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

A map of the contiguous United States with circles of different sizes for Black population in metropolitan areas, colored in shades of red based on Black middle class percentage of the overall population.

The Black Middle Class Needs Attention Too

2020

Read excerpts and view charts from a report on the state of the Black middle class.

Secondary Source

A color photograph of a corner store with a two-toned green wall with two signs, one reading "Wadajir Grocery, Finest Halal Meats" and the other "Mediterranean Deli, Best Gyros in Town"

Diversity in Contemporary Black Communities

by Mamadi Corra

Learn more about shifts in the foreign-born Black population and its consequent impacts on the diversity of African Americans today.

Essay

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

Two Black women in military uniform (dark jackets, light shirts and ties, dark skirts and boots) looking on at two rows of other Black women in military uniform standing at attention.

The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion

1945

View this photograph of Black women serving in the Women’s Army Corps during World War II.

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

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

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

Michelle Obama, presented in a gray skin tone, in a white dress with patches of colored stripes and triangles in front of a powder-blue background. Her right hand rests on her chin as her left hand rests on her knee.

Portrait of Michelle Obama

2018

View Amy Sherald’s portrait of First Lady Michelle Obama.

Work of Art

A portrait of Barack Obama sitting in a brown wooden chair wearing a black suit and white collared shirt. Surrounding President Obama are leaves and flowers of different varieties.

Portrait of Barack Obama

2018

Take a closer look at Kehinde Wiley’s portrait of the first Black president.

Work of Art

Mary Jackson, a bespectacled Black woman wearing a white lab coat over a dark sweater, white shirt, and brooch, writing on a clipboard as engineering instruments surround her.

Mary Jackson at Work

1977

View an image of the first Black woman to be an engineer at NASA.

Primary Source