Zora Neale Hurston was one of the most important and celebrated figures to emerge from the Harlem Renaissance. Outspoken, spirited and gifted, Ms. Hurston was the most prolific African-American woman writer of the 1930's. Adapted from the theatrical biography of her life by Laurence Holder, this performance brings to life her story. The site includes a handout to help you and your students enjoy, prepare for, and discuss Zora. Included inside are background information, an introduction to our co-sponsors, Library of Congress LIVE and The American Place Theater, resources from the Library of Congress, and student activities.

"First-Person Narratives of the American South" is a collection of diaries, autobiographies, memoirs, travel accounts, and ex-slave narratives written by Southerners. The majority of materials in this collection are written by those Southerners whose voices were less prominent in their time, including African Americans, women, enlisted men, laborers, and Native Americans.

This collection uses primary sources to compare and explore the relationships between Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.

This collection uses primary sources to explore northern draft riots that occurred during the Civil War. Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.

In this lesson, students will describe aspects of their identities such as race, gender, class, age, ability, religion and more. They will watch two video clips featuring Marley Dias, an eleven-year-old girl who started the #1000BlackGirlBooks campaign, a book drive with the goal of collecting 1,000 books featuring African-American girls. After learning about the campaign, students will review illustrated books in their classroom and school library and analyze whether the characters in the books reflect their own identities or the identities of their families and friends. Finally, students will write a book review on one of the books and examine how the book’s characters are similar to or different from them.

This collection uses primary sources to explore school desegregation in Boston. Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.

This collection uses primary sources to explore Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.

This collection features interview excerpts and photographs from the Working in Paterson Folklife Project of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. The four-month study of occupational culture in Paterson, New Jersey, was conducted in 1994. Founded in the 1790s by Alexander Hamilton and the Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures (S.U.M.), Paterson harnessed the power of the Great Falls on the Passaic River to become the largest silk manufacturing center in North America, as well as a leader in other types of manufacturing, from railroads to rifles. The documentary materials presented in this online collection explore how this industrial heritage expresses itself in Paterson today: in its work sites, work processes, and memories of workers. The online presentation also includes interpretive essays exploring such topics as work in the African-American community, a distinctive food tradition (the Hot Texas Wiener), the ethnography of a single work place (Watson Machine International), business life along a single street in Paterson (21st Avenue), and narratives told by retired workers.

This collection uses primary sources to explore Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.

This collection uses primary sources to explore The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin. Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.

This is a 4 week reading and critical interrogation assignment for students at the Higher ed level... Image in Title is by Florida_Aaron - https://pixabay.com/users/florida_aaron-3954368/

This lesson asks students to think about what counts as history. It is divided into two parts. Part 1 gets students thinking about what’s included in the history they study, and what’s missing. Part 1 can stand alone as a complete lesson. Part 2 extends the project. In it, they compare how a U.S. history book and an African-American history book address the same time period. They also reflect on how including new groups alters the study of history.

How do you ensure students get the most out of black history and Black History Month? Here are some suggestions.

The documents included in this lesson come from The North Carolina Experience collection of Documenting the American South and specifically focus on African Americans and race relations in the early 20th century. The lesson juxtaposes accounts that relate to both the positive improvements of black society and arguments against advancement. Combined, these primary sources and the accompanying lesson plan could be used as a Document Based Question (DBQ) in an advanced US history or African American history course.

Music teacher Genein Letford teaches students about similes to the beat of Duke Ellington using story, jazz solos, and improvisations. Filmed at New Academy Canoga Park, CA.

Pursuant to a call signed by eight hundred and fifty citizens of Rhode Island, a large number of gentlemen, friendly to the immediate abolition of slavery, assembled in the High Street Congregational Meeting House in Providence on Tuesday, February 2, 1836.

This collection uses primary sources to explore the Black Power Movement. Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.

This collection uses primary sources to explore Lorraine Hansberry's play, A Raisin in the Sun. Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.