The New Negro movement (early 1900s–1920s) was a cultural and intellectual push—led by writers, artists, and educators like Alain Locke, Arturo Schomburg, and others—to redefine Black identity and claim pride in Black achievements. They argued that U.S. schools and textbooks erased Black contributions and presented Black people as inferior, so they researched, collected, and taught Black history themselves. By creating literature, school materials, and archives (e.g., Schomburg’s collecting, Woodson’s work like The Mis-Education of the Negro), they showed Black students a fuller past to inspire civic, cultural, and economic advancement. For the AP exam, connect this to LO 3.15.A: explain how New Negro figures became “agents of their own education.” For a focused review, see the Topic 3.15 study guide (https://library.fiveable.me/ap-african-american-studies/unit-3/15-black-history-education-and-african-american-studies/study-guide/eDdDwytqTiY3EKSu) and try practice questions at Fiveable (https://library.fiveable.me/practice/ap-african-american-studies).

New Negro writers thought schools taught Black people were inferior because public education and popular textbooks erased or minimized Black achievements—presenting Black people as having “no history or culture.” That made racism seem natural and justified Black exclusion. Writers and educators like Alain Locke, Arturo Schomburg, and Carter G. Woodson responded by researching and teaching Black history so students could be “agents of their own education” (CED EK 3.15.A.1–A.2). They created books, curricula, and archives (e.g., Schomburg’s collection) to show concrete contributions across literature, politics, and science. For the AP exam, link this idea to LO 3.15.A: explain why New Negro figures promoted Black history education and cite primary/secondary evidence (e.g., Woodson’s The Mis-Education of the Negro). Want to dig deeper? Use the Topic 3.15 study guide (https://library.fiveable.me/ap-african-american-studies/unit-3/15-black-history-education-and-african-american-studies/study-guide/eDdDwytqTiY3EKSu) and practice questions (https://library.fiveable.me/practice/ap-african-american-studies).

Short version: Du Bois was a sociologist and activist who produced early empirical research on Black life (think sociological surveys, NAACP work, and intellectual leadership in the New Negro era). Woodson was a historian and educator who built institutions to teach Black history—he founded the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), launched Negro History Week (which became Black History Month), and wrote The Mis-Education of the Negro to argue schools erase Black achievement. Why you mix them up: both pushed Black self-education and challenged curricula that ignored Black contributions (CED EK 3.15.A.1–A.2). But remember the quick IDs: Du Bois = researcher/sociologist and New Negro intellectual; Woodson = historian/organizer and founder of Black History Month (CED EK 3.15.B.4 & B.6). Use them on the exam/project: cite Du Bois for sociological evidence or surveys, and Woodson for arguments about Black education and for a primary-source perspective on Black history curriculum (see Topic 3.15 study guide: https://library.fiveable.me/ap-african-american-studies/unit-3/15-black-history-education-and-african-american-studies/study-guide/eDdDwytqTiY3EKSu). For more practice, use Fiveable’s practice problems (https://library.fiveable.me/practice/ap-african-american-studies).

Good question—the field of African American Studies was formalized in the late 1960s, but the Black intellectual tradition had been building for centuries. From the late 1700s the African Free School educated Black youth and produced early leaders; in the 19th and early 20th centuries people like W.E.B. Du Bois did sociological surveys, Carter G. Woodson published Black history and started Negro History Week, Zora Neale Hurston recorded cultural and linguistic traditions, and Arturo Schomburg collected diasporic documents that became the Schomburg Center. Those efforts researched, preserved, taught, and argued for the importance of Black history and culture—exactly what EK 3.15.B describes—so when student and faculty movements in the 1960s pushed for institutional change, there was already a rich body of scholarship, archives, and teaching practices to form degree programs. For the AP exam, connect these examples to LO 3.15.B and EK 3.15.B.1–6 in your answer (study guide: https://library.fiveable.me/ap-african-american-studies/unit-3/15-black-history-education-and-african-american-studies/study-guide/eDdDwytqTiY3EKSu). For extra practice, use Fiveable’s unit review and practice problems (https://library.fiveable.me/ap-african-american-studies/unit-3; https://library.fiveable.me/practice/ap-african-american-studies).

Arturo Schomburg was a Black Puerto Rican bibliophile, collector, and historian who spent decades gathering books, manuscripts, prints, and artifacts documenting the history and culture of people of African descent. His archive included items like correspondence of Toussaint L’Ouverture, newspapers published by Frederick Douglass, and poems by Phillis Wheatley. Schomburg donated his collection to the New York Public Library; it became the basis of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Why it matters: Schomburg’s collection directly challenged the idea that Black people “had no history or culture” (CED EK 3.15.A.2). It preserved primary evidence of Black intellectual, artistic, and political contributions across the diaspora, supporting the long Black intellectual tradition (EK 3.15.B.1, EK 3.15.B.3). For AP work—projects, DBQs, and source analysis—his materials are classic primary sources you can use to develop claims, cite evidence, and compare perspectives. For more on Topic 3.15, see the study guide (https://library.fiveable.me/ap-african-american-studies/unit-3/15-black-history-education-and-african-american-studies/study-guide/eDdDwytqTiY3EKSu) and practice questions (https://library.fiveable.me/practice/ap-african-american-studies).

