AME Church
Before and after the Civil War, African Americans used religion to inform their moral and The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the "AME Church", is a Christian denomination founded by Rev. Richard Allen in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1816 from several black Methodist congregations in the mid-Atlantic area that wanted independence from white Methodists. Allen was elected its first bishop in 1816.

African American National Anthem
Lift Every Voice and Sing was publicly performed first as a poem as part of a celebration in 1900 by 500 school children at the all-black school Stanton School Its principal, James Weldon Johnson, wrote the words to introduce its honored guest Booker T. Washington. Singing this song quickly became a way for African Americans to demonstrate their patriotism and hope for the future. In calling for earth and heaven to "ring with the harmonies of Liberty," they could speak out subtly against racism and Jim Crow laws.

The New Negro
The New Negro rushed into the national consciousness the visibility of African Americans as one of the defining moments in American history. The New Negro above all marked the coming of age of African American people, conscious of their history and humanity. Set at the beginning of the twentieth century, this was as historian Nathan Higgonbotten says “one of those rare and intriguing moments when a people decide that they are the instruments of history-making and race-building.” The black intellectuals thought of themselves as part of some larger meaning in the sweep of history, a part of some grand design. As a cultural and social force, the New Negro reshaped the cultural landscape of America in the 1920s, with the Blues and Jazz.

Black History Month
Carter G. Woodson established Black History Week as a way of calling attention to the historical achievements which blacks made to human civilization. Woodson dedicated his life to advancing African Americans through the promotion of Black History. He often stated he was interested in preserving and publishing the records of blacks so that the “race may not become a negligible factor in the thought of the world.” In Woodson’s view, dissemination of black history would build self-respect among blacks. His aim was to have African Americans appreciate of what their race had thought, felt and achieved. A lasting monument to Woodson’s work was his organizing the second week in February, in 1926, as Black history Week celebration. This celebration of Black History Week has now become Black History Month.

Dunbar High
School Dunbar High School was named for the famed African American Poet, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, and was founded as a high school for black children in the District of Columbia. Dunbar educated generation of black students to meet any test. The lessons derived from Dunbar vividly illustrate the possibility of having intellectual equality within the black community. Dunbar shows that given certain conditions- kind of teachers, kind of students, quality school - black youth can be educated to meet any standards the American system wishes to project. Dunbar capitalized upon the strengths of black teachers and principals who brought knowledge and security to an educational task because they themselves had met the standards of the larger society.

Autobiography of Malcolm X
The Autobiography of Malcolm X is a work of enduring value for African Americans and produced one of the sharpest and most insightful critiques of race and racism in American society and set the conceptual framework for the Black Consciousness and Black Power Movements in the 1960s. Professor of history, V.P. Franklin observes, “Virtually all studies of American Autobiography published after 1965 include some discussion of the Autobiography of Malcolm X which has come to be considered a classic in that literary genre.”