+
Activity
Other

Vanderbilt University: Heard Library: R. P. Warren: Who Speaks for the Negro?

For Students 9th - 10th
An extensive archival collection of material that formed the core of Who Speaks for the Negro?, a book Robert Penn Warren published in 1965 of his interviews with prominent African American writers and activists whose ideas were critical...
+
Article
Ohio State University

E History: Clash of Cultures: African American New Women

For Students 9th - 10th
An article on the cultural and political experiences of African American women in 1920s America.
+
Handout
National Endowment for the Humanities

Neh: Picturing America: Saint Gaudens: Robert Shaw Memorial [Pdf]

For Students 9th - 10th
Analysis of a memorial sculpture dedicated to the 54th Massachusetts, the first regiment of African Americans recruited for service in the Union Army.
+
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Slave, Making of African American Identity: V. 1

For Students 9th - 10th
This resource provides nineteenth-century black narratives that address what it meant to be enslaved and how slaves' identity was formed and changed over time.
+
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Community, Making of African American Identity: V. 1, 1500 1865

For Students 9th - 10th
Twenty nine primary sources-historical documents, literary texts, and visual images-that explore how enslaved individuals and families coped with, adjusted to, maintained communities within, and opposed the system of oppression.
+
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Entrepreneurs, Making of African American Identity: V. 1

For Students 9th - 10th
Six mid-nineteenth century accounts by free-born black entrepreneurs about their economic activities and struggles. Links to documents describing each trade are provided within this well-developed resource.
+
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Civil War I: Slaves, Making of African American Identity: V. 1

For Students 9th - 10th
Photographs of slaves during the Civil War and war memories of former slaves during that conflict. Links to two separate resources can be found here, each focusing on the war memories of former slaves.
+
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Sale, Making of African American Identity: V. 1

For Students 9th - 10th
Two nineteenth century depictions of the emotional brutality of slave auctions-by an enslaved (formerly free) black man and by former slaves-and several recollections of being sold by former slaves recorded during Depression era...
+
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Resistance, Making of African American Identity: V. 1

For Students 9th - 10th
Recollections of slave resistance by observers like Frederick Douglass, narratives of slave resistance collected during the Depression, and mid-nineteenth century accounts by former slaves calling for resistance to and overthrow of the...
+
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: The Enslaved Family, Making of African American Identity: Vol. 1

For Students 9th - 10th
This site offers two letters and a memoir from the mid-nineteenth century, and interviews from the early-twentieth century, about the importance and the roles of enslaved families.
+
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Plantation Community, Making of African American Identity: V. 1

For Students 9th - 10th
Various retrospective oral accounts from the early-twentieth century and two narratives from the mid-nineteenth century that examine the work, interrelationships, dangers, and lives of slaves on southern plantations.
+
Unit Plan
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Fugitives, Making of African American Identity: V. 1

For Students 9th - 10th
Oral and written narratives of the experiences of the Underground Railroad and documents identifying efforts by northern societies to free slaves during the 1850s.
+
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Slave to Free, Making of African American Identity: V. 1

For Students 9th - 10th
Interviews with and narratives from former slaves who became free and letters from former slaves reflecting on their freedom.
+
Handout
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Harcourt: School Publishers: Jackie Robinson

For Students 3rd - 8th
America honors Jackie Robinson's first year in baseball's major leagues. This site has a brief biography of Jackie Robinson and how he broke the race barrier.
+
Website
My Hero Project

My Hero: Ruby Bridges

For Students 9th - 10th
Chosen as a Freedom Hero, Ruby Bridges faced the incredible task of integrating an elementary school during the Civil Rights Movement.
+
Unit Plan
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Enslaved Peoples, American Beginnings: 1492 1690

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Two Spanish accounts of enslaved Indians in the Caribbean and enslaved Africans in Mexico and statements of the difficulty of maintaining slavery and the lurking threat of a slave revolt.
+
Unit Plan
Annenberg Foundation

Annenberg Learner: American Passages: Poetry of Liberation: Amiri Baraka

For Students 9th - 10th
Poet and playwright Amiri Baraka is featured in this brief biography for his radical views and contributions during the Black Arts Movement in America. See "Amiri Baraka Activities" for related resources.
+
Activity
Scholastic

Scholastic: Culture & Change, Evolution of Black History

For Students 3rd - 8th
Explore the Black History in America in the lives of famous African Americans. Features include a clickable interactive timeline that highlights important events, accomplishments, and personalities from 1492 to 2001.
+
Article
PBS

Pbs Learning Media: More Than a Month: For My 4th Grade Teacher, Mrs. James

For Teachers Pre-K - 1st
This is a blog about how Black history has been taught. "The story of the Negro in America is the story of America. It is not a pretty story." by James Baldwin What points/contributions does a Black educator make to speak to how Black...
+
Website
PBS

Pbs: Sweet Old Song (The Music of Howard "Louie Bluie" Armstrong)

For Students 9th - 10th
Learn about and listen to jazz, blues, folk, and country musician Howard "Louie Bluie" Armstrong and his roots in America's musical past. "Sweet Old Song" tells the story of the music and art partnership between Armstrong and his...
+
Lesson Plan
Yale University

Yale New Haven Teachers Institute: Negro Holocaust: Lynching and Race Riots

For Teachers 9th - 10th
A activity unit with good background information for students. Details the history of lynching and race riots in America and the treatment of African-Americans from 1880 to 1950.
+
Handout
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

Gilder Lehrman Institute: History Now: Historian's Perspective: Winning the Vote: History of Voting Rights

For Students 9th - 10th
[Free Registration/Login Required] Historian-authored three-part overview looks at the history of voting rights in America, touching on all the critical moments in American history when voting rights were first denied then granted to...
+
Unit Plan
Annenberg Foundation

Annenberg Learner: You Decide: Washington or Du Bois?

For Students 9th - 10th
During the early Progressive Era, two leaders dominated the debate over the best course for racial advancement in America. Who had the better vision for improving the conditions of African Americans in the early 1900s, Booker T....
+
Website
Other

Juneteenth.com: History of Juneteenth

For Students 9th - 10th
Juneteenth.com discusses what Juneteenth is, its history, and its celebration. Content includes a look at why June 19, 1865, signifies the end of slavery in America, as opposed to Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863.