Noted Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. recounts the full trajectory of African-American history in his groundbreaking series The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross. The series explores the evolution of the African-American people, as well as the multiplicity of cultural institutions, political strategies, and religious and social perspectives they developed — forging their own history, culture and society against unimaginable odds.

Using video clips from The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, this collection of lesson plans addresses a wide range of themes of the African-American experience from 1500 to the present.

This resource provides three modules on Black history in the United States. The modules discuss three historical eras, including the "plantation to ghetto, Civil Rights Era, and The Future and the Present." Each module includes text, images, and video.

The Woodson Center Curriculum provides lesson plans, slide shows, and readings of significant moments in Black American history. Many of the biographies are of Black Americans often ignored by textbooks. The project seeks to highlight examples of excellence, resilience, and perseverance, in the Black community and among Black individuals while battling the realities of racism. 

Create a curated library of books related to Black History Month using Epic! for adult learners to read. Then have students reflect on what they read,

BlackPast.org provides free access to documents, transcripts, timelines, videos, and lesson suggestions. With over 6,000 pages of information, BlackPast.org is the single largest free and unrestricted resource on African American and African history on the Internet today. Through this knowledge, the site aims to promote greater understanding to generate constructive change in our society.This resource highlights teacher-developed lessons for using BlackPast.org in the classroom and links to different sections of the BlackPast.org website.

Teaching multicultural literature is happily a big part of the modern conversation about English classes. However, a question that is less often asked is, what is the root of the need for it? Many Americans shuffle about their lives oblivious to the structural racism that permeates much of our society and culture. Those who choose “not to see color” or race are proliferating opportunities for a dominant culture to continue and even expand, thereby limiting opportunities for others. Through utilization of two important concepts – Critical Race Theory and Colorblind Racial Ideology – we can improve humanities instruction by scrutinizing the much bigger, and often ignored, picture of modern racism. Combining this with instruction on the art of Afrofuturism – specifically the work of Octavia Bulter, Sun Ra, and Jean Michel Basquiat among others – we can also fill a similar gap in the modern American imagination.

Consider the need for home education for Black and African-American families in Southern Maryland in the 1870s through 1920s, when public education was unavailable or inaccessible. This resource combines 3D models and 2D interaction to introduce students to Alphabet Wares/Alphabet Plates as found at Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum when excavating "Sukeek's Cabin," a late-19th century home by a newly-freed family on the park grounds. Themes include unjust limitations, archaeology as a primary source, and home life in the 1870s-1920s. The resource includes simple prompts and resources for hypothesizing about archaeological findings, researching them, drawing conclusions, and suggestions for further reflection.

This resource uses Genial.ly, an online-presentation service, with additional tools by S'CAPE to increase the interactivity. Public Genial.lys may be remixed into new presentations after signing up for an account with the service.

This resource is part of Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum’s open educational resources project to provide history, ecology, archaeology, and conservation resources related to our 560 acre public park. More of our content can be found on OER Commons, YouTube, and SketchFab. JPPM is a part of the Maryland Historical Trust under the Maryland Department of Planning.

Identity is complicated, and changes depending on who you are and where you are. In our country, identity is directly tied to power and some are afforded privileges and others have disadvantages. This course will study identity as a social construct, and will go into further depth on race. Students will study the complications and nuances that go into the formation of identity and race, historical injustices and responses tied to it. We will study redlining, and a specific chapter of history, the South Bronx in the 1960’s. Rap music is currently the most successful music genre, even having small ripples in the country music world. Its origins, often overlooked due to the multi-faceted nature of the music, is a culture with a rich history rooted in social justice, giving a voice to the voices that were silenced. Its origins in the South Bronx, and its usage as a platform in response to social inequity, is often overlooked. Rap is a platform used worldwide to express a specific message. However, its role in academia, and in music in general, is often polarizing. We will do a specific study in rap as a form of response to systemic racism. By interacting with this curriculum, students engage in ethical reflection, in a safe space, finding a platform for their voice, learning content that’s relevant to current day. They will engage in informed conversations about race and equity, producing creative and analytical writing, while significantly improving their analytical reading and writing skills.

