African American History and Culture in the United States

The first national Negro History Week was organized by Carter G. Woodson in February 1926 to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. As interest and advocacy for expanding the study of African American history developed, a desire to expand beyond just one week also grew. In 1970, students at Kent State University celebrated Black History Month from January to February of that year, and since 1976, each President of the United States has endorsed commemorating February as Black History Month across the country.

The resources and lessons provided below are organized chronologically to illustrate that the achievements, perspectives, and experiences of African Americans are important to social studies and history curricula all year long. Users will find connections between these materials and those provided in subsequent sections of this Teacher's Guide to develop cross-disciplinary learning activities and projects. 

Slavery and the Early Republic

Taking Up Arms and the Challenge of Slavery in the Revolutionary Era: This lesson is designed to help students understand the transition to armed resistance and the contradiction in the Americans' rhetoric about slavery through the examination of a series of documents.

Slavery and the American Founding: The “Inconsistency not to be excused”: Framed by the compelling question "How did the American founders' views on slavery shape the creation of the republic?", this lesson asks students to examine the views of American founders regarding slavery and evaluate the extent to which they reflect the principles of the American Revolution. 

After the American Revolution: Free African Americans in the North: What were the experiences of African-American individuals in the North in the years between the American Revolution and the Civil War? To what extent were freed slaves citizens in the newly independent nation? This lesson provides primary sources for students to analyze in order to evaluate these questions. 

Slavery in the Colonial North: Philipsburg Manor, located in Sleepy Hollow, New York, is a historic site owned and operated by Historic Hudson Valley. The site tells the story of the 23 enslaved Africans who were the only full-time, year round residents of the Manor, and whose forced labor was the backbone of the Philipse’s international trading empire.

Twelve Years a Slave: Analyzing Slave Narratives: What does Solomon Northup’s narrative reveal about the relation between slavery and social institutions such as marriage and the family? Why are slave narratives’ authenticity and truthfulness questioned? Examine the primary sources that became the basis for a major motion picture. 

Perspectives on the Slave Narrative: Working with primary sources that provide insight into the lives of slave owners, slaves, abolitionists, students gather evidence to respond to the compelling question "What role did the slave narrative have both in historical and in literary traditions?"

Abolition and Reconstruction

Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad: In this lesson, students will comprehend the organizational structure of the Underground Railroad; learn about one of its most famous conductors, Harriet Tubman; and consider the legacy of the heroines and heroes of slavery resistance. 

Frederick Douglass's Narrative: Myth of the Happy Slave: In this lesson, students analyze Douglass's first-hand account to see how he successfully contrasts myths with the reality of life under slavery.

From Courage to Freedom: Frederick Douglass’s 1845 Autobiography: Frederick Douglass's 1845 narrative of his life is a profile in both moral and physical courage. In this lesson sequence, students examine how he contrasts reality with romanticism and powerfully uses imagery and rhetorical appeals to persuade the reader of slavery's evil. 

"I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of glorious anniversary!
Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us.
The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common."

—Frederick Douglass, "What to the Slave is the 4th of July?"

Frederick Douglass What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?: This student activity brings together video and audio media, along with the text of Douglass's speech, to give students opportunities to discuss and deliberate who the 4th of July is for and the extent to which Douglass is justified in his position. 

David Walker vs. John Day: Two Nineteenth-Century Free Black Men: David Walker, a free African American, invoked the Bible and the Declaration of Independence to challenge the inequities of American slavery in his Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World (1829). John Day, also a free African American, was a major proponent of colonization and an early Liberian colonist who argued that African Americans would never achieve equality in the United States. Through this lesson, students examine the conflicting perspectives over slavery, abolition, and equality.

Mission US 2: Flight to Freedom: In Mission 2: “Flight to Freedom,” players take on the role of Lucy, a 14-year-old slave in Kentucky. As they navigate her escape and journey to Ohio, they discover that life in the “free” North is dangerous and difficult.

Teacher’s Guide: The Reconstruction Era: This Teacher’s Guide provides compelling questions to frame a unit of study and inquiry projects, along with activity ideas on Reconstruction that include use of newspapers from the era and resources for social studies, ELA, and music education.

Jim Crow and War

Birth of a Nation, NAACP, and Balancing of Rights: Why did the NAACP challenge the showing of Birth of a Nation? The lesson asks students to analyze the efforts of the NAACP and evaluate the decision to not censor the film.  

NAACP's Anti-Lynching Campaigns in the 1920s: This lesson sequence engages students with the deeply serious issues of Jim Crow and lynching in the United States during the inter-war period. 

