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10 Inspiring Black History Month Activities for Students

Written by Laney Kennedy

• Teacher Resources
• Teaching Activities

7 Black History Month topic ideas

Guidelines for teaching during black history month, 10 black history month activities for your students.

February is Black History Month : the celebration of African American history, contributions, and achievements that’s recognized annually across the United States and Canada. 

For teachers, it’s a great opportunity to teach with intention, honoring the tradition and showing students its importance, along with the importance of Black history and culture. 

And this year, it's more important than ever to uphold this tradition and celebrate Black history — no matter where your students are learning.

Use these 10 activity ideas to teach Black history all month and keep your students engaged, whether they're in-class or online!

Typically, teachers tend to stick with the same few topics during Black History Month: civil rights, historical Black leaders or celebrities, and important milestones.

While these are still great topics to explore, there are also plenty of other important concepts you should consider introducing to your students this year, such as: 

• Current Black political issues
• The Black Family: Representation, Identity, and Diversity
• Stereotypes and microaggressions
• The history and impact of Black culture
• The history of hip hop 
• African Americans and the Vote
• Black Health and Wellness (this year's Black History Month theme!)

For Black History Month 2022, this year's theme is Black Health and Wellness. People are encouraged to explore how North American healthcare has underserved the black community and recognize the contributions to medicine and healthcare by black people.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Firsties♥️Ms. Salamak (@fur_babies_and_firsties)

When teaching Black history, remember to: 

• Follow the  do’s and dont’s
• Always promote  diversity in your classroom
• Remind students that  Black history  is  American history
• Leverage Black voices as much as you can (use relevant media, invite guest speakers etc.)

P.S. If you want to help parents talk about Black history and racial issues with their kids at home, use these 8 tips for parents as a helpful resource to start with — including additional resources for anyone who wants to learn more.

Use these activities throughout the month (and the rest of the year) to keep Black history at the forefront of your lessons and encourage your students to keep learning more.

1. Quote or fact of the day

Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.

Maya Angelou

Every morning, greet your students with a new quote or fact that’s relevant to Black history. 

Say them aloud during your lesson, add them to your bulletin board or send them in an online message (or all of the above, if you’re feeling ambitious). After this, you can open a discussion with your class about the relevance of each quote or fact.

Your students will love looking forward to what each day brings!

Try these: 

• Black history facts
• 15 Inspiring quotes
• 5 Black history quote posters
• Black history quotes - mini posters

2. Person of the day or week 

Take time to talk about Black influencers and their accomplishments. Highlight a different person every day or week and center your lessons around them!

Explore categories like:

• Politicians
• Historical figures
• Heroes and iconic leaders
• Scientists and mathematicians

Tip: Try to look beyond typical historical figures and popular celebrities. There are plenty of Black contributors students may not have even heard of yet — use this chance to introduce them! 

3. Black history trivia & games

Bring some fun (and maybe a little competition) into your lessons this month! Find trivia and games that focus on Black history, or repurpose other classroom games to incorporate Black History Month questions and answers.

• Black history multiplication - true or false
• Black history quizzes (these online quizzes are perfect for remote learning!)

4. Worksheet activities

Teach students about Black history while they work on fun activities at their own pace. Send worksheets to students online or print them out for independent classroom learning.

• Black history coloring pages
• Barack Obama crossword and trivia

5. Virtual events

Classroom learning is great, but there’s so much students can learn from their own experiences! 

This year especially, there are plenty of online activities and events celebrating Black History Month. So why not choose a youth-appropriate one your class can participate in?

• National Museum of African American History: Classroom Connections
• Black History Every Month: Virtual Events That Inspire Action, Education, and Connection

6. Timeline activity

Provide more context on important events in Black history with a bit of chronology.

Have students put together their own timelines, whether individually or in groups, that focus on specific historical events or people. They’ll have fun putting all the events together and learn lots along the way!

7. Study (and create) art

Art in the Black community carries so much historical and cultural significance that can inspire some great, illuminative lessons.

Assign one of these activities from Creative Child , or get students to:

• Write a story 
• Make a video or podcast
• Create visual art or crafts

8. Use relevant media

There’s so much good media out there to help you teach Black history — use it to your advantage!

Read books or watch videos with your class, then discuss the themes and lessons of each piece of media. After this, you can assign work based on them.

Try these books:

• All Are Welcome by Alexandra Penfold
• The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson

9. Host thought activities

Strengthen collaboration skills with various thought activities during February. These will get students thinking and help them learn new ideas and perspectives from each other. 

Start by posing a relevant question to your class, like: 

• Why do we celebrate?
• What does Black History Month mean to you?
• How can we fight intolerance in our everyday lives?

Encourage plenty of participation, then discuss everyone’s answers together! 

10. Assign a  class project

Give your class a larger assignment they can work on for the entire month, like a collaborative media project or group presentation — like this one from The Core Coaches on Teachers Pay Teachers .

These bigger projects let students build on what they’re learning and work together towards something they can be proud of!

Additional resources

Get inspired by these extra resources to help you even more:

• Black History milestones
• Black History in the National Archives
• Teaching tools for Black History Month
• Black History in America teaching guide
• Black History Month resources and lessons
• 10 Picture book biographies to celebrate Black History Month
• 20 Important lessons to teach kids about Black History Month

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40 Black History Month Activities for February and Beyond

Celebrate and inspire with these Black history lesson ideas.

We know that Black history is American history and needs to be embedded into your classroom experiences year-round. At the same time, Black History Month provides the necessary opportunity to dig deeper with students. Every February, we can support students as they learn more, discover cultural impacts, and follow social movements from the past to the present day. These Black History Month lessons and activities cannot be isolated or one-off classroom experiences. Think of how you can connect these topics to what you’re already doing and make it authentic. And most important, do not just focus on oppression: Focus on the joy too!

Since 1928, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History has provided a theme for Black History Month. In 2024, the theme is African Americans and the Arts .

1. Learn the basics about Black History Month

Watch an introductory video about Black History Month. Then ask students to write their questions about Black history and use those to curate your resources and lessons for the month.

2. Re-create civil rights freedom posters

The Civil Rights Movement Veterans site offers powerful examples of freedom movement posters, as does the Civil Rights Digital Library . Review them with your students, and then have them get into groups and create their own to share.

3. Explore Black history through primary sources from the National Archives

Primary sources are great discussion starters to talk about Black experiences. Choose from thousands of resources , including this 1970s photo series of Chicago.

4. Learn about famous Black artists

Future Jacob Lawrences and Elizabeth Catletts will appreciate learning more about artists and expanding their own talents. Plus, check out these other Black artists .

5. Watch a Black History Month video

Get more specific information or do a deep dive into an area of Black history with a video about civil rights, slavery, accomplished Black Americans, and more.

Check out this list of Black history videos for students in every grade level.

6. Learn about Black Lives Matter

The Black Lives Matter site explains the group’s history while books like Dear Martin and  The Hate U Give explore the movement from a fictional perspective.

7. Learn about the inventor of the traffic light

Garrett Morgan invented the traffic light and patented the three-position traffic signal. Teach students about his achievements as an example of how Black Americans impact our everyday experiences. Watch a video about Morgan and talk about what inspired his invention and how being an African American impacted him as an inventor.

Buy it: Garrett Morgan Activity Pack at Amazon

8. Create a newsletter or magazine with content from Black authors

Have your students generate their own newsletter or literacy magazine to distribute to parents. Include poems and short stories by Black authors, as well as student-generated writings and images that center on Black History Month.

9. Read a Black History Month poem

To enhance our conversations this month, we’ve put together this list of powerful Black History Month poems for kids of all ages.

10. Listen to young poet Amanda Gorman

Amanda Gorman is another accomplished Black American and a great introduction to Black poetry. Watch the poem she read at Barack Obama’s inauguration, read her book Change Sings , and learn about her at Poets.org.

Buy it: Change Sings: A Children’s Anthem at Amazon

11. Turn your classroom (or school!) into a history museum

Have your students choose a notable Black pioneer they’d like to know more about, such as voting rights and women’s rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer, dancer Alvin Ailey, or Betty Reid Soskin, the oldest full-time national parks ranger . Then, host a living museum right in your classroom.

12. Decorate your classroom door for Black History Month

Turn your classroom door into an educational experience. Check out how these teachers decorated their classroom doors in amazing ways to showcase Black History Month, and review this video with ideas.

13. Read books with Black characters in honor of Marley Dias

Dias is a young activist who started the #1000blackgirlbooks campaign as a sixth grader. She has compiled an excellent guide to books with Black girl characters . Check out WeAreTeachers’ list of books with Black protagonists as well.

14. Learn the story of the Henrietta Marie

The Henrietta Marie was a slave ship that sunk off the coast of Florida. Learn about the ship, its journey, and the underwater memorial that honors African slaves. Get more information about the Henrietta Marie at National Geographic.

