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

A brick building with two round sections on either side, connected via a colonnade topped by a white steeple and flagpole in front of a brick fence.

“Petition to the Virginia House of Delegates”

1784

Read this plea written by Sarah Greene, a formerly enslaved woman caught in a legal fight.

Primary Source

A black-and-white photograph of a Black man wearing a dark top hat and suit riding a horse leading a procession including a band of musicians down a dirt road

Freedom Days in American History

with Jeffrey Kerr-Ritchie

Learn more about the long history of celebrating emancipation, from January 1, to August 1, to Juneteenth.

Video

Detail from a multicolored map depicting enslaved population by county in the South, along with government farms and camps set up by the Union Army during the Civil War.

Emancipation: Separating Myth from Fact

with Jeffrey Kerr-Ritchie

Break down common misconceptions about the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment in this video.

Video

A black-and-white photograph of a Black man wearing a light-colored suit and dark bowler hat walking with a cane in his right hand; in the background is rubble of buildings destroyed in the Tulsa Race Massacre.

Tulsa after the Greenwood Massacre

1925–1926

View silent film scenes of Tulsa’s Black institutions and organizations in the mid-1920s.

Video

A color photograph of six golden silhouette statues in a semicircle, behind a fence, with a pedestal below reading "Portsmouth African Burial Ground."

“Petition to New Hampshire State Legislature”

1779

Read a petition for freedom inspired by the American Revolution.

Primary Source

A black-and-white photograph of a parade; Black women, most wearing white dresses and hats, march in formation in rows of about twenty. Between two groups of women there is a row of four Black men in dark suits, ties, and hats, holding up large American flags. In the first group of women, one woman holds up a sign reading, "YOUR HANDS ARE FULL OF BLOOD."

Negro Silent Protest Petition on Lynching

1917

Read a response from Black leaders to White supremacist violence, two years before Red Summer.

Primary Source

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 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 black-and-white photograph of Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. (a Black soldier in uniform and sunglasses), Joe Louis (a Black man wearing a light colored suit and a dark bowtie), Thurgood Marshall (a Black man wearing a dark suit and white shirt, his head resting on his crooked right arm), and Daisy Lampkin (a Black woman wearing a light colored dress and dark hat) seated outside under an open-air tent.

NAACP Civil Rights Convention

1947

View this photograph of four activists in the wake of the Double V movement taken by Joe Schwartz.

Primary Source

A black-and-white photograph of three women, Audre Lorde, a Black woman with an afro at left; Meridel Lesueur, a White woman with white hair and glasses in the center; and Adrienne Rich, a White woman with short black hair, at right.

Black Feminism: A History of Theory and Activism

by Dayo F. Gore

Learn more about the Combahee River Collective and other groups and individuals involved in shaping Black feminism in the twentieth century.

Essay

Joe Biden, wearing a blue suit, blue dotted tie, and flag lapel pin, standing next to and listening to Opal Lee, a bespectacled Black woman wearing a white shirt and necklace.

Juneteenth: Exploring Freedom’s Stories

by Annenberg Classroom

Explore the history of Juneteenth, from its initial celebration following the Civil War through its enactment as a federal holiday.

Video

A White woman in a yellow dress and dark orange cape and a White man in a white and red shirt and blue and white striped pants, eating at a table. Behind them are two Black people: a woman in a white dress fanning the two seated White people, and a man, wearing a white collared shirt and orange sweater, arms crossed behind the seated White man. In front of the table are two naked Black children, one of whom is being fed by the White woman.

Slavery and Freedom in Brazil

with Reighan Gillam

Explore the pervasive nature of slavery in Brazil and the path to abolition.

Video

AP African American Studies Resource Library

“Petition to the Virginia House of Delegates”

1784

Freedom Days in American History

with Jeffrey Kerr-Ritchie

Emancipation: Separating Myth from Fact

with Jeffrey Kerr-Ritchie

Tulsa after the Greenwood Massacre

1925–1926

“Petition to New Hampshire State Legislature”

1779

Negro Silent Protest Petition on Lynching

1917

Black Internationalism and the Expansive Meanings of Freedom

by Merve Fejzula

Black American Contributions to Modern Medicine

by George Aumoithe

NAACP Civil Rights Convention

1947

Black Feminism: A History of Theory and Activism

by Dayo F. Gore

Juneteenth: Exploring Freedom’s Stories

by Annenberg Classroom

Slavery and Freedom in Brazil

with Reighan Gillam

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