Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Image of Community, 1939, Making of African American Identity

For Teachers 9th - 10th
This resources illustrates how artist Augusta Savage (1892-1962) embodied the virtues of self-help, self-reliance, and close-knit cohesion of the black community in her sculpture Lift Every Voice and Sing (The Harp).
Activity
PBS

Wnet: Thirteen: The Supreme Court: Biographies of the Robes: Thurgood Marshall

For Students 9th - 10th
PBS presents a biographical account of the life of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first African American to serve in the court. Details his commitment to civil rights and liberties.
Unit Plan
CommonLit

Common Lit: "Showdown in Little Rock" by Us history.org

For Students 7th - 8th
A learning module that begins with "Showdown in Little Rock," accompanied by guided reading questions, assessment questions, and discussion questions. The text can be printed as a PDF or assigned online through free teacher and student...
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: The Black Psyche, Making of African American Identity: V. 3

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Woodcuts that explore the effects of segregation on the black psyche. Links to Elizabeth Catlett's "The Negro Woman," a series of fifteen linoleum cuts are provided, as well as a summary of their meaning.
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Ambiguity of Integration: Making of African American Identity

For Students 9th - 10th
A painting and a photograph illustrating some of the problems posed by racial integration. Norman Rockwell's illustration is compared to the experiences of Ruby Bridges.
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Theater, Making of African American Identity: V. 3

For Students 9th - 10th
A manifesto and scenes from a play illustrating black protest in the theater. LeRoi Jones's short manifesto, "The Revolutionary Theatre," and Douglas Turner Ward's, " Day of Absence" encapsulates the mindset of many black writers and...
Article
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Images, Making of African American Identity: V. 3

For Teachers 9th - 10th
This article review examples of black protest in art by Claude Clark and Charles White. Links to images and supplemental resources are provided here as well.
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Community on Film, Making of African American Identity: V. 3

For Students 9th - 10th
Excerpts from a 1941 film that depicts black and white communities in Kannapolis, NC, by H. Lee Waters (1902-1997). This two part film characterizes the differences in economy, community, and values of two separate cultures.
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Community and Culture, Making of African American Identity: V. 3

For Students 9th - 10th
An attempt to define community as a shared culture. In this article and review, critic, poet, and playwright Larry Neal (1937-1981) applies the principles of self-determination espoused by Stokely Carmichael and others to the arts and...
Unknown Type
Other

Watson.org: African American History: School Integration

For Students 9th - 10th
A history of the attempt to integrate schools in Little Rock, Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Boston.
Activity
Read Works

Read Works: Famous African Americans Muhammad Ali: The Greatest

For Teachers 2nd - 4th
[Free Registration/Login Required] Biographical information about the famous boxer Muhammad Ali is contained in this passage. This passage is a stand-alone curricular piece that reinforces essential reading skills and strategies and...
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Separation and Power, Making of African American Identity: V. 3

For Students 9th - 10th
An essay that examines the relationship between racial separation and power. In this essay Stokely Carmichael advocates for the coalescence of political and economic power within the black community in a way that liberates and insulates...
Article
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Teacher Serve: Reconstruction and the Formerly Enslaved

For Students 9th - 10th
What are the "big questions" of Reconstruction? Article provides an overview of the Reconstruction period when Americans debated rights and the nature of freedom and equality. It focuses on who was an American and how citizenship should...
Unknown Type
Alabama Humanities Foundation

Encyclopedia of Alabama: Selma to Montgomery March

For Students 9th - 10th
One of the most famous events in Civil Rights history, this report covers the Selma to Montgomery March for voting rights.
Handout
Black Past

Black Past: Barnett, Ida Wells

For Students 9th - 10th
This biography details the life and journalistic career of African American women's rights activist Ida B. Wells Barnett.
Lesson Plan
PBS

Pbs Learning Media: Campaigns for Economic Freedom

For Teachers 9th - 10th
This teacher resource highlights how racial discrimination affected the economic conditions of African Americans in the twentieth century. It includes a detailed lesson plan as well as videos and documents for students to explore. There...
Handout
Black Past

Black Past: Bearden,. Romare

For Students 9th - 10th
This short encyclopedia article tells about Romare Bearden, a prolific African American artist and author. Links to other websites for more information.
Handout
Black Past

Black Past: Black Panther Party

For Students 9th - 10th
Encyclopedia entry describes the Black Panther Party: its beginnings, important leaders, and role in the African American communities of the 1960s and 1970s.
Handout
Black Past

Black Past: Roscoe Dunjee

For Students 9th - 10th
Read the biography of African American writer and civil rights activist Roscoe Dunjee.
Interactive
PBS

Pbs Learning Media: Re Examining Brown

For Students 9th - 10th
A teacher lesson that explores the struggles to end segregation in schools. Students will research and use role-playing to understand some of the people and issues that sparked the BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION case in 1954 and how that...
Primary
US National Archives

Nara: Letter From Jackie Robinson

For Students 9th - 10th
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), while focusing on his contributions to the Civil Rights, features a letter written by Jackie Robinson to President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The letter responded to Presidential Civil...
Handout
Other

Hall of Fame Biographies: Albert John Lutuli

For Students 9th - 10th
This South African Hall of Fame site features a page on the life of Albert Lutuli (1898-1967), a Nobel Peace Prize winner and a leader in the fight for civil rights in South Africa.
Handout
Other

Eve's Magazine: Jackie Robinson: An American Hero

For Students 9th - 10th
This article, written by Maury Allen and published in Eve's Magazine, explores the life of Jackie Robinson and his role in the Civil Rights Movement.
Lesson Plan
PBS

Pbs Teachers: February One (Lessons on the Greensboro Sit in of 1960)

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Find two lesson plans developed for a PBS documentary about the Greensboro Four, whose sit-in at a whites-only Woolworth's lunch counter was a key event in the unfolding history of the civil rights movement. The lessons ask students to...