15. Experience the I Have a Dream speech from multiple perspectives

Read A Place to Land: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Speech that Inspired a Nation by Barry Wittenstein. Then, watch the I Have a Dream Speech online, and explore resources about the speech at National Geographic . Engage students in discussing why this speech is so important in American history and why it continues to resonate today.

Buy it: A Place to Land at Amazon

16. Meet Oprah

Oprah Winfrey is a name every student knows, learn more about this influential Black American in this interview:

17. Read Black History Month books

If you’re looking for more reading activities, these picture books help celebrate Black History Month and educate your students on how these influential Black people helped shape history.

18. Learn the art of stepping

Stepping is a form of dancing in which the body itself is used to create unique rhythms and sounds. The website Step Afrika!  has videos and information about the history of stepping.

19. Take a virtual field trip to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

The digital collections of the Schomburg Center, located in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood, feature some amazing online exhibits, interviews, and podcasts.

20. Virtually visit the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture

You can browse the collection online by topic, date, or place.

21. Host a poetry reading featuring works by Black poets

Have students choose a poem by a Black poet to learn and recite for the class. Choose a student to serve as the emcee, write up a program, and set the tone with dimmed lights and jazz music played between performances. The Poetry Foundation has excellent resources that can help get you started.

Here’s inspiration with Maya Angelou’s Still I Rise:

22. Check out online Black history exhibits

Educating yourself and your students with these shows is one more way to understand Black history and the current moment.

23. Dive into Georgia Stories: Black History Collection on PBS

As a state, Georgia played a huge role in the 2020 presidential election, and its Black history dates back to the earliest days of slavery in the colony.

24. Discuss implicit bias, systemic racism, and social justice

Start a much-needed discussion around implicit bias and systemic racism with these resources that can empower students to fight for justice in our society.

25. Read and discuss Freedom in Congo Square

The award-winning picture book Freedom in Congo Square by Carole Boston Weatherford and R. Gregory Christie is a nonfiction children’s book that describes the tyranny of slavery to help young readers understand how jubilant Sundays were for slaves.

Buy it: Freedom in Congo Square at Amazon

26. Watch Kevin Hart’s Guide to Black History

Kevin Hart highlights the fascinating contributions of Black history’s unsung heroes in this entertaining—and educational—comedy special.

27. Recognize Black visionaries

This great poster featuring activists, artists, authors, and revolutionaries will highlight Black changemakers in your classroom. Use companion activities to deepen understanding by researching several of the visionaries and asking students to write a story or create their own poster about what they’ve learned.

28. Review a timeline of Black history

Why is Black History Month in February? How long ago was it founded, and who started it? Find the answers to these questions and learn more with this timeline .

29. Explore the music of Black artists

This lesson traces the long history of how Black artists have used music as a vehicle for communicating beliefs, aspirations, observations, joy, despair, resistance, and more across U.S. history.

30. Sample Black-founded snack brands

Honor Black History Month with delicious snacks from Black-founded brands delivered to your classroom—5% of proceeds are donated to the Equal Justice Initiative and one meal is donated to Feeding America for every box delivered.

31. Understand the role of Black women in NASA’s history

How much do your students know about Black contributions to space exploration? Rent the film Hidden Figures and watch with your students to remember, honor, and share the incredible accomplishments of three Black women working on NASA’s space flight program. Before watching the movie, research the liberties the film took in telling the story and discuss with your students the function of the choices. Did the filmmakers make the right choices?

Watch it: Hidden Figures at Amazon

32. Support local Black-owned businesses

Research your city’s Black-owned businesses and see if you can purchase a sample of their products, invite some of the entrepreneurs to speak to your class, or book a field trip!

33. Stream Bookmarks: Celebrating Black Voices on Netflix

“ Bookmarks: Celebrating Black Voices is a live-action collection of 12 five-minute episodes featuring prominent Black celebrities and artists reading children’s books from Black authors that highlight the Black experience.”

34. Celebrate the “Black Lives Matter at School” movement

“Black Lives Matter at School” is a national coalition organized for racial justice in education. It encourages all educators, students, parents, unions, and community organizations to join an annual week of action during the first week of February each year.​ For a variety of Black History Month activities, visit their website to learn more about their campaign .

35. Watch a historic moment

When Barack Obama was inaugurated in 2009, it was a monumental day for Black History. Watch his inauguration and discuss what this meant for American history.

36. Analyze Hair Love

You can approach the book Hair Love by Matthew Cherry in a few ways. Talk about the importance of representation in picture books and media, have students share their connections with the story, or analyze the book as a story about modern Black families.

Buy it: Hair Love at Amazon

37. Study the Underground Railroad

Examine the Underground Railroad using various sources, like the picture book biography Before She Was Harriet by Lesa Cline-Ransome. National Geographic has a collection of resources about the Underground Railroad . And you can take a virtual tour of the Harriet Tubman museum.

Buy it: Before She Was Harriet at Amazon

38. Research Juneteenth

Juneteenth is a holiday that celebrates the freedom of enslaved people. Learn about Juneteenth , how it came about, and what it means to Black Americans with these National Geographic resources.

39. Listen to musician Rhiannon Giddens

As she was trying to understand and make sense of violence against Black Americans in 2020, folk musician Rhiannon Giddens wrote and released the song “Build a House.” The song came out on the 155th anniversary of Juneteenth. The song, which was made into a picture book, captures 400 years of Black history in a lyrical and thoughtful way. Use Giddens’ book either to introduce or wrap up a month on Black history.

Read an essay about the song , and watch the video.

Buy it: Build a House at Amazon

40. Study the pivotal court case Loving v. Virginia

Loving v. Virginia, decided in 1967, made marriage between people of different races legal. Learn about the Loving decision and why it’s important at National Geographic.

Plus, get inspiration from these Black History Month bulletin boards for your classroom .

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Free Black History Month Activities for Your Classroom

Black History Month is a time to celebrate the Black community and learn about its history – throughout the month of February, it’s especially important to bring this celebration into the classroom by teaching students Black history, and this collection of Black History Month activities can help you do so.

By integrating explorations of American history through the perspectives of Black Americans and discussions about racial bias and privilege into your curriculum, you can help your students learn about and commemorate influential Black figures throughout history and trace movements for racial equality to the present day. 

These Black History Month activities include worksheets, research opportunities, and projects that explore Black American history, all while integrating core skills that you’re already teaching, such as reading comprehension and critical thinking. 

Plus, check out our new collection of poems to celebrate Black History Month and our list of books by Black authors for each grade level to boost your students’ ELA skills even more!

Black History Month Activities for Elementary School

The following Black History Month activities for kids allow younger students to learn about Black history while staying engaged and exploring their creativity.

1. Biography in a Bag Project

This assignment is simple yet engaging, giving students an opportunity to do their own independent research while integrating their own creativity. It’s a great way to start teaching kids Black history!

Following the assignment prompt, students are assigned a notable individual in Black history who they then research. Their final project is to decorate a paper bag with imagery and information about that individual and fill the bag with items of importance to that individual’s life. Students then present their projects, allowing them to demonstrate their creativity, resourcefulness, and (most importantly) their newfound knowledge of this influential figure.

You can adjust this project to include prominent Black figures throughout history, including individuals in the arts and/or sciences, or important figures in a specific time period, such as before/during/after the Civil War or civil rights activists from the early-to-mid 20th century. In doing so, you can tailor the assignment to whatever curriculum you have already been teaching.

Created and made available for free download by Neeti Gregg .

2. Black Heroes Coloring & Information Pages

Another creative activity, these coloring pages of significant figures in Black history are paired with information pages that can be handed out or distributed digitally. From civil rights activists to athletes and individuals in the arts, these figures contributed greatly to American history, sports, and entertainment and are monumental in Black history and representation.

Created and made available for free download by Teaching the Whole Child Store .

3. Black Women in History Coloring & Information Pages

A similar activity to the above is these coloring pages that showcase significant Black women throughout history – celebrating both Black History Month and International Women’s Month, this activity is perfect for the last few days of February or first few days of March.

This art style engages students in a different way than the above activity, and the information about each woman is embedded on the page, making the finished products from students perfect to hang up around the classroom.

Created and made available for free download by The Mindful Maestra .

4. Martin Luther King Jr. Activities

The activity also gives teachers an opportunity to let students write about another individual (of their choosing, or one they have been assigned) and form a biography page about them. The exercises allow students to practice their reading comprehension and writing skills while learning about civil rights activism.

Created and made available for free download by Ryan Monche .

Black History Month Activities for Middle and High School

Learning about Black history becomes more complex and comprehensive for students as they age into secondary education – the following Black History Month activities dive deeper into specific movements, individuals, and events, all while remaining engaging for students.

1. Black History Quotes Activity

Words can be incredibly powerful. In this activity, students are given an assortment of famous quotes from influential Black leaders, from activists to politicians to inventors, and tasked to analyze one of them – both for its structure and diction as well as its application in both the leader’s society and the society the student lives in today. 

