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

George Clinton, a Black man, wearing a bright red wig, dark blue vest, and multicolored shirt with skulls and crossbones, playing the keyboard as other musicians surround him.

Let’s Talk about “Black Panther” and Afrofuturism

with Steve Vasquez

Learn more about the history of Afrofuturism upon the release of the 2018 Marvel film.

Video

Frontispiece and title page of The Souls of Black Folk, with a photograph of the author, a Black man with a mustache and beard, signed by W. E. B. Du Bois at the bottom left.

“The Souls of Black Folk”

1903

Read excerpts from W. E. B. Du Bois’s foundational book, in which he explains his ideas of “the veil” and “double-consciousness.”

Primary Source

A green book cover with gold text reading "Harriet, the Moses of Her People"

Harriet, the Moses of Her People

1886

Read an authorized description of Tubman’s escape written by a White woman who had interviewed Tubman.

Primary Source

Title page of The Refugee: or the Narrative of Fugitive Slaves in Canada

Harriet Tubman’s reflection in The Refugee

1856

Read Tubman’s memories of enslavement and freedom in her own words.

Primary Source

An engraving of a bust of a bearded Black man wearing a black suit, white shirt, and dark bow tie, in three-quarter view looking toward the left

“An Address to the Slaves of the United States”

1843

Explore this speech, rejected by the National Colored Convention.

Primary Source

The cover of a conference program of green text on a black background reading [diagonally] "Black Studies: Paradox With a Promise" at left, and a large green question mark with "Who," "Where," "When," and "How" written in the mark. "Black Studies National Conference: Southeastern, U.S.A." at the top and "University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, N.C., March 18-21, 1975" at the bottom

First National Council for Black Studies Annual Conference

1975

Get a greater sense of questions and issues in the field of African American studies through this conference program.

Primary Source

A wide-mouthed brown earthenware jar with two handles and writing inscribed on the surface.

Storage Jar

1858

View this example of David Drake’s masterful pottery.

Work of Art

A large shallow, round tray shaped basket made of reeds, rush and palmetto coiled and woven together. A faded purple string is woven through the basket on one side and knotted inside the basket.

Rice Fanner Basket

pre-1863

View this artifact of rice cultivation by enslaved people on the South Carolina coast.

Primary Source

A cream quilted bedcover with appliqued red diamonds, circles, and crosses and edges bound with red

Cream and Red Appliqued Quilted Bedcover

ca. 1850

View this work of African American quilting.

Work of Art

Title page of My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass

“Treatment of Slaves on Lloyd’s Plantation”

1855

Read Frederick Douglass’s recollection of plantation life in Maryland from his second autobiography.

Primary Source

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

Cover of A Red Record, with the title written in red on a yellowed piece of paper.

“A Red Record”

1895

Read an excerpt from Ida B. Wells-Barnett’s analysis of lynchings in the US at the end of the nineteenth century.

Primary Source