Carter G. Woodson basically started what became Black History Month. In 1915 he helped found the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASALH) to research and publish Black history. In 1926 Woodson launched Negro History Week to push schools and Black communities to teach the contributions and experiences that textbooks ignored—a core idea in the New Negro movement and what EK 3.15.A.1–A.2 describe. Over time Negro History Week expanded into Black History Month as public awareness grew and more institutions adopted year-long curricula and celebrations. Woodson also wrote The Mis-Education of the Negro (1933), arguing that schooling erased Black achievement—a theme you’ll see in Topic 3.15. For a quick CED-aligned review, check the Topic 3.15 study guide (https://library.fiveable.me/ap-african-american-studies/unit-3/15-black-history-education-and-african-american-studies/study-guide/eDdDwytqTiY3EKSu). Need practice Qs? Try Fiveable’s practice bank (https://library.fiveable.me/practice/ap-african-american-studies).

Unlike many Black intellectuals of her era who focused on sociological surveys, historical recovery, or political uplift (like W.E.B. Du Bois or Carter G. Woodson), Zora Neale Hurston trained as an anthropologist and did hands-on fieldwork: she collected folktales, songs, religious practices, and everyday speech from Black communities in the rural South and the Caribbean and recorded them in her own literary voice. Hurston celebrated vernacular language and ordinary cultural expression rather than framing Black life mainly as a problem to be solved. Her work (e.g., ethnographic books and fiction) preserved linguistic patterns and cultural practices as sources of value and creativity. For AP purposes, Hurston is a primary example of EK 3.15.B.5—use her texts as sources when analyzing cultural documentation and linguistic expression in Source Analysis (Skill 2). For more on this topic, see the Topic 3.15 study guide (https://library.fiveable.me/ap-african-american-studies/unit-3/15-black-history-education-and-african-american-studies/study-guide/eDdDwytqTiY3EKSu) and practice questions (https://library.fiveable.me/practice/ap-african-american-studies).

Start with a clear thesis that answers how Black education and intellectual movements developed (claim + line of reasoning). Briefly set context: e.g., post-Reconstruction racism, the New Negro movement’s push for self-education, and early institutions like the African Free School. Use at least three documents (include Schomburg’s “The Negro Digs Up His Past” and Woodson’s The Mis-Education of the Negro) and one outside fact (e.g., founding of ASALH or the Schomburg Center) as extra evidence. For each source, summarize a specific detail and explain how it supports your thesis; for two sources explicitly analyze perspective, purpose, context, or audience (CED skill 2). Make 2+ comparisons (continuity/change, conflict of perspectives, or institutional vs. individual efforts). Build reasoning (causation and continuity/change) to link evidence to claims. Conclude by weighing how these movements reshaped Black self-education and curricula. Prep tip: review Topic 3.15 study guide on Fiveable (https://library.fiveable.me/ap-african-american-studies/unit-3/15-black-history-education-and-african-american-studies/study-guide/eDdDwytqTiY3EKSu) and practice DBQ rubrics there.

The African Free School mattered because it built the human infrastructure for Black leadership and abolitionist activism. Founded in the late eighteenth century in New York, it taught literacy, classical and civic knowledge, and a sense of Black history and dignity at a time when mainstream schools erased Black contributions (CED EK 3.15.B.1–2, EK 3.15.A.1). Those skills—reading, public speaking, historical knowledge, and organizing—helped students become the early Black intellectuals and abolitionist leaders who argued against slavery, ran newspapers, founded societies, and educated other Black people. For AP tasks (SAQs, DBQs, or the project), you can use the African Free School as evidence of the long Black intellectual tradition that predates 20th-century African American Studies (LO 3.15.B). For a quick refresher, check the Topic 3.15 study guide on Fiveable (https://library.fiveable.me/ap-african-american-studies/unit-3/15-black-history-education-and-african-american-studies/study-guide/eDdDwytqTiY3EKSu) and practice with related questions (https://library.fiveable.me/practice/ap-african-american-studies).

They wanted Black students to see themselves as makers of history, not as “people without history.” New Negro educators (like Alain Locke, Arturo Schomburg, and Carter G. Woodson) pushed for curricula and resources that corrected schools’ portrayals of Black people as inferior (LO 3.15.A; EK 3.15.A.1). Their goals were to document and teach African and African American cultural and political contributions, build pride and racial uplift, and create materials (books, archives, lessons) so Black students could use history to plan for social and economic advancement (EK 3.15.A.2; EK 3.15.B series). This effort laid groundwork for the Black intellectual tradition and later African American Studies programs. For AP prep, focus on those learning objectives and required sources (Woodson’s ideas and Schomburg’s collecting)—see the Topic 3.15 study guide (https://library.fiveable.me/ap-african-american-studies/unit-3/15-black-history-education-and-african-american-studies/study-guide/eDdDwytqTiY3EKSu) and practice problems (https://library.fiveable.me/practice/ap-african-american-studies).