This activity lets students sharpen their reading comprehension and writing skills in understanding a quote itself, as well as their history and critical thinking skills in placing the quote into an American sociopolitical context.

Created and made available for free download by Teaching on Lemon Lane .

2. Black History Month Research Activities

These Black History Month activities are a collection of lesson plans that teachers can choose from to find what works best for their classroom! These activities dive deeper into specific issues the Black community has faced and currently faces, including environmental racism, representation, displacement, migration, and assimilation. 

Each page focuses on a specific topic and comes with a lesson plan including a warm-up, lecture, resources, and two activities an instructor or students may choose from. Some pages focus on issues of race in Canada and can be modified to fit the US, or even a specific US state. 

This activity is a great way to make a classroom’s education on and commemoration for Black History Month more intersectional and complex by introducing issues students may not have learned about before. It also contains several opportunities to enhance specific skills for students, such as reading comprehension, research, writing, creativity, and critical thinking skills.

Created and made available for free download by SJE with Saskteaches .

3. Musicians of the Civil Rights Movement

The arts have always been essential to any struggle for change, and the civil rights movement is no exception. This resource is a virtual music history exploration that highlights several musicians who had an impact on the civil rights movement. It emphasizes the importance of involvement in social change, especially for those that have influence on society and culture.

Each page dives into a musician’s background, music, connection to the civil rights movement, and legacy. After learning about these artists, students can be formed into groups and assigned to do a research project on one of the artists. Alternatively, students can use this resource as inspiration for a research project on a different musician with an impact on social change.

Created and made available for free download by Newman Music Academy .

Black History Month Reading Comprehension Questions by Piqosity  

W.E.B. Du Bois is one of the most widely studied authors and civil rights activists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was a founding member of the NAACP, and his writings discussed the experience of Black Americans during and after reconstruction, focusing heavily on education. He believed that Black children deserve an equal quality of education to White children, including a well-rounded liberal arts education.

The following excerpt is from one of his most well-known books, The Souls of Black Folk . The Piqosity team has written three reading comprehension questions about the excerpt, each more difficult than the last and covering a distinct subtopic, to quiz the ELA knowledge of students and introduce them to (or remind them of) an exceptional writer and brilliant mind in Black history.

Excerpt from The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois  

Reading Comprehension Questions

1. Which of the following types of figurative language does the author use most frequently in the passage?

A. Similes. B. Metaphors. C. Understatement. D. Personification.

2. Based on the passage, which phenomenon did schools in the South not experience?

A. A shortage of teachers. B. Segregation. C. Inadequate Schoolhouses. D. Education for teachers.

3. What does the “veil” symbolize?

A. The pathway to equitable opportunities for the speaker. B. The division between White and Black Americans’ perspectives. C. The laws that oppress Black Americans. D. The differences between the North and the South.

Passage Answer Key and Explanations

Personification is the correct answer choice – if you look at the figurative language used, there is only personification. This includes lines such as “…the white, hot roads lazily rise and fall and wind before me…” (lines 25-26) and “The road ran down the bed of a stream; the sun laughed and the water jingled…” (lines 43-44).

“ A shortage of teachers ” is correct. The passage describes how the narrator struggled to find a teaching position everywhere he went for a long time – “There came a day when all the teachers left the Institute and began the hunt for schools… I feel my heart sink heavily as I hear again and again, ‘Got a teacher? Yes.’ So I walked on and on…” (lines 18-30). All of the schools already had teachers, so there was no shortage of them. Further, the passage does show how schooling in this time and region contained the remaining answer choices. It was segregated, as the speaker travelled with another prospective teacher looking to teach at a “white school” (lines 42-43); teachers were educated, as the speaker went to the Teachers’ Institute (described in lines 11-15), which was also segregated; and the schoolhouses were inadequate, based on his descriptions in the last paragraph – “The schoolhouse was a log hut…furniture was scarce… my desk was made of three boards, reinforced at critical points… they had the one virtue of making naps dangerous, – possibly fatal, for the floor was not to be trusted,” (lines 50-66).

To understand the role of the veil, reread each part of the text in which it is mentioned. In lines 4-8: “I was a Fisk student then, and all Fisk men thought that Tennessee – beyond the Veil – was theirs alone, and in vacation time they sallied forth in lusty bands to meet the county school commissioners.” In lines 45-49: “‘Come in’, said the commissioner, – ‘come in. Have a seat. Yes, that certificate will do. Stay to dinner. What do you want a month?’ ‘Oh,’ thought I, ‘this is lucky’; but even then fell the awful shadow of the Veil, for they ate first, then I – alone.” This second instance gives the most context to understand the “veil”. In that quote, the narrator describes the way he finds an opportunity to teach from the school commissioner, who seems kind. Despite inviting the narrator to dinner, the commissioner eats first and makes him eat alone. The narrator writes that this exchange about eating triggered the Veil to fall.  We can infer from the fact that the commissioner eats first and makes the narrator eat alone that the commissioner looks down on him, despite giving him an opportunity to teach. This hints that the Veil is a concept that signals racial inequality.  This also demonstrates which answer choices are incorrect. “The pathway to equitable opportunities for the speaker.” is incorrect because the veil is described as “awful” and falls in a context when the narrator is disrespected. “The laws that oppress Black Americans.” is incorrect because the narrator faces no trouble with the law nor oppression due to a certain law in this passage. “The differences between the North and the South.” is also incorrect because this quote has nothing to do with the geo-social differences in the United States. The correct answer choice is “The division between White and Black Americans’ perspectives.” The veil falls when the narrator realizes the commissioner (who you can infer based on the passage to be White) sees him as a lesser being, when he had to eat dinner alone after him, showing how his perspective changed when he saw the commissioner treat him unequally. The veil falling is a Black American realizing he is being treated unfairly because of a circumstance out of his control – race.

Find More ELA Resources Like These at Piqosity! 

We hope you found these Black History Month activities insightful and resourceful for your classroom, both in their historical and sociopolitical significance and in the opportunities to sharpen key ELA skills for students. 

Among Piqosity’s regular offerings, of particular relevance is our newest ELA course, designed for 11th Grade English Language Arts instruction. This course includes an entire unit focused on Frederick Douglass’ memoir, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave . Teachers looking for a month-long text-based unit will find this perfect for their needs, as it includes unique questions on every chapter, as well as focused question sets on critical excerpts. 

You can also find more (non-themed) ELA lessons with questions of similar difficulty levels to the above questions in our ELA courses! These are complete courses available online through our app and can be purchased separately or received for free when bundled with our ISEE test prep courses !

• 5th Grade ELA Course  
• 6th Grade ELA Course
• 8th Grade ELA Course
• 11th Grade ELA Course

For your convenience, we have outlined lessons relevant to or at the same difficulty level as the above passages and accompanying questions. These can be found below.  

Related ELA Lessons by Piqosity  Lessons related to question #1: ELA 5 – Figurative Language ELA 6 – Figurative Language ELA 8 – Figurative Language ELA 11 –  Rhetorical Analysis Lessons related to question #2: ELA 5 – Main Idea ELA 5 – Supporting Ideas ELA 6 – Main Idea ELA 6 – Supporting Ideas ELA 8 – Main Idea ELA 8 – Supporting Ideas ELA 11 – Main Idea ELA 11 – Supporting Ideas Lessons related to question #3: ELA 5 – Main Idea ELA 5 – Figurative Language ELA 6 – Main Idea ELA 6 – Figurative Language ELA 8 – Main Idea ELA 8 – Figurative Language ELA 11 – Main Idea ELA 11 – Rhetorical Analysis

Thank You, and Piqosity wishes you an empowered Black History Month! 

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Black History Teaching Resources

Black History Month (February) is a helpful spotlight on the importance of teaching Black History year round. Inside Writable’s Social Studies collection you’ll find a wealth of assignments and resources that emphasize diverse historical figures, important events, beliefs, and practices. Many assignments include readings or videos from trusted media sources, and focus on both historical and current events.

In honor of Black History Month we’ve collected some of our favorite Writable assignments about or inspired by Black American people and culture. Students can practice expanding their cultural knowledge and learning from credible sources as they write in the Information, Argument, or Narrative genre. Each assignment provides a link to educational resources. You’ll also find Sentence Combining activities which enable students to practice this foundational skill while celebrating Black History Month.

Sample Assignment

Explore Black History Assignments for Elementary School >

Explore black history assignments for middle school >, explore black history assignments for high school >.

As always, you’ll also find these assignments year round within our Social Studies collection, which focuses on culture, history, and civics. We encourage you to incorporate these assignments and resources into your classroom, or you can use Writable’s easy assignment creation wizard to create your own social studies assignments!

