Smithsonian Institution
Anacostia Museum: The Renaissance: Black Art of the Twenties
Provides an informative description of the "Black Arts of the Twenties," which was better known as the Harlem Renaissance. Learn about the culture, art, music, and writings of this period.
Digital History
Digital History:the Great Migration
The Great Migration for African Americans began during World War I as blacks left the segregated south to find jobs in the north. Read about how segregation followed them into their northern neighborhoods. See also how the Harlem...
PBS
Pbs: Music, Slavery and the Civil War
This lesson could serve as the basis of a curriculum unit on slavery and/or the Civil War. Spirituals are analyzed, especially their cultural implications.
Black Past
Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed: Josephine Baker
Entry, from an online encyclopedia of African American history, for Josephine Baker.
Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Britannica: Stevie Wonder
A brief biographical sketch of Stevie Wonder, an African-American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, a child prodigy who developed into one of the most creative musical figures of the late 20th century.
PBS
Pbs American Masters: Sarah Vaughan
An informative biography of jazz singer Sarah Vaughan (1924-1990 CE) is presented highlighting her long musical career.
Blackdog Media
Classic Reader: "Two Hearts That Beat as One" by Frank Norris
"Two Hearts that Beat as One" is the first of four in the collection about the Three Black Crowes by Frank Norris. Read the full text on this site.
Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Britannica: Will Smith
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Will Smith, an American actor and musician whose charisma, clean-cut good looks, and quick wit helped him transition from rap music to a successful career in acting.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame: Sti Lesson 47: Get Up, Stand Up
This activity uses music from three different areas of the world and three different time periods in the 20th century to address the issue of civil rights for black populations.
Black Past
Black Past: Jackson, Mahalia
This encyclopedia article tells the high points of Mahalia Jackson's life. She was a world-renowned gospel singer whose influence was felt in the civil rights movement.
Black Past
Black Past: Monk, Thelonius
This encyclopedia entry gives a brief account of Thelonius Monk, jazz pianist, and his influence on the jazz scene.
Varsity Tutors
Varsity Tutors: Web English Teacher: Langston Hughes
This resource focuses on the works of famous African-American author, Langston Hughes.
Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Britannica: The Soul Stirrers
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica's Guide to Black History features the Soul Stirrers, an American gospel group who were one of the first male quintets and one of the most enduring male groups. Several singers emerged from the...
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: American Passages: Poetry of Liberation
This unit examines poetry of the postmodernism period, focusing on the Beat Movement, Black Arts Movement, feminism, and other related movements and periods in recent literary history. An extensive list of authors, time line, video, and...
John F. Kennedy Center
The Kennedy Center: Lift Every Voice and Sing
Explore and analyze "Lift Every Voice and Sing" , a poem by James Weldon Johnson, which was set to music and is considered the "Black National Anthem."
PBS
Wnet: Thirteen: Slavery & the Making of America
Using primary documents, oral histories, and other historical resources, discover how the arts of Africa, Europe, and pre-Civil War America influenced the culture of enslaved African Americans.
PBS
Pbs: Jazz Timeline
With this timeline, learn about how the history of slavery, Jim Crow laws and other forms of racial oppression impacted the rise of jazz in America. Also highlights the achievements of women, including Viola Smith in this world of music....
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Teacher Serve: Jazz and the African American Literary Tradition
Article explores the influence of jazz on African American literature from the early history of jazz, noted jazz artists, the black-white tensions within jazz, to its literary influence after World War II.
PBS
Pbs: New Perspectives on the West
This in-depth resource presents a history of the American West from pre-Columbian times until World War I with profiles, documents, and images. It encourages visitors to link these into patterns of historical meaning for themselves....
Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Britannica: Louis Jordan
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Louis Jordan, an American saxophonist-singer prominent in the 1940s and '50s who was a seminal figure in the development of both rhythm and blues and rock and roll. The bouncing, rhythmic...
Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Britannica: Run d.m.c.
Biographical details on Run-D.M.C., the American rap group that brought hip-hop into the musical and cultural mainstream, introducing what became known as "new-school" rap.
Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Britannica: Snoop Dogg
Learn about the life of American rapper and songwriter, Snoop Dogg, who became one of the best-known figures in gangsta rap in the 1990s and was for many the epitome of West Coast hip-hop culture.
Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Britannica: Sam and Dave
Biographical details on Sam and Dave, the American vocal duo who were among the most popular performers of soul music in the late 1960s and whose gritty, gospel-drenched style typified the Memphis Sound.
Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Britannica: Celia Cruz
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Celia Cruz, a Cuban singer who reigned for decades as the "Queen of Salsa Music," electrifying audiences with her wide-ranging, soulful voice and rhythmically compelling style.