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

An engraving of a Black man with mutton-chops wearing a dark jacket, dark vest, and white shirt, looking toward the right

Garnet’s Address in Context

by Jake Alspaugh

Understand the origins of Garnet’s speech.

Essay

A green book cover with gold text reading "Harriet, the Moses of Her People"

Harriet, the Moses of Her People

1886

Read an authorized description of Tubman’s escape written by a White woman who had interviewed Tubman.

Primary Source

Title page of The Refugee: or the Narrative of Fugitive Slaves in Canada

Harriet Tubman’s reflection in The Refugee

1856

Read Tubman’s memories of enslavement and freedom in her own words.

Primary Source

Map of the East Coast and Midwest of the United States with the size of the free Black population in each state and territory in 1800 (in blue) and 1830 (in red), with a bar chart at left showing the change in free Black population from 1790 to 1860

Free African American Population, 19th Century

by Michael Siegel

Explore the change in free Black populations over time across the North, South, and Midwest.

Thematic Map

A storefront window with a sign for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

1964 SNCC Position Paper on Women in the Movement

by Michelle Moravec

Explore the origins of this SNCC memo and its authorship.

Essay

Black women in coats and sweaters dancing as a multiracial crowd looks on from the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (with the Museum's colonnade in the background).

Land of a Thousand Dances

by Lucy Sante

Explore the history, and memory, of Soul Train.

Essay

A color photograph of four people in a park: a Black woman wearing a black shirt and headband; a Black man wearing a white t-shirt, chain with large star, black undershirt, glasses, and backward black baseball cap; a Black man wearing a red polo shirt, black plastic-frame glasses, and a red New York Yankees cap; and a Black man with a black vest and t-shirt, two chains, sunglasses, and a black baseball cap.

Hip-Hop in Cedar Park

by NYC Parks

Hear from DJ Kool Herc and others as they remember the early days of hip-hop in the Bronx.

Video

Fannie Lou Hamer, a Black woman, speaking while wearing a floral-patterned dress.

Black Women’s Leadership and Organizing in the Civil Rights Movement

by Keisha N. Blain

Explore the civil rights leadership of JoAnn Robinson, Ella Baker, and Fannie Lou Hamer.

Essay

An engraving of a bust of a bearded Black man wearing a black suit, white shirt, and dark bow tie, in three-quarter view looking toward the left

“An Address to the Slaves of the United States”

1843

Explore this speech, rejected by the National Colored Convention.

Primary Source

Bert Williams, a Black man, wearing a black coat and white collar.

Representation on the Stage, Screen, and Airwaves

by Kenya Davis-Hayes

Explore the history of Black performance from Reconstruction through the 1960s.

Essay

A black-and-white photograph of a young Black girl wearing a white dress, dark sweater, and dark socks and shoes, jumping rope as other Black children look on.

The Great Migration and the Making of Modern America

by Davarian L. Baldwin

Explore the impact of the “Exodus from Dixie.”

Essay

Detail from an 1805 broadside showing restraining devices used on enslaved peoples

Global Africans and Transatlantic Slaving to the United States

by Kwasi Konadu

Explore the origins of and predecessors to the transatlantic slave trade.

Essay