Are you new to Writable or curious to learn more? Create a free teacher account , check out our pricing , schedule a personalized demo , or Join the Writable Educators Facebook Community

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12 Powerful Black History Month Activities to Engage Students

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• Flocabulary Team
• Black History Month Contest , Lessons and Ideas

Each February, we observe Black History Month to remember important people and events in Black history. Black history relates to all citizens and our shared backgrounds as Americans. Flocabulary has engaging hip-hop-infused Black History Month activities that are rigorous yet fun for students. Use these activities, songs, and videos to honor Black history in your curriculum—not just for the month but all year long.

New to Flocabulary ? Teachers can sign up for a trial to access our lesson videos and assessment activities. Administrators can get in touch with us to learn more about unlocking the full power of Flocabulary through Flocabulary Plus.

1. Amplify student voice with a rap contest

Student voice and authentic learning experiences are at the core of Flocabulary. Every February, we host a student rap contest in honor of Black History Month. Students will select a significant Black historical figure to write a rap about. The winning students will have their lyrics turned into a Flocab video lesson, be featured in the video for classes nationwide to see, and sit in with our writers, rappers, and editors to get an inside look into the video creation process! This contest is the perfect opportunity to empower student voices and to have them see themselves in what they’re learning. Check out past student winners and their Black History Month songs, or click below to watch their videos .

Teachers can submit on behalf of students and don’t need a Flocabulary account to enter. However, with Flocabulary’s Lyric Lab , students can seamlessly create their own rap in minutes.

The contest opens on February 1st, and submissions close on February 29th. Click below to learn more!

2. Write from Ruby Bridges’ point of view

In 1960, six-year-old Ruby Bridges changed history by becoming the first black child to desegregate an all-white elementary school by herself. Watch our video about Ruby Bridges , which tells the story of how she overcame many obstacles to integrate into William Frantz Elementary School, showing great courage in the face of discrimination.

Then, use this lesson plan to have students write a page from Ruby’s journal from her perspective and compare and contrast Ruby’s story told from first and third-person points of view. Flocabulary’s famous Point of View video is a great resource to use if you’re interested in Black History Month activities. Through this assignment, students will learn how Ruby Bridges changed history and discuss her courage and determination in facing obstacles.

3. Assign students to write a rap/poem about their dream

Teach students about the major events in the life of Martin Luther King Jr. with our lesson video. Students will learn about King’s biography, including the segregation that he and the Black community faced, his work as a minister, and his role in the Montgomery Bus Boycott and Civil Rights Movement. The video also shows King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

After watching the video, assign students the rest of the activities in the lesson sequence . Flocabulary’s lesson sequence follows Bloom’s Taxonomy . Accomplish the final level for “create” by using Lyric Lab. Students can listen to and read MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech, then write original raps about their own dreams for the world using quotations from King’s speech and their own figurative language.

4. Analyze Dr.King’s “I Have a Dream” speech

As mentioned previously, Flocabulary’s MLK video describes his commitment to nonviolent means of protesting and features clips from the “I Have a Dream” speech given at the March on Washington. You can pair this video in multiple ways for your Black History Month activities. For example, you can use our “I Have a Dream” Speech Analysis Lesson Plan to have students review literary terms, rhetorical devices, and figurative language with a scavenger hunt throughout the speech. Then, you can have students discuss or write about the speech using literary terminology.

5. Teach poetry through Langston Hughes’ “Harlem”

Introduce students to “Harlem,” the Langston Hughes poem that gave Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun its name, using Langston Hughes’ “Harlem” video and lesson. Students will analyze the social context and figurative language that made the poem so powerful.

After reviewing the lesson and analyzing the poem, students will also write their own poems inspired by “Harlem.” Use the printable worksheet in our lesson to assign these Black History Month activities to your students.

6. Explore perspectives on race

What is race? How does it affect different people every day? In this video, four Flocabulary rappers share their perspectives on race . Students will learn that even though race isn’t in our genes, it has a powerful effect on people and society. When teaching Black History Month activities and topics, it’s important to embed social and emotional learning teachings into this instruction. The major takeaway is not to let anyone define you based on appearances and not to define others that way either.

7. Have students write and perform a skit or rap on the Supreme Court case Shelby County v. Holder

A constitutional amendment granted African Americans the right to vote in 1870. However, the promise of that amendment would not be realized for decades. It would take a group of dedicated organizers in Selma, Alabama, to plan a series of marches before that important right was protected by the Voting Rights Act. This Black History video about the Voting Rights Act & Selma March explains the importance of the Selma marches, why the Voting Rights Act was needed, and what voting rights look like in our country today.

After studying the Selma March and the case of Shelby County v. Holder, use this lesson plan to have students discuss how current events can be seen as examples of continuity and change with regard to voting rights. Have students write and perform a rap or skit that depicts the Supreme Court case in its historical context.

8. Teach about Maya Angelou and figurative language using the Vocab Game

This video lesson introduces students to Maya Angelou , describing her extraordinary life and the significance of her work. Students will analyze Angelou’s trademark use of figurative language and vivid imagery in her poems and memoirs.

Vocab Game, which is the third part of Flocab’s lesson sequence, can be used to teach figurative language. In this drag and drop activity, students match the lesson’s vocabulary words, including figure language terms, to images or definitions, complete sentences, or find synonyms to build a beat.

9. Have a classroom discussion about The Tuskegee Airmen

The Tuskegee Airmen were the first Black American military pilots. In this lesson, students will learn about the Tuskegee Airmen’s contributions during World War II and how their valiant efforts paved the way for desegregating the military and American society.

Turn on Discuss Mode in the video lesson to have meaningful classroom discussions. Prompts will appear at specific points during the video and pause to facilitate further discussion and exploration of the Tuskegee Airmen.

10. Have students teach the Civil Rights Movement

The fight for civil rights was the fight for equality. In this song, witness Martin Luther King Jr. use the most powerful weapon of all: words. The Civil Rights song covers the passing of the Civil Rights Bill, the Voting Rights Act, and Brown v. Board of Education. But MLK couldn’t always keep the peace, and the song also covers some of the more violent moments in the fight for civil rights, including the assassinations of JFK and Malcolm X.

After watching the Civil Rights Movement video, assign or have students pick an event from the Civil Rights Movement to create their own lesson about. Have them teach about the topic to the class – they can even use Flocabulary as a teaching tool! This will deepen students’ understanding of key events in Black history while building their skills in interpreting and explaining events in a style that’s appropriate to a certain audience.

11. Match Flocabulary lyrics to Black historical figures

With Flocabulary’s catchy songs, students will remember specific facts and lyrics about historical figures and events. After reviewing songs and videos about different historical Black figures, have students read the lyrics of the songs and write the name of the historical figure the lyric is about. Download these Black History Month activities and print this worksheet to test out students’ memory and knowledge!

12. Explore all of Flocabulary’s Black history videos and activities

There are even more Black History Month activities and lesson videos to choose from! Flocabulary’s video-based lessons create emotional connections by harnessing the power of music, storytelling, and poetry. These high-quality videos captivate students and make the learning experience memorable and interesting. Click below to explore more lessons you can teach for Black History Month.

Start using these Black History Month activities

We’re so excited to see you put these activities and videos to use in your classroom to celebrate Black History Month. Flocabulary has engaging hip-hop standards-aligned videos and lessons you can use for all K-12 Subjects. These lessons not only deliver rigorous and relevant learning experiences, they also authentically and actively engage students. If you’re interested in exploring more resources for Black History Month, read our Racial Justice Resource Guide . Happy Black History Month!

• Bloom’s Taxonomy explained with examples for educators
• Racial Justice and Equity in Education: Resource Guide

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Black History Month Resources

Students, make your voice heard this Black History Month with our museum. Join us in exploring stories of African Americans in the Arts throughout February, with a special focus on art as a platform for social justice around five weekly focus areas: literature and poetry, performing art, visual art, music and digital art.

• Week 1, Feb. 1-4: Literature and Poetry
• Week 2, Feb. 5-11: Performing Arts
• Week 3, Feb. 12-18: Visual Arts
• Week 4, Feb. 19-25: Music
• Week 5, Feb. 26-29: Digital Arts

Social justice has historically created visual and literary arts to capture the spirit and platforms of resistance, and to share those messages to audiences outside of mainstream ways. Art as a platform for social justice is found throughout African American history   .

Resources for the Classroom or Home

NMAAHC Smithsonian Learning Labs All Grades Learning Lab from the Smithsonian Institution is a free, interactive platform for learners and educators. Users can explore well-known and lesser-known moments of history through millions of authentic, digital resources, create content with online tools, and share in the Smithsonian's expansive community of knowledge and learning​.

Grade K-2 and Up

• Black Women Artists
• Music & Sound: Instruments in the NMAAHC Collection

Grade 3 and Up

• Essential Historian Skills: Art As A Platform For Social Justice
• Essential Historian Skills: Taking the Stage
• Harriet Tubman
• Frederick Douglass
• Madam C.J. Walker
• Jackie Robinson
• Martin Luther King, Jr.