African American Soldiers in World War I: The 92nd and 93rd Division: Students combine their research using a variety of sources, including firsthand accounts, to develop a hypothesis evaluating contradictory statements about the performance of the 92nd Infantry Division in World War I.

African American Soldiers after WWI: Had Race Relations Changed?: Analyze archival photographs and archival newspaper accounts about race relations in the United States to evaluate different points of view about post-war riots in Chicago.

African Americans and the New Deal's Civilian Conservation Corp: Students considers documents that present the CCC from the perspective of black participants in order to evaluate the impact of this New Deal program on race relations in America.

Civil Rights and Now

The Green Book: African American Experiences of Travel and Place in the U.S.: How have the intersections of race and place impacted U.S. history and culture? This inquiry-based lesson combines individual investigations with whole or small group analysis of primary sources and visual media.

Civil Rights and the Cold War: This lesson plan attempts to dissolve the artificial boundary between domestic and international affairs in the postwar period to show students how we choose to discuss history. 

The Freedom Riders and the Popular Music of the Civil Rights Movement: Through collaborative activities and presentations, students will find the meaning behind the music, and compare and contrast the major figures, documents, and events of the day to better understand the political and cultural messages. 

Malcolm X: A Radical Vision for Civil Rights: This essay examines the conflicting points of view surrounding how best to advance the civil rights movement in the U.S. during the 1960s with a comparative analysis of the philosophies of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. 

Black Separatism and the Beloved Community: Malcolm X: This lesson will contrast the respective aims and means of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. to evaluate how best to achieve black American progress in the 1960s.

JFK, Freedom Riders, and the Civil Rights Movement: Resources provided in this lesson support student analysis of the critical role of activists in pushing the Kennedy Administration to face the contradiction between its ideals and the realities of federal politics.

Grassroots Perspectives on Civil Rights: Focus on Women: This essay not only looks at the work of the Student Non-Violence Coordinating Committee (SNCC), but specifically the role of women within the activism of this student-led civil rights organization. 

Revolution 67: Protest Why & How?: The intent of this lesson sequence is to help students comprehend and explain the changes in how the people of Newark, New Jersey viewed government and how those attitudes affected political change in the 1960s and 1970s. 

Competing Voices of the Civil Rights Movement: This lesson sequence presents the views of several important black leaders who shaped the debate over how to achieve freedom and equality in a nation that had long denied a portion of the American citizenry the full protection of their rights.

Let Freedom Ring: The Life and Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: Students will learn about the life and work of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. by listening to a brief biography, viewing photographs of the March on Washington, and reading a portion of King's "I Have a Dream" speech.

The Election of Barack Obama: This lesson focuses on the relationship between the Civil Rights Movement and Obama's election, but it also asks students why they think Barack Obama's election is "historic."

Poetry, literature, and plays make up the collection of resources and lessons provided below for K-12 literature and language arts courses. Users will find connections between these materials and those provided in subsequent sections of this Teacher's Guide to develop cross-disciplinary learning activities and projects. 

The resources and lessons provided below are designed for the study of art, music, and culture in K-12 classrooms. Users will find connections between these materials and those provided in subsequent sections of this Teacher's Guide to develop cross-disciplinary learning activities and projects. 

Teacher’s Guide: The Reconstruction Era: This Teacher’s Guide provides compelling questions to frame a unit of study and inquiry projects, along with activity ideas on Reconstruction that include use of newspapers from the era and resources for social studies, ELA, and music education.

The Freedom Riders and the Popular Music of the Civil Rights Movement: Through collaborative activities and presentations, students will find the meaning behind the music, and compare and contrast the major figures, documents, and events of the day to better understand the political and cultural messages. 

The forced migration of Africans reshaped cultural practices, traditions, and identities. In this country, Black community building and identity formation have created a heritage found in music, language, cuisine, art, and more. This heritage is also apparent in the physical spaces built by Black Americans and significant to Black culture.   

Historically Black Towns and Settlements

The town of Princeville, North Carolina reflects a cultural landscape of the Black community following the end of the Civil War. Founded in 1865 by formerly enslaved people, many of these refugees remained in the area and created their own settlement called Freedom Hill, a name derived from the location where a Union solider shared news about the Emancipation Proclamation. In 1885, a Black carpenter named Turner Prince led the formal incorporation of the town, making Princeville  the first Black incorporated town in the United States. 

Photo caption

A flooded Princeville, North Carolina in the aftermath of destruction wrought by the Tar River in September 1999. 

