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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Famous Firsts Challenge

For Teachers 5th - 6th
For this Black history month worksheet, pupils read the statements about Black history month. Students select the best answer to complete the 10 statements.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Journey to Civil Rights

For Teachers K - 1st
Students explore Civil Rights. In this Civil Rights activity, students read about Ruby Bridges and define the words segregation and supremacy. Students make a timeline of important events in Civil Rights and write a paragraph about why...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Black Kentuckians and the Civil War

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Students demonstrate how the American Civil War affected black Kentuckians socially and politically. They identify and discuss the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which forced the end of slavery in Kentucky months after the...
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Lesson Plan
National Woman's History Museum

Stacey Abrams: Changing the Trajectory of Protecting People’s Voices and Votes

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
In this project-based learning lesson, young social scientists investigate Stacey Abrams' campaign to protect the voting rights of people across the nation. Investigators learn how to annotate assigned articles, watch videos, and collect...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Past Presence

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students examine British Black History. In this current events lesson, students visit selected websites to research the history of Blacks in Great Britain. Several lesson enhancement ideas are included.
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Lesson Plan
Anti-Defamation League

Shirley Chisholm: Unbought, Unbossed and Unforgotten

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
A 13-page packet introduces high schoolers to a lady of amazing firsts. Shirley Chisholm was the first Black woman elected to Congress, the first Black woman to run for President of the United States, and a leader of the Women's Rights...
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Lesson Plan
Crafting Freedom

George Moses Horton: Slavery from a Poet's Perspective

For Teachers 4th - 5th Standards
After reading about the life of George Moses Horton, the first slave to publish anti-slavery poetry, learners will recall his major accomplishments, provide a summary of the obstacles he faced, and identify common aspects of the...
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Lesson Plan
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Curated OER

Rediscovering Forgotten Women Writers

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Women's voices are becoming more prominent in the world of literature, but for centuries, this wasn't the case. Young historians research a woman whose writings are considered to be lost, out of print, or forgotten. They develop an oral...
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Lesson Plan
Smithsonian Institution

Spirits Across the Ocean: Yoruban and Dahomean Cultures in the Caribbean Brought by the Slave Trade

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Much of Latin American music owes its origins to the slave trade. Peoples from the Yoruban and Dahomean cultures brought with them the distinctive rhythms, time signatures, and eighth note patterns that now characterize Caribbean music....
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Famous Black Americans

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
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.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

An Experiment in Unfair Treatment/Prejudice

For Teachers 3rd - 12th
A rigged spelling bee gives class members a chance to experience some of the feelings associated with unfair treatment. Team one is given easy words while team two is given difficult words. As teams realize the unfairness the instructor...
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Lesson Plan
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Stanford University

Civil Rights or Human Rights?

For Students 6th - 12th Standards
Young citizens consider the American civil rights movement as part of the global struggle for human rights. After using a timeline activity to learn about the major events in the civil rights movement, class members study Malcolm X's...
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Lesson Plan
Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media

Fred Seibel, the Times-Dispatch, and Massive Resistance

For Teachers 4th Standards
A lesson challenges scholars to analyze editorial cartoons created by Fred Seibel, illustrator for the Times-Dispatch, during the Massive Resistance. A class discussion looking at today's editorial pages and Jim Crow Laws leads the way...
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Lesson Plan
National Woman's History Museum

Sally Hemings: Raising a Family Amidst the Brutality of Slavery

For Teachers 11th - 12th Standards
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....
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Lesson Plan
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Learning for Justice

Maya Angelou

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Maya Angelou's poem, "Still I Rise", offers young scholars an opportunity to consider how poets use literary devices to create powerful messages. After a close reading and discussion of the poem, class members reflect on how they can...
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Lesson Plan
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National Endowment for the Humanities

Women's Lives Before the Civil War

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Women's lifestyles before the Civil War made a huge impact as a point of causation. Give middle schoolers the opportunity to view firsthand the lives of women before the Civil War. They analyze primary source documents, view photographs,...
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Lesson Plan
Crafting Freedom

The Self-Empowerment of Harriet Jacobs

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
In a hands-on learning activity, pupils read about and recreate the experience of Harriet Jacobs, author of one of the most famous slave narratives of all time in which she describes her years of hiding from her master in a confined...
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Lesson Plan
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PBS

Malcolm X: Minister and Civil Rights Activist

For Teachers 3rd - 7th Standards
Any study of the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement would be incomplete without an examination of the life of Malcolm X. Class members view a short biographical video and analyze primary source documents to gain an understanding of the...
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Lesson Plan
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Albert Shanker Institute

Heart of the Matter

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
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...
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Lesson Plan
National Endowment for the Humanities

Jacob Lawrence's Migration Series: Removing the Mask

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Describe, analyze, compare and contrast poets from the Harlem Renaissance. Critical thinkers analyze the imagery, characterization, tone, symbolism, and historical context of Jacob Lawrence, Helene Johnson, and Paul Laurence Dunbar. A...
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Lesson Plan
American Institute of Physics

Optics and Anthony Johnson

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Message sending has come a long way since the days of Morse code's dots and dashes. Young scientists study the research of optical physicist Anthony Johnson and his work in fiber optics, lasers, and the principle of total internal...
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Lesson Plan
Crafting Freedom

Man in the Middle: Thomas Day and the Free Black Experience

For Teachers 5th Standards
How did free and enslaved blacks work to craft freedom for themselves and their families before the Civil War? Young historians read about the life of Thomas Day, a free black man who also owned slaves and had abolitionist ties in...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Countries of Africa

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students investigate the different countries of Africa. In this African geography lesson, students choose an African country to investigate and construct the country's flag. Students use a map of Africa to color in their country.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Influence of Musical Folk Traditions in the Poetry of Langston Hughes and Nicolás Guillén

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Students listen and explore how African-American culture relates to learning Spanish as a foreign language. Poetry, music, and history are utilized while learning about Langston Hughes and Nicolas Guillen.