Grade 6 and Up

• In Full Color: The Black Arts Movement of the 1960s-70s
• Read Between the Brushstrokes: Unite
• Read Between the Brushstrokes: Walking
• African American Historians of the 19th and Early 20th Centuries
• The New Negro Movement and the Harlem Renaissance
• The Science of Sound: Acoustic Activities Inspired by Dr. James West
• The Corona's Cooling Power
• A Celebration of African Americans at NASA

Resources for a Museum Visit

NMAAHC Pathways    Grade 3 and Up and Great for Families and Groups    Use these self-guided tour experiences to explore the NMAAHC.

• Art in Community
• But Is This Art? 

Essential Historian Skills    Grade 6 and Up    Some of the answers of the past are locked in primary sources. Practice becoming a historian by questioning primary sources in our History Galleries.

• Artist in Context: Phillis Wheatley 
• Artist in Context: Paul Laurence Dunbar
• Art in Context: The Black Arts Movement

My NMAAHC Journal    Grade 3 and Up    Students find artifacts and stories centered on the arts in our Culture Galleries. Practice ways to think like a historian and how to question gallery objects.

• Exploring the Arts! 

NMAAHC Highlights    Grade 3 and Up    A quick guide of three not-to-miss objects and stories throughout the NMAAHC that highlight the connection between art and social justice.

• Art as Platform for Social Justice 

Programs at the Museum and Online

North Star: A Digital Journey of African American History

Explore African American history through digital activities on the Smithsonian Learning Lab platform. The activities, or collections, have gathered objects, stories, videos and thinking questions all in one place.

Black History Month Digital Toolkit

Join us in uplifting the humanity, innovation and vision of African American artists throughout February.

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Mrs. Nelson Teaches

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Black History Month Research Project: A Step-by-Step Guide

Hello Teacher Friends! How is your 2022 going? For me, this year is just zipping by! I cannot believe it is nearly Black History Month already! Since February is so close, I wanted to take a quick minute and highlight one of my most popular resources in my TpT Store . My Black History Month Research Project is incredibly popular this time of year. This resource has helped literally hundreds of teachers and thousands of students learn the research process and commemorate important Black individuals! I’ve recently updated the entire product and wanted to break it down and show you how I use this resource in my classroom!

Black History Month Research Project

With this resource, each student will research an influential Black individual, write a biographical essay about their individual and create a visual representation of their person! While this sounds like a lot of work, I promise I have broken it down into manageable chunks for YOU and your students! Even students who struggle with reading and writing have succeeded with this project!

Phase 1: Building Research Skills

Before beginning, students need a research subject! Included in this resource is a list of over 140 Black individuals who have made significant contributions to society— including many influential women! Personally, I like to randomly assign names to students. (Actually, I usually have them pick a name out of a bowl.) I do this for a few reasons. First, I think there is value in learning about someone new that students maybe haven’t even heard of before. If given the choice, students often default to the Black figures they already know! I don’t want them to do that! Second, I like to have all my students in all my classes have different names. This way, when we display them in the hallway or classroom, we don’t have any duplicates!

After students have their research subject, it is time to learn how to research. Instead of setting my students loose on Google right away, I like to teach them the research process. This direct teaching does take a little bit of class time. However, it is totally worth it! Not only will your students’ end results be infinitely better, but they are learning foundational research skills. Research skills that they will use again and again throughout their educational careers!

In these lessons, students will learn about different types of sources, how to determine if a source is credible, and how to recognize an author’s bias.

I’ve included a “Source Credibility Checklist” for students to keep as a reference that will help them determine whether a source is a “good” source or not. I’ve also outlined a fun activity intentionally using a completely biased website! It’s a real eye-opening activity for students that shows them the need to use multiple sources and check for credibility.

Phase 2: Research & Note-taking

The next step in the Black History Month Research Project is to research! I have two Slides Presentations giving students tips for conducting thorough research and taking notes to keep track of the information they have gathered! Students can take notes on their KWL Chart. I’ve also included a Note-taking Graphic Organizer that helps students keep track of what information came from what source. Keeping track of their information will come in handy later when they create their bibliographies!

Phase 3: Writing Black History Month Research Project Essays

Following the research and note-taking process, it’s time for students to outline and draft their essays. I’ve included a suggested outline that students can use to organize their information. In the Slides, I show how to take the information from their outline and notes and turn it into paragraphs in their essays! In my class, we talk a lot about writing excellent paragraphs . Here is another resource that can help if your students are struggling with this basic building block of writing!

Also in this phase, students will work together to edit and revise one another’s essays. This collaborative process is a great way to teach students how to give and accept feedback. It is also helpful in learning how to improve one’s writing from the first draft to the published final copy!

Additionally, students will also practice citing their sources by creating a bibliography. At the middle school level, I don’t require my students to stick with MLA or Chicago styles or anything in particular. I’m most interested in them understanding that they should be giving credit to the original authors. I don’t worry too much about formatting it in a specific style. I’ve included a Simple Bibliography Guide for students to use!

Phase 4: Visual Display & Class Presentations

Finally, students will create a visual display of information for their person. There are endless options for this portion of the assignment. You could ask students to simply use a large sheet of paper, a poster board, etc. to create a visual by hand. Alternatively, I heard from one tech-savvy teacher who asked his students to create a Slide for their visual component. He compiled the Slides, set up a projector in the front of the school, and looped the Slides all throughout February to allow others in the school to learn from their research!

I generally stick with a low-tech option and use large sheets of paper (my school has 12×18 sheets of paper that seem to work well). Students include the the most important facts and information about their individual. I also ask them to include pictures and a quotation on their poster. When students have finished their essays and their posters, students present their Black History Month Research Projects to the class. Afterwards, I like to display the posters in the hallway outside my classroom to allow others to learn as well!

Phew! If that sounds overwhelming, don’t worry! I’ve got you covered! This resource includes over 120 Instructional Slide s that literally walk you through the entire process! Also, if you need any help along the way, I’m just an email away!

How do you like to commemorate Black History Month with your students? I’d love to hear your ideas!

Brenna (Mrs. Nelson)

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A Black History Month Research Project for 3rd, 4th, and 5th Grade

A Black History Month Research Project is a great way to help your students learn more about and celebrate the impact African Americans have made to the United States.  It's also a good way to help students learn about obstacles African Americans have had to face in this country.  But having 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade students conduct research and complete a project based on that research can be an overwhelming task.

Scaffolding this process is essential in order for your students to be successful - and for them to actually stay engaged and excited!

After I fine-tuned the process, this Black History Month Research Project was one of my students' favorite projects all year.  It included researching a famous African American, writing an essay, creating a timeline of their life, and labeling a map.  The upper elementary students remained engaged throughout the entire project and were always very proud of the outcome!

Choosing an African American Hero to Research

Part of making a Black History Month Project meaningful is exposing students to people that they might not be familiar with.  If you let 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade students choose who they want to research, you'll probably find that everyone wants to research Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, or Barack Obama.

Instead of simply letting students choose people they are already familiar with, collect a variety of biographies on different African Americans - or find some  kid-friendly biographies online.

Do whatever works for your classroom, as long as you give students an opportunity to introduce themselves to different African Americans.

How I Organized This in My Classroom

There are a lot of different ways you could do this with your students. I would always have my librarian collect enough child-friendly biographies for each student in my class.  We would sit in a circle, and each student would get one of the books.  They had about a minute to look through the book, and then everyone passed their book to the left.

After everyone had looked through every book, students would write down the top 5 people they were interested in researching.  Then, I would look through everybody's choices and assign each student their famous African American to research.

This process got students excited and gave them more ownership over the project.  However, it also allowed me some freedom to make adjustments that would help students be successful and be exposed to different people.

My students used a book from the library as their main source for research, so I wanted to make sure the reading level of the books was appropriate for each of my students.  (If you have a really well-organized classroom library checkout system, this might be easier for you!)

Scaffolding a Black History Month Essay

As all upper elementary teachers know, having students complete research and then use that to write a successful essay is much harder than you would think.

You have to teach students not to copy paragraphs straight from a book or website.  And how to organize a research paper.  And you have to motivate students so that they will actually WANT to write.

This No Prep Black History Month Research Project scaffolds the entire process so students can succeed.  And even better, it will minimize all the one on one time and help students complete their project much more independently.

But there are ways you can scaffold on your own.

1. Model the Project for Your Students

Modeling an entire project takes up a lot of class time, but it makes a huge difference in your students' success.  Plus, it will prevent a lot of student questions later.

This No Prep Black History Month Research Project has all the information you need to use Martin Luther King, Jr. in your modeling.

2. Provide a Research Page with Clear Topics

Instead of having students do their own research on note cards or a blank sheet of paper, provide a research page that tells them exactly what sorts of topics they should be researching.

Otherwise, students have the tendency to copy paragraphs and collect information on irrelevant topics.

Decide what exactly you want your students to learn about - for example, their African American's family, accomplishments, and impact - and create a research page that helps students easily organize that information.  (And, of course, this project also includes research pages.)

