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

The interior of the Dexter Avenue Memorial Baptist church, with light streaming in through multicolored stained-glass windows.

Young Black adults less Protestant than their elders

2021

Compare generational statistics of religious affiliation among Black Americans.

Secondary Source

Three young Black men wearing tracksuits and white gloves dancing as another young Black man inverts his body on a piece of cardboard. Behind them is a graffitied wall.

Breakdancers in New York

1984

View an example of b-boy culture from 1980s New York.

Primary Source

A dark abstract painting of a mask with horns

“Les Fétiches”

1938

View Loïs Mailou Jones’s painting, which brought Négritude from literature to art.

Work of Art

Title of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) pamphlet on "Structure and Leadership."

“Women in the Movement”

1964

Read this anonymously written memo calling out gender inequality and tokenism in the SNCC.

Primary Source

A lobby card for the movie "The Betrayal". The card is comprised of a black-and-white image of a man and woman standing in a room in front of another man lying on the carpet on the floor. The man on the floor appears to be dead. The woman is wearing a dark shiny dress and is holding a gun at her side in her left hand. Her right hand is resting on her chest and her face appears to be in a state of shock. The man standing next to her is wearing a light colored suit and hat and is extending his hand toward her

Lobby card for “The Betrayal”

1948

View a lobby card from Black filmmaker Oscar Micheaux’s last film.

Primary Source

Several Black men in three rows (sitting, kneeling, standing), all in dark flight suits, boots, and goggled helmets, in front of biplanes. Some men's signatures are next to their photograph.

Flight Instructors at Tuskegee Army Air Field

1945

View this photograph of the Tuskegee Airmen near the end of World War II.

An abstract painting of people in masks with oversized hands and feet.

“The Jungle (La Jungla)”

1942–1943

View this painting by Afro-Cuban painter Wifredo Lam.

Work of Art

Three of the San Francisco 49ers football team kneeling (right knee on ground, arms balanced on left knee) during the pregame performance of the national anthem, as their teammates, coaches, and staff stand, some with hats or hands on their left breast, behind them. The three Black men kneeling are wearing the 49ers uniform of red jerseys, gold pants (with red-white-red stripes along the leg), and either red or white socks.

San Francisco 49ers Protest

2016

View a contemporary example of sports as a platform for protest.

Seven Black women with Afros raising their right fists.

Black Panther Women in Oakland, CA

1968

View an example of women organizing and protesting in the Black Panther Party.

Primary Source

A black-and-white photograph showing children preparing bags of food to be distributed through the Panther Free Food Program at the Black Panther Community Survival Conference in Oakland, California. Four Black children, two boys and two girls, are placing bags of puffed wheat cereal into brown paper grocery bags that have been organized in rows.

Black Panther Free Food Program

1972

View an example of the Black Panther Party's direct action in the community through food distribution.

Primary Source

Lieutenant Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), a Black woman, wearing her Starfleet uniform (red dress with a black collar and a wavy gold band on each sleeve), with a communications earpiece in her left ear, along with green hoop earrings. She has her hands on a bank of buttons connected to an array of four light screens.

Nichelle Nichols as Uhura in “Star Trek”

1968

Learn more about the impact of Nichols and her television role on Star Trek.

Primary Source

A Black woman wearing a beige jumpsuit with a cinch dancing under a mirrorball reading "Soul Train," as other Black men and women dance around her.

“Soul Train”

1970

Get a sense of Soul Train’s cultural impact through this photograph.

Primary Source