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

Wooden staff in the form of a kneeling female figure holding a stylized snake in an inverted U over her head, topped by a pair of opposing triangles in a bowtie or double-ax form. Female figure has white beads around her neck and staff is pigmented in red, blue, and white.

Yoruba osé Ṣàngó

Mid-20th Century

Take a closer look at an example of syncretic cosmologies.

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A black-and-white photograph of Marcus Garvey, a Black man wearing a dark suit, light-colored vest, white shirt, and dark tie, sitting in a wooden chair next to a desk filled with papers, holding a handkerchief in his right hand and a gavel in his left.

Marcus Garvey at His Desk

1924

View this photograph of Marcus Garvey, the founder and leader of the Universal Negro Improvement Association.

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The first page of sheet music for "Lift Every Voice and Sing."

“Lift Every Voice and Sing”

1900

Read the lyrics composed by James Weldon Johnson for what has become known as the Black National Anthem.

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Portrait of Paul Laurence Dunbar, a young Black man, wearing a dark suit and tie and white shirt.

“We Wear the Mask”

1895

Read Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem, which poses a “mask” similar to Du Bois’s “veil.”

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“If We Must Die”

1919

Read Claude McKay’s defiant poem, in response to violence against African Americans following World War I.

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Langston Hughes, a Black man, wearing a dark suit, dark tie, and white shirt.

“The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain”

1926

Read Langston Hughes's essay on the limits placed on Black poets and writers during this period.

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The head of Countee Cullen, a Black man, with a stylized drawing of his shirtfront (white shirt, black bow tie).

“Heritage” by Countee Cullen

1925

Take a deep dive into Countee Cullen’s vision of Africa through this poem.

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A stained glass sign that reads “CITIZENS / SAVINGS / BANK”

Citizen’s Savings and Trust Company Clock

1920–2013

View this artifact of a financial institution founded for the purposes of growing Black wealth.

Duke Ellington, a Black man wearing a light colored jacket, white shirt, and dark tie, playing the piano with his right hand and conducting with his left as a Black man wearing a tuxedo plays guitar in the background.

“It Don’t Mean a Thing”

1943

Watch Duke Ellington and His Orchestra in performance.

Video

A photograph of a chemistry laboratory, with three lab benches in the foreground, midground, and background. Black men in white shirts, dark coats, and dark ties are working at each bench. In the right foreground, framed by a doorway behind him, is George Washington Carver, a mustachioed Black man wearing a dark coat and tie, looking down at another chemist's work.

George Washington Carver’s Laboratory

ca. 1902

Get a sense of the impact of HBCUs on science through the chemistry laboratory at the Tuskegee Institute.

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Ten Black men and women sitting and standing while wearing dark suits or dresses. A small table with a dark tablecloth sits in the middle background.

The Jubilee Singers of Fisk University

1875

View a photograph of the Fisk Jubilee Singers just four years after their founding and first tour.

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Anna Julia Cooper, a Black woman, wearing a black dress with a white center placket, sitting while holding a book.

“A Voice from the South: By a Black Woman of the South”

1892

Read excerpts from Anna Julia Cooper’s book on the importance of Black women’s rights and recognizing their experiences.

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