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Unit Plan
Poetry Foundation

Poetry Foundation: Dream in Color: A Guide for Middle School Teachers [Pdf]

For Students 6th - 8th Standards
Visit this resource to find a wealth of poems, lesson plans, and classroom activities to help middle school students discover the diversity in African American poets and create their own voice in poetry. This resource is in PDF form.
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Activity
Read Works

Read Works: Famous African Americans Muhammad Ali: The Greatest

For Teachers 2nd - 4th
[Free Registration/Login Required] Biographical information about the famous boxer Muhammad Ali is contained in this passage. This passage is a stand-alone curricular piece that reinforces essential reading skills and strategies and...
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Activity
Read Works

Read Works: Famous African Americans Sojourner Truth

For Teachers 2nd - 4th
[Free Registration/Login Required] This passage shares biographical content about the abolitionist named Sojourner Truth. This passage is a stand-alone curricular piece that reinforces essential reading skills and strategies and...
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Activity
Read Works

Read Works: Famous African Americans Martin Luther King, Jr.

For Teachers 2nd - 4th
[Free Registration/Login Required] This biographical sketch contains information about the Civil Rights leader, Martin Luther King, Jr. This passage is a stand-alone curricular piece that reinforces essential reading skills and...
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Activity
Read Works

Read Works: Famous African Americans Duke Ellington

For Teachers 2nd - 4th
[Free Registration/Login Required] This passage contains biographical information about the famous jazz composter, Duke Ellington. This passage is a stand-alone curricular piece that reinforces essential reading skills and strategies and...
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Activity
Read Works

Read Works: Famous African Americans Marian Anderson

For Teachers 2nd - 4th
[Free Registration/Login Required] This passage contains brief biographical information about the famous singer named Marian Anderson. This passage is a stand-alone curricular piece that reinforces essential reading skills and strategies...
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Activity
Read Works

Read Works: Famous African Americans Maya Angelou

For Teachers 2nd - 4th
[Free Registration/Login Required] This passage contains biographical information about the famous author and civil rights leader and activist named Maya Angelou. This passage is a stand-alone curricular piece that reinforces essential...
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Activity
Read Works

Read Works: Famous African Americans Thurgood Marshall

For Teachers 2nd - 4th
[Free Registration/Login Required] This mini-biographical pieces shares information about Thurgood Marshall. This passage is a stand-alone curricular piece that reinforces essential reading skills and strategies and establishes...
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Activity
Read Works

Read Works: Famous African Americans George Washington Carver

For Teachers 2nd - 4th
[Free Registration/Login Required] This passage contains biographical information about the famous African American researcher, inventor, and educator, George Washington Carver. and This passage is a stand-alone curricular piece that...
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Article
PBS

Africans in America: Lucy Terry Prince: Freed Slave and Poet

For Students 9th - 10th
This website describes the life of Lucy Terry Prince, first female African American poet. She obtained her freedom by marrying a wealthy free black man who purchased her freedom.
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Article
PBS

Africans in America: Revolution: Agrippa Hull, 1759 1838

For Students 9th - 10th
A brief look at Agrippa Hull, a free black who served as an orderly to officers in the Continental Army. From PBS.
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Website
abcteach

Abcteach: Kwanzaa

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
[Free Registration/Login Required] This site features a worksheet focused on the seven Kwanzaa principles.
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Article
PBS

Pbs: Africans in America: David Walker (1796 1830)

For Students 9th - 10th
At this site from PBS you can read about the life of David Walker. Born in the late 18th century as a free black, he was most known for his pamplet, entitled "Appeal," which advocated slave revolt.
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Activity
Read Works

Read Works: An American Leader

For Teachers 2nd - 4th
[Free Registration/Login Required] This nonfiction passage includes a brief biography of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This passage is a stand-alone curricular piece that reinforces essential reading skills and strategies and establishes...
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Website
Texas State Library and Archives Commission

Texas State Library and Archives Commission: Forever Free: The 1880s: Elias Mayes

For Students 9th - 10th
Elias Mayes was was an African American legislator in Texas during Reconstruction. Read about the committees he served on, his view on segregation, and some of the problems he faced.
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Handout
Texas State Library and Archives Commission

Texas State Library and Archives Commission: Forever Free: The 1860s: George T. Ruby

For Students 9th - 10th
Read about George T. Ruby, an African American politician from Texas during Reconstruction.
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Handout
Texas State Library and Archives Commission

Texas State Library and Archives Commission: Forever Free: The 1870s: Representation

For Students 9th - 10th
Read about the political climate in 1870s Texas and two governors elected during this time, Republican Edmund J. Davis and Democrat Richard Coke. Focuses primarily on how African Americans were affected by the leadership of each governor.
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Website
Digital History

Digital History: From Slave Labor to Free Labor

For Students 9th - 10th
The most difficult task confronting many Southerners during Reconstruction was devising a new system of labor to replace the shattered world of slavery. Learn how plantation owners and freed slaves adapted to this massive shift in the...
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Graphic
US National Archives

Nara: Powers of Persuasion: United We Win

For Students 9th - 10th
In spite of racial discrimination and segregation in the military and in civilian life, the overwhelming majority of black Americans participated wholeheartedly in the fight against the Axis powers. This site explores the posters,...
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Website
Smithsonian Institution

National Portrait Gallery: Daguerreotypes by Augustus Washington

For Students 9th - 10th
Augustus Washington, son of a former slave, learned to make daguerreotypes in 1843 to offset his college expenses, during his freshman year at Dartmouth College. Biographical notes and details about his work are provided in an annotated...
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Handout
Texas State Library and Archives Commission

Texas State Library and Archives Commission: The 1890s: End of an Era and the Quest for Civil Rights

For Students 9th - 10th
Part of an online exhibit called "Forever Free," this section deals with African Americans' efforts to establish themselves in society, despite increases in racism. Addresses topics such as Black Codes, Jim Crow Laws, and voting rights.
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Unit Plan
CommonLit

Common Lit: Text Sets: Reconstruction to Jim Crow

For Students 9th - 10th
After the Civil War and end of slavery, Americans had to decide how to integrate freed African Americans. Learn about the lives of African Americans from Reconstruction to the end of the prejudiced Jim Crow era. This collection includes...
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Unit Plan
CommonLit

Common Lit: Book Pairings: "A Raisin in the Sun" by Lorraine Hansberry

For Students 9th - 10th
Selected (7) reading passages (grades 8-10) to pair with the drama "A Raisin in the Sun" by Lorraine Hansberry. When a struggling African-American family receives a large insurance check, a conflict erupts on how to spend the money....
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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...