3. Scaffold the Writing Process

This might be one of the most important ways to help your students write a successful, organized research paper. Simply providing students with paragraph frames can make a drastic difference and give students more confidence in their writing.

This is similar to this scaffolding you can use when having students write a compare and contrast essay.   Or, use the no prep option with this already ready-to-go Black History Month Project.

Use the Research to Create a Timeline and Map

Use this opportunity to address some other social studies skills - timelines and maps!

Have students use their research to create a timeline of important events in their famous African American's life.  Then, provide students with a blank map and have them color in different states that were important to their African American.

This is a very simple way to make these skills more meaningful to students.

Presenting the Black History Month Project

There is no one right way to have students share their projects.  It really depends on how much time you have!

Here are some options:

• Have students simply turn in their projects.  You could use them to create a bulletin board or just take a grade.
• Have students create a poster with their essay, map, and timeline.  They can present it to the class, or you could make a display.
• Have a Living Wax Museum!  This takes a lot more preparation, but your students and parents will love it.  Find more information on Living Wax Museums here.

If you think this scaffolding would be beneficial to your students as well, then you might like my Black History Month Research Project – Essay, Map, and Timeline Resource.   It includes everything I used to help my students be successful – even a model using Martin Luther King, Jr. so you can show students what is expected of them!

Testimonial:

"This has made doing this research project so much easier! The best part is that samples of the completed steps are included. They always want to copy full sentences instead of making notes, and displaying the sample while they worked led to many more children succeeding without my one to one help."

You might also like these other ideas and resources for teaching during Black History Month - including a freebie!  

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Black History Month ELA Activities & Resources

Looking for ways to acknowledge Black History Month in the ELA classroom? Look no further. This post covers various poems, short stories, and engaging activities that are perfect for celebrating black voices in literature this month and beyond.

With February being Black History Month, it’s the perfect time to showcase the black voices of the past and present in the ELA classroom. While I encourage you to extend the representation of black authors across the school year, Black History Month provides a springboard for meaningful and relevant discussions around race, identity, inequality, and literature in general.

There are many ways to incorporate Black History Month in the ELA classroom, between reading influential works of literature, researching to influence people, and holding meaningful discussions. To help you celebrate Black History Month in your ELA classroom, I’ve put together a list of poems, short stories, and activities you can teach this month and beyond.

Poems to Teach During Black History Month

Poetry might be one of my favorite ways to celebrate black voices in the ELA classroom during Black History Month. Not only do these poems highlight black voices, but they also make for engaging discussions, critical thinking, and enlightening analysis. Regardless of how you choose to incorporate these poems into your classroom, one thing cannot be denied: while the poems below are short, the messages they carry run deep.

1. “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes

At its core, this poem is about resilience and hope, despite the difficulties life throws your way. Hughes beautifully employs an extended metaphor about climbing a set of stairs, contrasting the staircase climbed by whites versus people of color. While the message of resilience is certainly universal, the poem serves as a well-crafted representation of determination and survival in the face of American racism in the 1920s.

After reading the poem, it’s always fun to ask students to write a parent-to-child poem to their hypothetical future child. What would be the advice and encouragement they would give?

2. “I, Too” by Langston Hughes

“I, Too” is another beautifully crafted poem by Hughes that explores themes of racism and the American identity. The poem, told through the eyes of a black man, details the realities of finding one’s American identity as a black man during the Harlem Renaissance. However, the power of the poem lies in its prideful tone as the speaker of the poem stands by the fact that, despite racial inequalities, he is part of America.

This poem is a great segue into a discussion about whether or not the words and themes still resonate with minorities in America today.

3. “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou

Angelou crafts a poignant yet inspirational message with her poem, “Still I Rise.” This is a poem about resilience, self-respect, and self-love. “Still I Rise” tells a story of loving oneself despite the judgment, hate, and oppression from others. It’s a story of not letting life’s hardships determine one’s worth or success. Have students analyze how the repetition of the phrase “still I rise” throughout the poem emphasizes the poem’s overall message.

With its references to historical and current challenges faced by the black community, this poem is a great discussion starter around the black identity in America as well as self-acceptance and determination. 

4. “For My People” by Margaret Walker

Walker’s poem is a beautiful tale of love and heartache, hardships and triumphs, and challenges and resilience. She skillfully explores these paradoxes throughout the piece, crafting a message of both tragic truth and hopes for the future. Have students unpack the references Walker makes throughout her poem, discussing how they come together to tell a powerful and thought-provoking history of African Americans.

Students can analyze the structure and strong diction Walker employed through her poem and how it balances a sense of racial injustice while building toward her message of hope, resilience, and freedom.

5. The Laws of Motion by Nikki Giovanni

Introduce Giovanni’s “The Laws of Motion” by asking students if they can recall Newton’s Laws of Motion.  Not only does this call upon student’s prior knowledge, but it opens the doors for some really powerful discussions after reading Giovanni’s poem as students connect the dots between Newton’s scientific findings and the poem’s underlying message: just like the Laws of Motion are constantly impacting everyday life, so are the realities of racism, discrimination, and stereotypes of people of color.

Students can unpack the implications this poem has regarding racism, identity, and humanity in general.

6. American History by Michael S. Harper

Michael S. Harper’s “American History” is the perfect example of how few words can say much. While the entire poem is just 39 words, it packs a powerful punch. First published in 1970, the poem is rooted in reference to a 1960s church bombing in Birmingham that killed four young girls. Have students look up the incident to strengthen their understanding of Harper’s allusion used to call out the injustices and tragedies faced by black people throughout history.

The poem ends with a powerful question, “Can’t find what you can’t see, can you?” to call out the continued ignorance of the American people around the realities of racism in both the past and present, giving students plenty to talk about.

7. “The Hill We Climb” by Amanda Gorman

At just 22 years old, Gorman’s youthful inspiration resonates with younger generations as she calls for hope, resilience, and unity. I recommend showing a video of Gorman reading her poem at the 2021 Inauguration to achieve full effect. I love asking students to unpack Gorman’s final lines:  “For there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it.” What are the implications of these final words on our students? On society as a whole?

This poem makes for a powerful and inspiring  modern-day connection to many of the other poems on the list, including “Mother to Son,” “Still I Rise,” and “For My People.”

Short Stories to Teach During Black History Month

Short stories are another powerful learning tool for exposing students to a variety of voices and perspectives. They make for great mentor texts when teaching literary devices or conducting close readings . Additionally, they are the perfect short texts to pair with longer novel studies. Discover some of my favorite short stories by black authors to teach during Black History Month and beyond in the list below.

1. “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston’s story is a strong example of characterization, specifically the development of protagonist Delia’s character, which ultimately leads to her sense of victory following the story’s plot-twist end.

2. “Main Street” by Jacqueline Woodson

While race isn’t a glaring focus of the story, Woodson does a beautiful job candidly weaving in instances of racial prejudices throughout this story, providing a springboard for deeper discussion.

3. Everyday Use” by Alice Walker

This story is an excellent way for students to explore internal and external conflict while discussing the prominent themes of individual identity and cultural, societal, and familial norms and expectations. It’s also a great example of first-person narration.

4. “Thank You, M’am” by Langston Hughes

In addition to having wonderful characterization, this story is a short, yet powerful piece about the power of kindness and empathy and the implications of stereotypes and passing judgment on others.

5.  “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid

.This story is the perfect opportunity to guide students toward a meaningful discussion around expectations and the influence and control parents can have over their children’s identities. As you can imagine, students have a lot to say about this matter. 

6. “So What Are You, Anyway?” by Lawrence Hill

Students must read between the lines to understand the message and growing tension in Lawrence Hill’s “So What Are You, Anyway?” Thanks to Hill’s strong use of indirect characterizations, this is the perfect piece for students to practice making inferences.

7. “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara

Students always find this story highly relatable as they recall their own experiences of realizing the harsh realities of the world in which we live. Furthermore, this story is the perfect springboard for discussions around social, racial, and financial inequality.

8. “Recitatif” by Toni Morrison

In addition to unpacking the relationship between the two main characters, students will love the challenge of deciding which character is which race, opening the doors for discussion about race relations and stereotypes.

Engaging Activities for Black History Month in the ELA Classroom

Incorporating Black History Month in the ELA classroom should go beyond reading black voices. There are tons of ways to immerse your students on a deeper level, engaging them in various activities that promote deeper insight and inspire further critical thought.

