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

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

Hidden History: Jessie McGuire Dent

with Tommie Boudreaux, Samuel Collins III, Diane Henderson, and Faye Williams

Explore McGuire Dent’s role in fighting racial discrimination and organizing the Delta Sigma Theta sorority.

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

A silhouette head-and-shoulders portrait of Paul Cuffe, above a sailboat and within an octagon with the text "Captain Paul Cuffee, 1812."

The Nineteenth-Century Emigrationist and Anti-Emigrationist Movements

with Nemata Blyden

Explore the key figures, sites, and concepts of both the emigrationist and anti-emigrationist movements.

Video

An engraving showing a hall with benches, a speaker at a rostrum in front and several Black men and women in formal wear looking for seats.

Emigration, Anti-Emigration, and Transatlantic Abolitionism

with Nemata Blyden

Learn more about the impact of the Fugitive Slave Act, the Dred Scott decision, and the Civil War on emigration.

Video

A black historical marker with white text and the seal of the Georgia Historical Society at top.

White Supremacy in the Early Twentieth Century: Causes and Responses

with Adriane Lentz-Smith

Take a deep dive into the proliferation of white supremacist violence in the 1910s and 1920s, and responses from Black communities.

Video

Martin Luther King Jr. in a dark suit and tie and white shirt, looking out from a balcony at the street below.

Essential Methods of the Major Civil Rights Organizations

with Hasan Kwame Jeffries

Learn more about the major civil rights organizations of the 1950s and 1960s and their typical day-to-day operations.

Video

A black-and-white photograph of President Lyndon B. Johnson handing a pen to John Lewis as others look on.

Nonviolent Resistance and Civil Rights Activism

with Hasan Kwame Jeffries

Learn more about the impact of civil rights organizations on securing civil rights legislation and growing grassroots power.

Video

Black-and-white print of Black men, women, and children bundled in coats and shawls, unpacking a horse-drawn wagon in a snowy field, with leafless trees in the center midground and right background. A hut or cabin is in the left background, its roof and eaves covered with snow.

What Is the Underground Railroad?

with David W. Blight

Learn more about the Underground Railroad in this short video.

Video

Broadside with text of varying sizes. On the top it reads in all capital letters, "MEN OF COLOR; TO ARMS! TO ARMS!; NOW OR NEVER."

Generations in Captivity: Slavery in America

with Ira Berlin

Understand how the interplay of regional and generational factors shaped the development of slavery in the antebellum United States.

Video

AP African American Studies Resource Library

Mary McLeod Bethune’s Impact

with Noliwe Rooks

Hidden History: Jessie McGuire Dent

with Tommie Boudreaux, Samuel Collins III, Diane Henderson, and Faye Williams

Let’s Talk about “Black Panther” and Afrofuturism

with Steve Vasquez

“Mother Hale’s Garden”

by Shinique Smith

“The Souls of Black Folk”

1903

The Nineteenth-Century Emigrationist and Anti-Emigrationist Movements

with Nemata Blyden

Emigration, Anti-Emigration, and Transatlantic Abolitionism

with Nemata Blyden

White Supremacy in the Early Twentieth Century: Causes and Responses

with Adriane Lentz-Smith

Essential Methods of the Major Civil Rights Organizations

with Hasan Kwame Jeffries

Nonviolent Resistance and Civil Rights Activism

with Hasan Kwame Jeffries

What Is the Underground Railroad?

with David W. Blight

Generations in Captivity: Slavery in America

with Ira Berlin

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