AP African American Studies Flashcards: Black History Education and African American Studies
Written by AP Content Team, Verified for 2026 AP Exams, Last updated: May 2026
Review key ideas with interactive flashcards. This set includes 21 cards to help you master important concepts.
What was a key role of the African Free School in the abolitionist movement?
The school was significant because it helped prepare early Black abolitionists for leadership roles in the movement.
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What was a key role of the African Free School in the abolitionist movement?
The school was significant because it helped prepare early Black abolitionists for leadership roles in the movement.
What specific aspects of African American life did Zora Neale Hurston's anthropological work document?
Her writings documented forms of African American culture and unique linguistic expressions.
What was a key contribution of W.E.B. Du Bois to the Black intellectual tradition?
He produced some of the earliest sociological surveys of African Americans, providing foundational research for the study of Black life.
What problem in U.S. schools did the New Negro movement's educational efforts seek to correct?
They sought to correct the reinforcement of the idea that Black people had made no meaningful cultural contributions and were thus an inferior people.
What was the New Negro movement?
A movement of writers, artists, and intellectuals who refuted the idea that African Americans lacked history or culture by creating a body of literature and educational resources to prove otherwise.
Who were the primary builders of the Black intellectual tradition before it was formalized in academia?
The tradition was primarily built by Black activists, educators, writers, and archivists who documented Black experiences.
What was the African Free School?
A school established in New York in the late eighteenth century that provided an education to the children of both enslaved and free Black people.
What was the ultimate goal of disseminating Black history to Black students, according to New Negro movement thinkers?
The ultimate goal was for students to use the knowledge of past Black history and experiences to inform and guide their future advancement.
What is Carter G. Woodson's most widely known legacy in promoting Black history?
His most famous legacy is the founding of the celebration that eventually became Black History Month.
Who was Carter G. Woodson?
A historian who founded the precursor to Black History Month and published many works chronicling the experiences and perspectives of Black people in history.
What specific, harmful idea did the artists and intellectuals of the New Negro movement work to refute?
They worked to refute the idea that African Americans were a people without their own history or culture.
How did figures like Woodson, Du Bois, and Hurston contribute to the goals of the New Negro movement?
Through history, sociology, and anthropology, they created a body of work that documented Black experiences and culture, directly countering their erasure from mainstream narratives.
Who was W.E.B. Du Bois?
A prominent sociologist and activist whose research and writings produced some of the earliest sociological surveys of African Americans.
Who was Arturo Schomburg?
A Black Puerto Rican bibliophile whose personal collection of books and artifacts formed the basis of a major research center for Black culture.
How long did the Black intellectual tradition exist before the formal establishment of African American Studies programs?
The Black intellectual tradition predates the formal introduction of African American Studies in the late 1960s by two centuries.
What is the Black intellectual tradition?
A tradition of documenting Black experiences by Black activists, educators, writers, and archivists that began two centuries before the formal introduction of African American Studies in universities.
What core belief did New Negro movement educators hold about self-education?
They believed African Americans should become agents of their own education by actively studying the history and experiences of Black people.
Why did New Negro movement figures promote the study of Black history?
They believed U.S. schools reinforced the idea of Black inferiority and that studying Black history would empower African Americans to inform their future advancement.
How did the work of the New Negro movement reach a wider audience of young Black students?
The movement's push to place Black history in schools allowed the contributions and educational resources they created to reach Black students of all ages.
Who was Zora Neale Hurston?
An anthropologist whose writings were instrumental in documenting forms of African American culture and linguistic expression.
What major institution was founded based on Arturo Schomburg's collection?
His collection, donated to The New York Public Library, became the basis for the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.