Here are some of my favorite activities for Black History Month:

• Black History Month One-pager : Have students research important African American figures in literature or history in general and compile a concise and creative one-pager report. Alternatively, you can assign a one-pager project to accompany any of the short stories or poems mentioned in this post. Use these one-pager templates for hassle-free planning.
• Blackout Poetry: Assigning a blackout poetry project is a great way to get students thinking deeply about the power words hold to relay themes, emotions, and experiences. Have students create blackout poetry using pages from the works of black authors to summarize a specific concept or theme, or even to express their own identities.
• Black History Month Bulletin Board: This digital interactive bulletin board is the perfect activity to engage students with Black History Month. This project gets students to research, analyze, synthesize, and make connections as they explore important figures who have changed the course of race relations and social justice in America.
• Literary Device Scavenger Hunt: A scavenger hunt is an engaging activity for getting students to interact with the work of black authors while reviewing the impact literary devices can have on a piece of literature. Set up various stations with an array of excerpts, short stories, and poems by black authors and send students on a scavenger hunt to find examples of a list of literary devices.
• Quote of the Day: Kicking off class with a quote of the day is a simple yet engaging way to start the day. For the month of February, focus on using quotes by influential black figures as an effective way to acknowledge their contributions to literature, history, science, and society as a whole. These quotes provide a low barrier to entry for engaging classroom discussions and help set the tone for the rest of the class period.

A Final Word on Teaching During Black History Month

Teaching during Black history month is so much more than talking about the Civil Rights Movement. We can’t stop at discussing key figures like Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and Ruby Bridges. Instead, Black History Month is the perfect opportunity to showcase diversity even within Black voices in literature.

I hope this post inspires you and helps you shake things up when teaching Black voices during Black History Month and beyond.

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On Lemon Lane

February 11, 2020 By On Lemon Lane

Free Black History Month Lessons, PowerPoints, and Worksheets

Hey guys, it’s tara from teaching on lemon lane i’m excited to have a couple of guest bloggers on the website today in honor of black history month when good friend terra cooper posted about the materials she, emily, and curtis had put together i knew i wanted to make it more available to you so without further ado….

It’s Black History Month time and this year the theme is “African-Americans and the Vote”. My friends Emily, Allison, Curtis and I put together some lesson plans in a Powerpoint that is for EVERYONE to go and learn from! These are great for teachers of all ages (we provide how to make it usable for lower and upper grades).

They are great for adults too-yep you will love learning more about this topic-I sure did!

The first lesson is a great way to dispel myths and teach about the beauty and resources that Africa has. Every time I teach this lesson, to kids or adults, they LOVE it! It will be a great way to start your Black History Month!

Lesson 2-4 are all about The VOTE! 2020 marks 100 years since women were given the right to vote and 150 since all men were given the right to vote (given the right and actually allowing them to vote are two different things-but that is covered too!).

If you are a Utah teacher you are especially in for a treat, Lesson 3 is all about Utah’s Black History, and the Black Vote  

Make sure to read all of the teacher notes for each lesson and download the worksheets that go along with lesson 1 and 2. These lessons can be shortened or lengthened for different grade levels. Comment below, I would love to hear how you are using them in your classroom!

Click Here to Download the FREE Black History Month Powerpoints & Worksheets

***When you download, preferably download the slides as a Powerpoint and not Google Slides. Google Slides will work however you will have to adjust some of the formatting.

Meet the Authors|Creators:

Hi! I’m Terra Cooper. I am a former 6th-grade teacher. I have a passion for advocacy work. I believe Harry Potter should be required reading and have a deep addiction to Ben & Jerry’s.

Curtis Linton:

When we finally understand our authentic history, then we can authentically understand our present. Black History Month is about understanding our 400-year history of racial inequity in America so that we can more fully honor our past, present, and future diversity. My name is Curtis Linton and my passion is addressing educational and societal equity. With my work at Curious School and School Improvement Network, I documented the effective and equitable instructional practices and cultures of 2,000 schools across the US and provided professional development resources to over a million educators. My wife and I started the Domino Foundation after adopting our two children of color where we support transracial adoption families with educational and social activities centered around race and anti-racism. As white parents of black kids, our lives have become immensely more rich as we have embraced the fullness of race in America.

Hi! I’m Emily Furse and I have been a kindergarten teacher for 10 years. I am currently working as a behavior coach. I believe that Black History is American History. I am an advocate for children of color and love planning events that celebrate diversity, empowerment and inclusion! I am a co-director of Children’s Equity League. We believe that all children are entitled to see themselves reflected in society.

You can learn more at childrensequityleague.org

Click Here for a few of my other FAVORITE Black History Month Activities, **Freebies Included

Don’t Forget to check out this AWESOME and FREE Black History Month Art Project

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Discover Black History Month classroom activities to inspire and engage your students

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Never planned to homeschool, now wouldn't trade it for the world

Who Am I? ~ An Interactive Black History Resource for Students

February is Black History Month! Are you looking for a Black History resource for your students? In this post, you’ll get a peek at our new Who Am I? Boom Deck featuring 12 famous Black Americans.

I have been creating Black History month resources for years and I always learn more every time I create something. I create to learn, and I create to teach! I love researching and recalling facts that may have been forgotten. In 2020 I created our Black History Timeline Cards and Black History ~ Do You Know? , both taught me so much.

Black History Books for Kids

12 Black Americans INCLUDED

• Katherine Johnson
• Carter G. Woodson
• Ruby Bridges
• Martin Luther King Jr.
• Bessie Coleman
• Sojourner Truth
• Booker T. Washington
• Thurgood Marshall
• Frederick Douglass
• Harriet Tubman
• Phillis Wheatley

Who am I? Black History Boom Deck

There are 12 different interactive cards in this Boom deck. Children will read the statements about the person and then click on the correct person after reading. Use this Boom deck to review what you’ve already learned or as a way to learn new information.

Each card contains the years the person lived and some basic facts about the person. Below you can see a sample card:

More Black History Resources

How do I get Who Am I? Black History?

This Boom Deck is for sale in my Boom Store here . I am giving it as a free gift to my readers, all you have to do is click the link below and download the PDF with the link to download the Boom Deck for free!

DOWNLOAD YOUR FREEBIE HERE!

Click below to be taken to the page where you can download this free printable! Look for the word “Download” and click it!

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20 Middle School Activities for Black History Month

September 14, 2023 //  by  Brittany Collens

Black History Month is an important time to learn about significant historical events in African American Culture. Just like learning about The Revolution, it’s important for kids to learn about The Civil War, Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks, and so on. But keeping kids engaged can be difficult. That’s why these 20 educational middle school activities for Black History month are worth including in your curriculum.

1. Crossword Puzzles

Starting with crossword searches is a simple way to learn events, people, and popular vocabulary. You should include key events such as protests, and important people, and their definitions next to the word bank. This way, they can learn what they mean instead of just the words.

Learn More: Jinxy Kids

2. Black History Month Collages

Simply going over history isn’t the best way to grab your student’s attention! A fun way to teach black history month is to ask your them to make a collage to celebrate themselves! Encourage them to build a collage version of themselves then add in statements about what makes them special. All that’s left is to display them proudly in your classroom!

Learn More: Creativity School

3. Write About Inspiring African Americans

Writing about Black History Month helps your class retain information. Ask your class who (living or dead) they would hang out for a day and why. Have the students read and share their ideas out loud so everyone can learn about the person of choice.

Learn More: Woo! Jr

4. BHM Movie with a Game

Watching movies like “Hidden Figures” and “March On!” are great for kids to absorb. You can send them home to watch it. Or you can approach it with more fun to ensure they engage. Write a list of recurring words. Put a check for every time they hear the word. The right answers get a prize.

Learn More: 20th Century Studious Family

5. Write a News Column on X Event

Let the kids be journalists and report on the events that happened during the Civil War. The battle of Fort Sumter and the Battle of Belmont are two of many. It also can be something smaller that played an important role but is not talked about as much.

Learn More: American Battlefield Trust

6. Case Study on 44th President Barack Obama

Progress is being made today with examples of African Americans reaching new heights in our Oval Office. Doing a case study on our 44th President Barack Obama or our current Vice President Kamala Harris, helps us keep Black History alive. Here they can report on these two important individuals.

Learn More: The Case Solutions

7. Field Trip to Civil Rights Museum

Many states in our country have Civil Rights Museums. If you are unable to access them in person, many larger museums across America are still offering virtual tours and online exhibits for visitors.

Learn More: National Museum of African American History and Culture

8. Poem on X Topic Assigned

Poetry is a great way for students to express themselves on certain events or topics. Black History Month. This is a great way for teachers to understand their emotions and walk through powerful conversations that may be difficult to understand. Give them an event to read about first.

Learn More: Teachers Pay Teachers

9. Make a Short Play

Young kids love to stay active. Allow your students to go through a court case and reenact a trial that is age suitable. This is one of the top experiences to engage them creatively while also guiding them through events like Texas v. White or Dred Scott v, Sandford.

Learn More: Ohio History Central

10. Black History Month Perceiver Concert

Every year the Chicago Children’s Choir performs its Perceiver concert during Black History Month. This can be virtually streamed and is a great chance for your kids to register with other kids while enjoying music. It allows you to bring different medius to your curriculum and reach different kinds of learners.

