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

Masthead of the Southwestern Christian Advocate newspaper.

Clarissa Reed Searches for Her Family

1883

Read a formerly enslaved woman’s plea for information about her lost parents and siblings.

Primary Source

Cover of Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life, featuring a Black woman wearing a brown hat (extending down her neckline) and large gold hoop earrings encircled in a black circle with a peach background.

“Restricted West Indian Immigration and the American Negro”

1924

Read this piece on the impact of the Immigration Act of 1924 on Afro-Caribbean migration to the US.

Primary Source

Two Black women wearing light-colored coats look into a glass vitrine case with the title "Arthur A Schomburg, 1874–1938." Atop the case is a matted photograph of Arturo [Arthur] Schomburg.

“The Negro Digs Up His Past”

1925

Read this essay by Afro-Latino historian and collector Arturo Schomburg.

Primary Source

Marcus Garvey, a Black man, wearing a dark jacket and vest, white shirt, and dark tie. He is also wearing a button on his lapel.

“Address to the Second UNIA Convention”

1921

Read Marcus Garvey’s address rejecting the colonization of Africa and advocating Black nationalism.

Primary Source

A blue tile mosaic mural with depictions of various historical figures

“Harlem Timeline”

by Willie Birch

Explore the history of Harlem through this work of art in the New York City subway system.

Work of Art

A train platform with, at center, a wrought-iron sculpture of a man wearing a suit and hat while holding a suitcase.

“Hear the Lone Whistle Moan” / “copacetic”

by Alison Saar

View two pieces paying homage to the Harlem Renaissance.

Work of Art

A tile mosaic in a subway station of drum majors in white uniforms dancing in formation.

“PARADE”

by Derek Fordjour

View an homage to historic parades through Harlem in this mosaic created in the New York City subway system.

Work of Art

The Freedmen’s Bureau and African American Families

by Justene Hill Edwards

Understand the roles the Freedmen’s Bureau played in supporting African American families and communities.

Essay

Four maps of the United States with net loss or gain in African American population by city or region.

Largest African-American Migrations, by Metropolitan Area, 1975–2000

by Michael Siegel and Rutgers Cartography

Visualize demographic shifts in the African American population since the Great Migration.

Thematic Map

Map of Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma with towns pointed out.

The Exodusters and Black Towns, ca. 1900

by Michael Siegel and Rutgers Cartography

Explore an early phase of Black migration after the Civil War through this map.

Thematic Map

Two African American pioneer families in foreground with two children playing on left, two women and a small child near a covered wagon at center and two men drinking coffee around a campfire by a stream.

“Camping Time”

by John Coleman

View a depiction of Black migration during Reconstruction.

Work of Art

Map of the United States Midwest with bar charts noting change in population over time for select cities.

“African American Population in Selected Cities, 1900–1920”

by Michael Siegel and Rutgers Cartography

Visualize some of the impact of the first wave of the Great Migration.

Thematic Map