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

Broadside with text of varying sizes. On the top it reads in all capital letters, "MEN OF COLOR; TO ARMS! TO ARMS!; NOW OR NEVER."

Generations in Captivity: Slavery in America

with Ira Berlin

Understand how the interplay of regional and generational factors shaped the development of slavery in the antebellum United States.

Video

Black soldiers in dark Union Army uniforms, jackets with sashes and epaulets, and caps with a horn embroidered on the bill, looking at the camera while holding their rifles.

The Men of Company E

with Matthew Pinsker

Explore different points of view of Black soldiers in a postwar photograph.

Video

The front cover of Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, featuring a small photorealistic illustration of Eliza and Lizzie Scott in dresses holding hands above two larger illustrations of Dred and Harriet Scott, pictured separately

Dred and Harriet Scott: A Family Story of Slavery and Freedom

with Matthew Pinsker

Learn about the family that brought the Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) case to the Supreme Court.

Video

Photograph shows a procession of African Americans, with two women in the foreground, carrying signs for equal rights, integrated schools, decent housing, and an end to bias.

The March on Washington: A Virtual Tour

with Clayborne Carson

Join the director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University for a virtual tour of the 1963 March on Washington.

Video

Scan of the US Constitution, printed in September 1787.

Race and the American Constitution: A Struggle Toward National Ideals

by James Oliver Horton

Read how both pro-slavery and anti-slavery movements used the Constitution to promote their beliefs.

Essay

An engraving shows four people doing various tasks with harvested tobacco in an open shed, including pulling pieces of the leaves apart, and winding rope.

The Origins of Slavery

by Ira Berlin

Gain a greater understanding of the slave trade and the forced migration and diaspora of Africans.

Essay

Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. smiling and talking with each other while a police escort stands near.

The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.

with Peniel Joseph

Dive into the lives and work of both Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.

Video

Black women wearing white shirts (with a blue ridged neckline) and blue skirts, and Black men in white shirts, white pants, and brown hats, cutting sugar cane.

Sexuality and Slavery: Reclaiming Intimate Histories in the Americas

with Daina Ramey Berry and Leslie Harris

Learn how sexuality was a point of both exploitation and resistance for enslaved people.

Video

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

A Black woman with reddish-brown hair and hands together at the front of her body, wearing a white shirt, black-and-white striped blazer, and earrings.

Force and Freedom: Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence

with Kellie Carter Jackson

Explore the history of Black abolitionism in the antebellum period.

Video

A South Asian woman wearing a black dress, black sweater, and white necklace, behind a table with paperback copies of the book "The Slave's Cause: A History of Abolition"

The Slave’s Cause: A History of Abolition

with Manisha Sinha

Explore the impact of the Haitian Revolution on the abolitionist movement.

Video

Image of the National Museum of African American History and Culture with the Washington Monument in the distance.

Creating the National Museum of African American History and Culture

with Lonnie Bunch

Learn about the significance and creation of the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Video