Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Basquiat, Horn Players
Jean-Michel Basquiat's 1983 painting "Horn Players" shows us all the main stylistic features we have come to expect from this renowned American artist. View pictures of his artwork and read about his life in this essay.
Texas State Library and Archives Commission
Texas State Library and Archives Commission: Forever Free: The 1870s: Education
Read about the development of free education for African Americans following the emancipation of this enslaved population. This article focuses on schools in Texas, including what is now known as Texas A&M University. Includes a...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: American Isolates
The students will learn about the culture and the people of American Isolates that live in the rural south of the United States.
Georgetown University
Georgetown: Georgetown Slavery Archive I Know That My Bennett Ancestors
Chapter two of Louis Diggs, Surviving in America: Histories of 7 Black Communities in Baltimore County, Maryland (Uptown Press, 2002), includes fascinating interviews with African Americans in Granite, Maryland, including several...
Curated OER
Real African American Heroes: Guion S. Bluford, Jr.
This site provides the resume and a picture of Guion S. Bluford, Jr., America's first NASA African-American astronaut in space.
BBC
Bbc News: Focus on the Slave Trade
BBC News offers a short summary of the slave trade from Africa to the Americas. Gives statistics on the number of slaves (estimated at 10 to 28 million), where they went, and the cruel conditions of their enslavement.
Virginia Commonwealth University
Vcu Digital Libraries Collections: Through the Lens of Time
An impressive collection of photographs of African American life in Virginia, spanning the last half of the 19th century and the early 20th century. Included are photographs of various types of work, individuals, school groups, and...
University at Buffalo
Univ. At Buffalo: Circle Association's Rita Dove Page
Site from the University at Buffalo is still under construction for a mini biography and bibliography. However, site does have an interview of Rita Dove from 1997 and thirteen writings or poems by Dove. Links to other African American...
Library of Congress
Loc: Higher Education
The freed slaves needed skills to thrive in industrial America so many industrial schools were opened to address these needs. However, many saw these practical skills learned in these schools as perpetuating the status of an African...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Slave Trade, American Beginnings: 1492 1690
A West African map and three accounts of the development of slave acquisition display the process and the brutality of the Atlantic slave trade.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Assimilation and the Crucible of the City: Reading Guide: Two Stories
An excerpt from Abraham Cahan's novel, "Yekl: A Tale of the New York Ghetto," and Charles Chesnutt's short story, "The Wife of His Youth," that describe challenges of assimilation into American culture for both European immigrants and...
Digital History
Digital History: Compensation for Slavery [Pdf]
Read the arguments for and against giving reparations to today's African Americans to atone for the slavery their ancestors endured in 18th and 19th century America. Also included are results from a poll conducted by the magazine, Black...
Digital History
Digital History: The Black Legend
Read about the Black Legend which vilified the Spanish treatment of Indians they enslaved, resulting in the decimation of many Indian populations. Bartolome de Las Casas criticized the enslavement of Indians and suggested using African...
Understanding Slavery Initiative
Understanding Slavery Initiative: Atlantic Crossing: Slave Forts Case Study
Find out about the disparity between the castle-like headquarters of slave forts and the deplorable conditions in which enslaved Africans lived while waiting to be transported by slave ship to the Americas.
Library of Congress
Loc: Booker T. Washington Delivered "Atlanta Compromise"
Booker T. Washington was one of the most influential African Americans of his day. This site highlights his famous "Atlanta Compromise" speech, as well as a general overview of his views.
Teaching American History
Teaching American History: Document Library: Civil Rights Act of 1866
Read the complete text of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which set out guarantees for citizenship in post-Civil War America as well as the punishments for those who tried to obstruct these guarantees.
PBS
Pbs News Hour: Interview With Secretary of State Rice
An interview conducted by Jim Lehrer. Topics included "Syria's presence in Lebanon, diplomatic efforts to end Iran's nuclear aspirations, the U.S. relationship with Europe, and her first months as America's top diplomat."
Other
Amistad Digital Resource: The Scottsboro Trial
Narrative examines the notorious trials of the Scottsboro Boys from 1931 through 1937 giving details about the prosecution, in Scottsboro, Alabama, of nine young African Americans charged with the rape of two white women. The trials...
Nobel Media AB
The Nobel Prize: Nelson Mandela Biographical
This brief biography from The Nobel Foundation on the life and struggles of Nelson Mandela, who, while in prison, "Was widely accepted as the most significant black leader in South America," includes several resources for further reading...
Digital History
Digital History: Slavery and Spanish Colonization
Read about the slave trade and use of slaves in agriculture and mining in Spanish America in the New World. Find out why it was expedient to use African slaves.
PBS
Liberty: Chronicle of the Revolution: Diversity
A brief look at the population increase in colonial America. Find out where all these immigrants came from and what they did in the colonies. From PBS.
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: Beginnings of Revolutionary Thinking: What Is the American?
Even colonial America was a melting pot of people from far away. Read about the diversity of the population and why it had an effect on the possibility of rebellion and revolution.
New Deal Network
New Deal Network: Journal of Negro Life: The New Deal and Housing
A 1934 article depicting the poor quality of housing in the larger cities of America and the Federal government's efforts to correct the problems.
Library of Congress
Loc: American Memory Timeline: Colonial Settlement,1600s 1763
Read about the colonization in the New World by many European countries. Hyperlinks to you to more specific topics.