How was racial violence used to enforce white supremacy, and how did African Americans respond?
Topic 3.6 White Supremacist Violence and the Red Summer: how lynching, massacres, and the violence of the Red Summer of 1919 enforced white supremacy, and how African Americans documented and resisted it.
A focused answer to AP African American Studies Topic 3.6, explaining how lynching, racial massacres, and the violence of the Red Summer of 1919 enforced white supremacy, and how figures like Ida B. Wells documented and resisted this terror.
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What this topic is asking
Topic 3.6 confronts the violence that upheld white supremacy after Reconstruction: lynching, racial massacres, and the Red Summer of 1919. The College Board wants you to understand violence as a tool of social control and to recognize how African Americans documented and resisted it, above all through the anti-lynching work of Ida B. Wells.
Violence as social control
The Red Summer of 1919
Documenting and resisting
The CED's emphasis is dual: the scale of the terror and the range of Black resistance, from journalism to organizing to self-defense and migration.
Try this
Q1. What was the Red Summer of 1919? [Recall]
- Cue. A wave of white-on-Black racial violence and massacres across dozens of American cities after the First World War, in which Black communities were attacked and many people were killed.
Q2. Explain how Ida B. Wells resisted lynching. [Short explanation]
- Cue. She investigated and documented lynchings, gathered statistics, exposed the false pretexts used to justify them, and published her findings to build an international anti-lynching movement.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of College Board exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
AP 2024 (style)3 marksUsing a source about racial violence in the early twentieth century, complete the following. A) Identify what the Red Summer of 1919 was. B) Describe ONE way Ida B. Wells resisted lynching. C) Explain ONE purpose that lynching served for white supremacy.Show worked answer →
A source-based Short Answer Question (SAQ), 3 points, one per part.
A. The Red Summer of 1919 was a period of white-on-Black racial violence and massacres in dozens of American cities, in which Black communities were attacked and many people killed.
B. Ida B. Wells led an anti-lynching campaign, investigating and documenting lynchings, exposing the false pretexts used to justify them, and publishing her findings to mobilize opposition.
C. Lynching served as terror to enforce white supremacy: it intimidated Black communities, punished any challenge to the racial order, and discouraged Black political and economic advancement.
Each part needs a specific, accurate claim.
AP 2025 (style)6 marksDevelop an argument that evaluates the extent to which African Americans actively resisted racial violence in the early twentieth century. Use specific evidence to support your argument.Show worked answer →
An argument-style free-response question, scored on a rubric rewarding thesis, evidence, and reasoning.
Thesis: "African Americans actively resisted racial violence through investigative journalism, organizing, armed self-defense, and migration, refusing to accept terror passively."
Evidence: Ida B. Wells's anti-lynching campaign and documentation; the founding and activism of organizations like the NAACP; Black self-defense during the Red Summer; the Great Migration as a response to violence.
Reasoning: weigh the scale of the violence against the range and persistence of Black resistance.
Related dot points
- Topic 3.5 Disenfranchisement and Jim Crow Laws: how Southern states used poll taxes, literacy tests, and grandfather clauses to disfranchise Black voters and imposed legal segregation upheld by Plessy v. Ferguson.
A focused answer to AP African American Studies Topic 3.5, explaining how Southern states disfranchised Black voters through poll taxes, literacy tests, and grandfather clauses, and imposed legal segregation through Jim Crow laws upheld by the Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson.
- Topic 3.4 The Defeat of Reconstruction: how the gains of Reconstruction were rolled back through violence, political compromise, and the withdrawal of federal protection by 1877.
A focused answer to AP African American Studies Topic 3.4, explaining how the political gains of Reconstruction were rolled back through white supremacist violence, waning Northern commitment, and the Compromise of 1877, and what the end of Reconstruction meant for African Americans.
- Topic 3.9 Black Organizations and Institutions: how African Americans built churches, mutual aid societies, the press, and organizations such as the NAACP to advance freedom and fight for civil rights.
A focused answer to AP African American Studies Topic 3.9, explaining how African Americans built churches, mutual aid societies, the Black press, and organizations such as the NAACP and the National Urban League to sustain community and fight for civil rights after Reconstruction.
- Topic 3.16 The Great Migration: why millions of African Americans left the South for Northern and Western cities, and how the Great Migration reshaped Black political, cultural, and economic life.
A focused answer to AP African American Studies Topic 3.16, explaining why millions of African Americans left the South for Northern and Western cities between the 1910s and 1970s, the push and pull factors, and how the Great Migration transformed Black political, cultural, and economic life.
- Topic 3.12 Photography and Social Change: how African Americans used photography to counter racist stereotypes, document Black life and achievement, and advance the cause of social change.
A focused answer to AP African American Studies Topic 3.12, explaining how African Americans, from Frederick Douglass to the work compiled by W. E. B. Du Bois, used photography to counter racist stereotypes, document Black achievement, and drive social change.
Sources & how we know this
- AP African American Studies Course and Exam Description — College Board (2024)