 

Photo by Dave Saville/FEMA News Photo

For over a century, the town has symbolized African American determination and endurance. Despite Princeville’s continued adversity in the face of natural disasters, lack of government support, and white supremacy, residents share a strong sense of pride in their history and community. The town’s location in a floodplain has resulted in numerous destructive floods, and after each of these events residents have chosen to rebuild in the interest of communal preservation.  Although many of the town’s historic buildings have been destroyed by flooding, the cultural landscape of Princeville retains its historical significance through its ability to evoke a sense of place.

Schools and HBCUs

Schools offer not only a physical space for building community but also a framework for exploring identity. In segregated public school systems, educational facilities for Black children were underfunded compared to their white counterparts. Beginning in 1917, educator and Tuskegee Institute co-founder, Booker T. Washington, and Julius Rosenwald, philanthropist and president of Sears Roebuck, built more than 5,000 schools for African American children across the rural South. By 1928, one-third of the South’s rural Black school children and teachers attended or worked at a Rosenwald School.6 When the landmark Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka I and II (1954) found segregation in schools unconstitutional, Rosenwald Schools became obsolete as classrooms integrated.

Founded in 1870, Dunbar High School is the country’s first public high school for African Americans. Throughout the 20th century, Dunbar became renowned for its excellent academics, and some parents moved to Washington, D.C. specifically so their children could attend the school. Noted faculty include educator and activist Mary Church Terrell, father of Black History Month Dr. Carter G. Woodson, and Dunbar graduate Julia Evangeline Brooks, who was one of the pioneers of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. Other celebrated graduates include businessman H. Naylor Fitzhugh, educator and activist Nannie Helen Burroughs, surgeon Charles R. Drew, lawyer Charles Hamilton Houston, and Air Force General Benjamin O. Davis Jr. Dunbar High School continues to educate generations of Black leaders to this day. 

Photo caption

Built in 1913, the Shiloh-Rosenwald School in Notasulga, Alabama was one of the six initial Rosenwald schools to provide education to African American children in the rural South. 

 

Photo by Rivers Langley

Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are higher education institutions that primarily serve African American students. Although most of these colleges and universities are found in the South, there are over one hundred HBCUs in locations across the United States, both public and private institutions. Established in 1837, Cheyney University of Pennsylvania is the country’s oldest HBCU. Other HBCUs include Spelman College, Howard University, Xavier University, Tuskegee University, Hampton University, and Morehouse College. 

Burial Grounds

One of the country’s earliest and largest known Black cemeteries was rediscovered in 1991 in New York City. Before construction began for a thirty-four-story federal office building, the area was archeologically surveyed to comply with the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. The excavation uncovered the burial site of more than 419 free and enslaved Africans laid to rest during the late 17th and 18th centuries. Recognizing the historical significance of the site, the Secretary of the Interior designated the African Burial Ground to the National Register of Historic Places. In 2006, the site became a national monument. 

Historic Preservation

Although Black cultural landscapes are ubiquitous throughout the country, they are often neglected and erased from historical narratives. The lack of national recognition given to Black cultural landscapes stems from trends within the field of historic preservation that favor architectural significance over social histories embedded within a place. Even with recent additions, fewer than 8% of the sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the United States are associated with women, African Americans, Latinx Americans and other minority groups combined.  

Prior to 1973, there were only three Black historic sites designated across the entire United States: the Frederick Douglass House in Washington, D.C., the Booker T. Washington House in Virginia, and the George Washington Carver House in Missouri. Following the Civil Rights Movement and leading up to the Bicentennial, activist groups like the Afro-American Bicentennial Corporation argued for the inclusion of Black history in the preserved, built environment and American history more broadly. Through a contract with the National Park Service, the Afro-American Bicentennial Corporation drastically increased Black representation in the National Register of Historic Places, designating historic sites such as the Mary McLeod Bethune House in Washington, D.C. and W. E. B. Du Bois Boyhood Home in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. 

The National Endowment for the Humanities continues to fund a wide array of projects, programs, and publications focused on telling the many stories of African Americans in the United States. The following collection supplements the resources provided above and extends the work that can be done across K-12 classrooms when teaching African American history and culture. 

Colored Conventions Project: From 1830 until well after the Civil War, African Americans gathered across the United States and Canada to participate in political meetings held at the state and national levels. A cornerstone of Black organizing in the nineteenth century, these “Colored Conventions” brought Black men and women together in a decades-long campaign for civil and human rights.

The Right to Love: The Case of Loving v. Virginia: This Humanities magazine article tells the story of how the freedom to marry across racial lines was tested by a shy Virginia couple, who were very much in love.