They showed it with evidence—books, archives, classrooms, and research. Black intellectuals collected documents and artifacts (Arturo Schomburg’s library became the Schomburg Center), wrote and published histories (C. G. Woodson’s The Mis-Education of the Negro and Negro History Week), recorded language and folklore (Zora Neale Hurston), and used social-science methods to document lives (W.E.B. Du Bois’s surveys). Schools like the African Free School trained leaders and teachers who passed on Black history. Together these efforts produced primary sources, curricula, and public programs that directly contradicted claims that Black people “had no history.” For AP work, you can use those writings and archives as sources for projects or DBQs—Schomburg and Woodson are even required-source material in Topic 3.15. For more detail and source ideas, check the Topic 3.15 study guide (https://library.fiveable.me/ap-african-american-studies/unit-3/15-black-history-education-and-african-american-studies/study-guide/eDdDwytqTiY3EKSu) and practice questions on Fiveable (https://library.fiveable.me/practice/ap-african-american-studies).

The Harlem Renaissance (the New Negro movement) directly shaped Black history education because writers, artists, and educators used their work to prove Black people had rich cultural and historical contributions—countering the “no history” messages in U.S. schools. Figures like Alain Locke, Zora Neale Hurston, and Arturo Schomburg produced literature, folklore studies, and archives that teachers and community schools could use to teach Black students about their past (EK 3.15.A.2; EK 3.15.B.5). That grassroots effort—plus Carter G. Woodson’s push in The Mis-Education of the Negro—turned cultural production into curricular resources and helped institutionalize Black history teaching, laying groundwork for the later emergence of African American Studies programs (LO 3.15.A; LO 3.15.B). For a focused review tied to the CED, see the Topic 3.15 study guide (https://library.fiveable.me/ap-african-american-studies/unit-3/15-black-history-education-and-african-american-studies/study-guide/eDdDwytqTiY3EKSu). For extra practice, check Fiveable’s unit review and practice problems (https://library.fiveable.me/ap-african-american-studies/unit-3 and https://library.fiveable.me/practice/ap-african-american-studies).

Documenting Black culture = researching, preserving, and teaching specific evidence about Black life: archives (like Schomburg’s collection), historical research (Du Bois, Woodson), oral histories, linguistic documentation (Hurston). It’s about sources, context, claims, and evidence—the stuff you’d use in the Individual Student Project to support an argument and compare sources (CED LO 3.15.B, EKs). Celebrating Black culture = recognizing and uplifting traditions through art, festivals, music, and public memory (e.g., Negro History Week/Black History Month). Celebration builds identity and pride but doesn’t automatically provide the source-based analysis the AP course requires. For the AP exam and project, you need both: celebration helps motivate topics; documentation supplies the primary/secondary evidence and reasoning to make a defensible claim and answer oral defense questions. Want more? Check the Topic 3.15 study guide (https://library.fiveable.me/ap-african-american-studies/unit-3/15-black-history-education-and-african-american-studies/study-guide/eDdDwytqTiY3EKSu) and practice problems (https://library.fiveable.me/practice/ap-african-american-studies).

Du Bois used careful research and data to push back against racist myths that Black people “had no history” or were inferior. He conducted early sociological surveys—documenting living conditions, education, work, and family life—to show Black communities’ complexity, achievements, and the structural causes of inequality (CED EK 3.15.B.4). By publishing his findings and analysis, he provided evidence-based arguments that contradicted stereotypes, supported Black-led schooling and curricula, and helped build the Black intellectual tradition that scholars like Woodson and Schomburg expanded (CED EK 3.15.A.2; 3.15.B.3). For AP prep, remember exam questions expect you to connect specific evidence to claims—Du Bois is an example of using empirical research to contest racist narratives. For more on this topic, check the Topic 3.15 study guide (https://library.fiveable.me/ap-african-american-studies/unit-3/15-black-history-education-and-african-american-studies/study-guide/eDdDwytqTiY3EKSu) and practice questions (https://library.fiveable.me/practice/ap-african-american-studies).

New Negro thinkers wanted Black people to be "agents of their own education" because mainstream U.S. schools erased or minimized Black contributions, which reinforced ideas of racial inferiority. By researching and teaching Black history themselves—through figures like Arturo Schomburg, Alain Locke, and Carter G. Woodson—African Americans could reclaim their past, show a rich cultural and intellectual heritage, and give students models for future advancement (CED EK 3.15.A.1–A.2). That self-directed education built pride, critical awareness, and resources (books, archives, curricula) so Black students wouldn’t internalize silencing or misinformation. For the AP exam, this connects directly to LO 3.15.A and the required readings (Schomburg, Woodson) you should cite in answers. For a quick review, check the Topic 3.15 study guide on Fiveable (https://library.fiveable.me/ap-african-american-studies/unit-3/15-black-history-education-and-african-american-studies/study-guide/eDdDwytqTiY3EKSu) and try practice problems (https://library.fiveable.me/practice/ap-african-american-studies).