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

A black-and-white photograph of Sojourner Truth, seated, holding sewing materials in her hand; below her portrait is the phrase "I sell the shadow to support the substance."

Black Women’s Activism in Free Black Communities

with Carla L. Peterson

Learn how Black women such as Maria W. Stewart and Sojourner Truth organized for their communities.

Video

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 color photograph of a blue historical marker with yellow text for the Free African Society, in front of a gray stone building.

“Preamble and Articles of Association of Free African Society”

1787

Explore the founding document of Philadelphia's Free African Society, only the second Black mutual aid society in the country.

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

Drawing of various sections of the cicada.

Benjamin Banneker’s Study of the Cicada

1800

Read Banneker’s derivation of the seventeen-year cycle of the cicada, one of the first scientists to make this observation.

Primary Source

A bronze statue of Richard Allen, a Black man, wearing a jacket, vest, and ruffled collar shirt, with his right arm outstretched. Behind the statue is a brick church building to the right of a stone church building.

“Articles of Association of the African Methodist Episcopal Church”

1796

Explore the founding document of the AME’s Mother Church in Philadelphia.

Primary Source

A Black soldier in a blue Union Army uniform (jacket, coat, pants, and hat), holding a rifle on his right shoulder with a slight smile on his face.

Historical Context: Black Soldiers in the Civil War

by Steven Mintz

Get some key facts on Black service during the Civil War.

Teacher Resources