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

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“The Birth of a New Nation”

1957

Read the sermon Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered after his visit to an independent Ghana.

Primary Source

Breakdancing at the Olympic Games

2024

See an example of breakdancing in performance at the Paris summer games.

Primary Source

A black-and-white photograph of several Black men in army uniforms (dark double-breasted coats, dark gloves, dark hats) standing aboard a ship, rigging visible in the left midground and cargo in the right foreground and midground.

Resistance and Resilience: Black Service in World War I

with Adriane Lentz-Smith

Learn more about African American service in the war to “make the world safe for democracy,” while also dealing with racism at home.

Video

March on Washington Organizing Document

1963

Read instructions for a group of medical professionals ahead of the March on Washington.

Primary Source

A color photograph of a row of ten female Grandassa models with natural, afro-style hair wearing dresses made from brightly colored African-inspired motifs. Three men standing on a small podium behind the models are wearing patterned dashiki shirts. The dark blue wall behind them is covered with posters advertising Black theater performances, shows, and celebrations.

Naturally ’68 at the Apollo Theater

ca. 1968

View a photograph from a key convergence of artists and models amid the Black is Beautiful movement.

Primary Source

Image of a Benjamin Banneker postal stamp featuring a portrait of Banneker with a smaller, full-body illustration of Banneker with a telescope in the foreground.

African American Scientists

with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Learn more about some of the most notable African American scientists and their discoveries, from Benjamin Banneker to Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Video

Scan of NAACP poster listing statistics regarding the 3,436 lynchings that occurred between 1889 and 1922. States "Do you know that the United States is the Only Land on Earth where people are burned at the stake?" Reports that 83 women have been lynched in the United States.

Origins of the Civil Rights Movement

with Anthony J. Badger

Learn more about the start of the Civil Rights movement.

Video

Betye Saar, a Black woman, wearing a white shirt with black streaks, her arms crossed. Prints of her art are in the background behind her.

Black is Beautiful: “Something to Behold ... Something One Could Do”

by Elizabeth Carmel Hamilton

Learn more about the works of Betye Saar, Elizabeth Catlett, and Toni Morrison in the context of Black is Beautiful.

Essay

Mary McLeod Bethune seated at her desk in Bethune-Cookman College.

Mary McLeod Bethune’s Impact

with Noliwe Rooks

Learn about Mary McLeod Bethune’s life, her involvement in politics and civil rights, and her work’s lasting impact.

Video

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

An abstract multicolored mural above a bus depot, with a blue and white bus pulling into the depot in the right foreground.

“Mother Hale’s Garden”

by Shinique Smith

Explore the life and career of an activist and community organizer through this work of public art.

Work of Art

“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

AP African American Studies Resource Library