Students recognize famous Black Americans and their roles in America's society. They create a database and slideshow presenting famous Black Americans and relevant facts of their lives.

Learners research and retrieve information from the Internet. They participate in an online quiz. They identify areas of cultural diversity in United States history.

Pupils may know about early American figures such as Phyllis Wheatley and Abigail Adams, but what about Sally Hemings? Sally Hemings was the mother of Thomas Jefferson's children, but she is often left in the shadows of history....

Young historians conduct a close reading of the text of an interview with Mary McLeod Bethune, the daughter of former slaves who taught herself to read, grew up to establish schools for other Black women, and went on to become an advisor...

Artifacts can be used to study people and events of the past. That's the takeaway from the fifth lesson plan in a unit study of African Americans who served in Congress. Groups select an artifact associated with a Black Congress Member...

Imagine the lure of being offered a job at a secret site, working on a secret project, and earning higher wages! Such was the approach used to recruit African Americans to Hanford, Washington, one of several sites used to develop...

What does race have to do with COVID vaccine hesitancy? That is the question young scholars pursue in a video lesson that looks at the impacts of such things as the Tuskegee Experiment, the unauthorized use of Henrietta Lacks's cancer...

It was not just the states of the Deep South that practiced segregation. Young historians investigate the history of segregation and desegregation in Oklahoma. They begin by reading, annotating, and analyzing an article about the impacts...

Excerpts from an 1898 speech by civil rights activist Mary Church Terrell offers young scholars an opportunity to investigate how Black American women fought for civil rights long before Rosa Parks and the civil rights movement of the...

A lesson about Kamilah Aisha Moon's poem "Imagine" asks young scholars to imagine, "What would happen if...?" If Dr. Martin Luther King's dream became a reality. If Renisha McBride was a white girl and crashed her car in a black...

Scholars examine the courageous efforts made by civil rights activist, Rosa Parks. Discussion questions and a brief writing assignment follows a short film. A photograph and a silent film delve deeper into Park's history and three...

Physicists Herman Branson and Tannie Stovall provide young scholars with two very different perceptions of the status of African American physicists in the 1960s. After reading and comparing the bios of these two men, class members read...

A biography writing lesson plan with a tasty twist! Kids create a "visual biography" in which each pizza slice represents a paragraph, and toppings represent supporting details. They learn research techniques, note-taking skills, and how...

As part of a study of the Civil Rights Movement from 1868 to the present, class members examine first person narratives, the Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education, and other significant events in civil rights history....

After reading books about Black history, complete an outline and research important African Americans in history. Use the included outline to write a report.

On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. Four video clips reveal the events of that time, including the shift in the focus of the Civil Rights Movement, the aftermath of the assassination, and...

I have a dream ... that all pupils will be able to organize a march of their own after learning about how Bayard Rustin organized the 1963 March on Washington for civil rights. Young reformers work collaboratively examining informational...

Learners complete a six-page coloring book featuring Major League Baseball's first African American player, Jackie Robinson. To bring the pages to life, scholars follow directions adding color and pictures where directed. 

This, the sixth in a series of 10 related resources, examines the life and works of Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, an African American author, born in 1825, who advocated literacy for both free and enslaved African Americans.

What is "virtual freedom"? How about "enslaved entrepreneurship"? Class members will learn about these terms and much more as they read the poems and examine the life of George Moses Horton.

Young historians examine a memorial sculpture of the first African American regiment in the Civil War, and then compare how the experiences of the regiment are portrayed in letters and poetry, as well as in the motion...

The Civil Rights Act of 1866, which granted citizenship to all males in the U.S., resulted in the first African Americans to be elected to Congress. Class members research 11 of these men, the challenges they faced, and craft...

Students investigate the contributions of African Americans throughout history. They research and identify accomplishments of various African American Scientists/Innovators in recognition of Black History Month.

Most people have heard of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his famous "I Have a Dream" speech, but few have heard of Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin. Who were these guys and what did they have to do with this famous landmark event in...