A photograph of a large brick hospital building with multiple wings.

Black American Contributions to Modern Medicine

by George Aumoithe

Learn more about how Black medical professionals overcame obstacles in the field and innovated despite exclusion.

Essay

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 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

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 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 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

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 flyer with the images of two white men (Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner) flanking the image of a Black man (James Chaney).

Nonviolent Resistance and the Civil Rights Movement

by Robert Greene II

Learn more about nonviolent tactics and campaigns during the Civil Rights Movement.

Essay

Gwendolyn Brooks, a bespectacled Black woman, wearing a brown and magenta floral shirt and a brown head cover.

“We’re the Only Colored People Here”

1945

Read a short story that would grow into Gwendolyn Brooks’s novel Maud Martha (1953).

Primary Source

A white historical marker with black text for Benjamin Banneker's birthplace and home.

Benjamin Banneker on Solar Eclipses

1789

Read Banneker’s letter analyzing the science of eclipses.

Primary Source