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Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Soldiers: Making of African American Identity: 1500 1865

For Students 9th - 10th
Photographs of and letters from black soldiers-both enslaved and free-from the late-eighteenth to mid-nineteenth centuries that examine military experience for African Americans.
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Website
Library of Congress

Loc: Prints & Photograph: Photographs of African Americans During the Civil War

For Students 9th - 10th
A Library of Congress collection of digitized photos of African Americans during the Civil War, including photos of soldiers and freedmen. From the Library of Congress.
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Website
Library of Congress

Loc: African American Odyssey: The Civil War

For Students 9th - 10th
Prints, photographs and documents form the Library of Congress collections tell a story of African Americans and the Civil War including contrabands of war, emancipation, soldiers and missionaries, and fighting for freedom.
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Website
Library of Congress

Loc: African American Odyssey: Reconstruction and Its Aftermath

For Students 9th - 10th
From the Library of Congress, this resource documents the course of post-Civil War, post-slavery life for black Americans. Topics include education, constitutional amendments, voting rights and the many challenges African Americans faced...
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Handout
Library of Congress

Loc: African American Odyssey: The Booker T. Washington Era

For Students 9th - 10th
One section of this "Booker T. Washington Era" page of the LOC's African American Odyssey site is devoted to a very brief biography of Booker T. Washington. Other sections of the page summarize the history of African Americans between...
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Primary
Brigham Young University

Byu: Scott's Official History: American Negro in the World War

For Students 9th - 10th
This is the full text of a book about the military history of African Americans in World War I. Emmett J. Scott wrote this book in 1919 to detail the experiences of African American soldiers in World War I, covering such topics as...
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Handout
Khan Academy

Khan Academy: African American Veterans and the Civil Rights Movement

For Students 9th - 10th
Many African American veterans joined the Civil Rights Movement after World War II when they found themselves facing continued discrimination at home. Learn about some of the veterans who were prominent activists.
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Lesson Plan
National Gallery of Art

National Gallery of Art: The First African American Regiment

For Teachers 7th - 8th
Learners will be introduced to the first African American Regiment that fought in the Civil War through a memorial sculpture by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. They will compare and contrast the experiences of these soldiers through their...
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Handout
TexasHistory.com

Texas history.com: African Americans in Uniform on the Texas Frontier

For Students 9th - 10th
Examines the history of the buffalo soldiers in Texas after the Civil War, the obstacles they faced due to racism, and how other African Americans perceived them.
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Website
Library of Congress

Loc: American Memory: African American Odyssey

For Students 9th - 10th
This site explores Black America's quest for equality from the early national period through the twentieth century. Content includes the work of abolitionists in the first half of the nineteenth century, depictions of the long journey...
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Activity
Other

Colorado College: African Americans in Early American Military History

For Students 9th - 10th
Describes African American's military role in American Revolution.
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Article
PBS

Soldiers Without Swords: Treason? African Americans in World War Ii

For Students 9th - 10th
Article describes the dilemma of African Americans during WWII, including legislation attempting to restrict the black press.
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Lesson Plan
US National Archives

National Archives: Black Soldiers in the Civil War

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Increasing pressures on the Union army led to the recruitment of African Americans to fight in the Civil War. Students will analyze the following recruitment poster for freed slaves and decide how important the black soldiers were to a...
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Article
Bullock Texas State History Museum

Bullock Museum: Buffalo Soldiers

For Students 9th - 10th
Immerse in the campfire stories of the people who defined Texas. Read about buffalo soldiers, whether on horseback or on foot, they fought the same enemy every day.
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Primary
University of Groningen

American History: Essays: Black Lost Cause. Colored Service in Confederate Army

For Students 9th - 10th
This well-researched extensive essay by Peter Stam looks at the issue of the number of African Americans serving in the Confederate Army as soldiers. By examining information from many historians, some of whom turn out to be unreliable,...
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Website
Library of Congress

Loc: The Negro in the Wars of the Nation

For Students 9th - 10th
African Americans have fought proudly for our country as far back as the Revolutionary War. Christian Fleetwood gives an account of the history of African-American soldiers in the Revolutionary War to the Civil War. He cites examples of...
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Article
Scott Alexander

Lieutenant James Reese Europe: Songs Back From the Battle

For Students 9th - 10th
This site is an extensive biography of World War I African American soldier and jazz musician Lieutenant James Reese Europe. It includes much detail about Europe's life, experience in the military, and success as a bandleader. Photos,...
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Handout
The History Cat

The History Cat: Us History: The Buffalo Soldiers

For Students 9th - 10th
Describes the history of the Buffalo Soldiers, African Americans who served in four Calvary peacetime units in the 19th and 20th centuries. Highlights the experiences of Emanuel Stance, a freed slave who joined the military in 1866.
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Lesson Plan
US National Archives

Docsteach: Integration of the u.s. Armed Forces

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Learners will draw upon the visual and textual data presented in photographs and documents to gain an understanding of the participation of African Americans in the U.S. Armed Forces and of changes in American military policy regarding...
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Activity
Constitutional Rights Foundation

Constitutional Rights Foundation: Black Troops in Union Blue

For Students 9th - 10th
Activity on African American troops in the Union Army. Students read article for background information, answer questions, then analyze and write about the controversies in a piece to be published in a mock Frederick Douglass's Paper.
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Lesson Plan
Library of Virginia

Virginia Memory: Freedom Is Worth Fighting For: Billy and James

For Teachers 9th - 10th
This lesson looks at the choices created during the Revolutionary War for enslaved African Americans in Virginia.
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Article
Other

Home for Heroes: Buffalo Soldiers Taught Him

For Students 9th - 10th
This site from the U. S. Department of Defense provides information about the African-American soldiers who served in the 92nd Infantry. Includes the testimony of a man who served in the division.
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Lesson Plan
US National Archives

Docsteach: Black Soldiers in the Civil War

For Teachers 9th - 10th
In this activity learners will analyze a two-page poster that the Government used to recruit recently freed slaves to fight for the Union Army during the Civil War. The poster refers to the Emancipation Proclamation and to President...
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Handout
Other

Mr. Lincoln and Freedom: Black Soldiers: Louisiana and Massachusetts

For Students 9th - 10th
A complete discourse on the incorporation of black soldiers into the Union Army during the Civil War. The 54th Massachusetts Regiment is discussed in regard to the recruitment and the attack on Fort Wagner.