AMH 2091 is an introductory-level survey course that provides an overview of the major events and developments in African American history, from Africa to the present. At its core, the history of African Americans has been connected to attempts to gain freedom. Starting with the West African empires, the course traces African Americans’ quest for freedom through the Slave Trade, Slavery, Reconstruction, the Jim Crow Era, World War I, the Great Migration, the Great Depression, and World War II. It then examines key political, social, and cultural developments of the post-war period focusing on social movements such as the Long Civil Rights Movement, the Black Power Movement, and Women’s Rights Movement. There will be an emphasis on learning the basic chronology and topics of African-American history, analyzing a range of primary and secondary sources, and practicing writing interpretive essays, using primary and secondary sources to support a clear argument.  Students can expect to dedicate 4 – 5 hours a week to writing. 

An Excel booklist created by Multnomah County Library to support the Ethnic Studies Integrated 2021 Social Science Standards. The file is organized with tabs for Japanese American Internment, Holocaust, Indigenous Peoples, Genocides, Prejudice, Refugees, Misinformation, and Cultural Diversity.

This Latinx History curriculum outlines a yearlong course, one which can be taught on its own, but which is being conceived as part of a course that will integrate both African American and Latinx history. The curriculum begins by naming the problematic dominant narratives that one may internalize or reproduce when learning about or teaching Latinx history, along with the counter narratives that tell a more accurate, complete, and political history. The five units covered in this curriculum begin with an analysis of the various terms used for Latinx people, and a history of them, concluding with a debate that asks: Are these terms more helpful or harmful to the community they claim to serve? Following this unit, the course takes on a chronological format, beginning with the history of the indigenous people of Latin America and their resistance to Spanish colonization. Next, the unit follows the independence and revolutionary movements across Latin America in the 1800s and early 1900s, followed by U.S. imperialism and changing borders throughout the second half of the 19th century and into the 20th century. The curriculum concludes with a unit on the intersectional Latinx movements of the 20th century, with an emphasis on culture as a tool of resistance and survival.

Grade Level is 7.6 using the Flesch-Kincaid readability test.

This is the challenging and inspired true story of a little girl who was determined to learn to read, and who went on to be a teacher, the founder of a college, an adviser to statesmen, and a great humanitarian. Mary McLeod Bethune was the fifteenth child of hardworking and god fearing parents. She was the first of their children to be born free. Her ancestry was wholly of African origin, a point of pride throughout her life.

Mrs. Bethune worked untiringly to restore—through education—her people's faith in the magnificent heritage that is rightfully theirs. During the many years of and tribulation, she refused to give up her fondest dream—her own school for Negro children. And, as a shining monument to her hard work and faith, she has given to black youth the thriving institution of Bethune- Cookman College in Daytona Beach, Florida.

The purpose of this unit is to analyze the different ways that race and law have operated over the course of American history. The unit is designed to be implemented in a United States History course, but can also be used in a Civics classroom as a way of understanding the function of the law. The unit compromises of three main case studies 1) Racial Formation of Legal Code in Colonial America with the specific focus on the aims and goals of the Naturalization Law of 1790 2) The Prerequisite Cases of the 1920s and finally, 3)Anti-Miscegenation Cases and Racial Categories at the time of the Eugenics Movement in the 1930s and 40s. The purpose of weaving these different historical time periods together is to help students reshape the ways in which they look at the law and more importantly understand how race and law have worked together to shape the world in which we live. The different case studies can be introduced individually or used in a thematic manner.

A People’s History of New York City traces the history of NYC through the experiences of Immigrant and Migrant communities. By tracing common threads between these groups the City’s modern relevance, as well as its present tensions is unveiled. Highlighted are economic and social struggles for equity, justice and liberation from the marginalized groups who allowed for the creation of arguably the most significant metropolis of the present era.

This collection uses primary sources to explore visual art during the Harlem Renaissance. 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.