Learn More: Chicago Children’s Choir

11. Kevin Hart’s Guide to BHM?

Kevin Hart brings the fun. His Guide to Black History Month can be incredibly educational for kids. Many reported that after watching that kids actually learn new faces and events that maybe they have yet to learn about in school for Black History Month.

Learn More: Decider

12. Recite Martin Luther King Jr.’s I Have a Dream Speech

Reciting Martin Luther Kind’s “I Have a Dream Speech” is critical to your lesson for your kids. Spend some time analyzing it and asking the kids to write, talk, or draw what their interpretation of this speech means to them.

Learn More: Tulsa World

13. Learn About Famous Scientists

George Washington Carver, Niel deGrasse Tyson, and Mae C. Jemison are just a few Black inventors and scientists that have impacted the world today. Teach your kiddos about these amazing people and the exciting discoveries that they made. You could even try to recreate some of the experiments for the kids!

Learn More: Kidzeum

14. Make a Timeline of BHM

It’s one of the more common activities to give to middle schoolers, but making a timeline makes it easy to understand where and when important events and moments occurred. Afterward, you can hang everyone’s timeline up so the kids can use it as a resource.

Learn More: 1+1+1=1

15. Set Up Reading Clubs

Instead of making the class read one book, choose a few books. Have your kids number their priorities and split them into groups. Chapter quizzes can be included to ensure learning. More importantly, they can have a weekly set of questions for group discussion.

Learn More: Adrienne Teachers

16. The Underground Rail Road

Middle school kids still have a lot of obsession with construction trucks and trains. The Underground Railroad is a fantastic lesson to teach. That’s why the interactive Underground Railroad Project is a fantastic activity for your class to make their own choices as they learn.

Learn More: National Geographic

17. Engage With Other Schools

On February 3rd, the National Council of Teachers of English organizes a read-in event. They take different texts and books to work with their classes while providing a toolkit and additional resources to the teachers. This adds a lot of variety to your book collection dedicated to Black History Month.

Learn More: National Council of Teachers of English

18. Start a Treasure Map

Plant articles, photos, and clues all over the school with each one leading to the final treasure. Give teams of two a clipboard to fill in the answer according to the slot. This can take a little planning to connect the dots.

19. Guess Who Card Game

Games are a great way to keep kids involved. Playing Guess Who is a great activity where one student can read the description of someone important to the lesson. The other kid guesses. If they are right they keep it and reverse roles.

Learn More: Totschooling

20. Start With Quote of the Day

Starting with a quote of the day sets the tone for the day’s activities. It can inspire kids to ask questions and understand the meaning behind such quotes. It can be a great transition into “I Have a Dream” and many other significant events.

Learn More: It’s All About You Boo

Black History 365 is an educational entity whose purpose is to create cutting-edge resources that invite students, educators, and other readers to become critical thinkers, compassionate listeners, fact-based, respectful communicators and action-oriented solutionists. 

BLACK HISTORY

Chapter overview, ancient africa, this foundational unit engages students in the rich history of african tribes, customs, traditions, languages, and cultures. in fact, many of these customs and practices are instrumental in forming modern processes and conventions practiced within black american cultures and subcultures. the mere notion that black history started with enslavement is eliminated when ‘students understand the genius of ancient africans..

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Black History Milestones: Timeline

By: History.com Editors

Updated: January 24, 2024 | Original: October 14, 2009

Black history in the United States is a rich and varied chronicle of slavery and liberty, oppression and progress, segregation and achievement. Though captive and free Africans were likely present in the Americas by the 1400s, the kidnapped men, women and children from Africa who were sold first to European colonists in 1619, and later to American citizens, became symbolic of the early years of Black history in the United States.

The fate of enslaved people in the United States divided the nation during the Civil War . And after the war, the racist legacy of slavery persisted, spurring movements of resistance, including the Underground Railroad , the Montgomery Bus Boycott , the Selma to Montgomery March , and, later, the Black Lives Matter movement . Through it all, Black leaders, artists and writers have emerged to shape the character and identity of a nation.

Slavery Comes to North America, 1619

To satisfy the labor needs of the rapidly growing North American colonies, white European settlers turned in the early 17th century from indentured servants (mostly poorer Europeans) to a cheaper, more plentiful labor source: enslaved Africans. After 1619, when a Dutch ship brought 20 Africans ashore at the British colony of Jamestown, Virginia , slavery spread quickly through the American colonies. Though it is impossible to give accurate figures, some historians have estimated that 6 to 7 million enslaved people were imported to the New World during the 18th century alone, depriving the African continent of its most valuable resource—its healthiest and ablest men and women.

After the American Revolution , many colonists (particularly in the North, where slavery was relatively unimportant to the economy) began to link the oppression of enslaved Africans to their own oppression by the British. Though leaders such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson —both slaveholders from Virginia—took cautious steps towards limiting slavery in the newly independent nation, the Constitution tacitly acknowledged the institution, guaranteeing the right to repossess any “person held to service or labor” (an obvious euphemism for slavery). 

Many northern states had abolished slavery by the end of the 18th century, but the institution was absolutely vital to the South, where Black people constituted a large minority of the population and the economy relied on the production of crops like tobacco and cotton. Congress outlawed the import of new enslaved people in 1808, but the enslaved population in the U.S. nearly tripled over the next 50 years, and by 1860 it had reached nearly 4 million, with more than half living in the cotton–producing states of the South.

Rise of the Cotton Industry, 1793

In the years immediately following the Revolutionary War , the rural South—the region where slavery had taken the strongest hold in North America—faced an economic crisis. The soil used to grow tobacco, then the leading cash crop, was exhausted, while products such as rice and indigo failed to generate much profit. As a result, the price of enslaved people was dropping, and the continued growth of slavery seemed in doubt. 

Around the same time, the mechanization of spinning and weaving had revolutionized the textile industry in England, and the demand for American cotton soon became insatiable. Production was limited, however, by the laborious process of removing the seeds from raw cotton fibers, which had to be completed by hand. 

In 1793, a young Yankee schoolteacher named Eli Whitney came up with a solution to the problem: The cotton gin, a simple mechanized device that efficiently removed the seeds, could be hand–powered or, on a large scale, harnessed to a horse or powered by water. The cotton gin was widely copied, and within a few years the South would transition from a dependence on the cultivation of tobacco to that of cotton. 

As the growth of the cotton industry led inexorably to an increased demand for enslaved Africans, the prospect of slave rebellion—such as the one that triumphed in Haiti in 1791—drove slaveholders to make increased efforts to prevent a similar event from happening in the South. Also in 1793, Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act , which made it a federal crime to assist an enslaved person trying to escape. Though it was difficult to enforce from state to state, especially with the growth of abolitionist feeling in the North, the law helped enshrine and legitimize slavery as an enduring American institution.

Nat Turner’s Revolt, August 1831

In August 1831, Nat Turner struck fear into the hearts of white Southerners by leading the only effective slave rebellion in U.S. history. Born on a small plantation in Southampton County, Virginia, Turner inherited a passionate hatred of slavery from his African–born mother and came to see himself as anointed by God to lead his people out of bondage. 

In early 1831, Turner took a solar eclipse as a sign that the time for revolution was near, and on the night of August 21, he and a small band of followers killed his owners, the Travis family, and set off toward the town of Jerusalem , where they planned to capture an armory and gather more recruits. The group, which eventually numbered around 75 Black people, killed some 60 white people in two days before armed resistance from local white people and the arrival of state militia forces overwhelmed them just outside Jerusalem. Some 100 enslaved people, including innocent bystanders, lost their lives in the struggle. Turner escaped and spent six weeks on the run before he was captured, tried and hanged.

Oft–exaggerated reports of the insurrection—some said that hundreds of white people had been killed—sparked a wave of anxiety across the South. Several states called special emergency sessions of the legislature, and most strengthened their codes in order to limit the education, movement and assembly of enslaved people. While supporters of slavery pointed to the Turner rebellion as evidence that Black people were inherently inferior barbarians requiring an institution such as slavery to discipline them, the increased repression of southern Black people would strengthen anti–slavery feeling in the North through the 1860s and intensify the regional tensions building toward civil war.

Abolitionism and the Underground Railroad, 1831

The early abolition movement in North America was fueled both by enslaved people's efforts to liberate themselves and by groups of white settlers, such as the Quakers , who opposed slavery on religious or moral grounds. Though the lofty ideals of the Revolutionary era invigorated the movement, by the late 1780s it was in decline, as the growing southern cotton industry made slavery an ever more vital part of the national economy. In the early 19th century, however, a new brand of radical abolitionism emerged in the North, partly in reaction to Congress’ passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 and the tightening of codes in most southern states. One of its most eloquent voices was William Lloyd Garrison, a crusading journalist from Massachusetts , who founded the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator in 1831 and became known as the most radical of America’s antislavery activists. 

Antislavery northerners—many of them free Black people—had begun helping enslaved people escape from southern plantations to the North via a loose network of safe houses as early as the 1780s called the Underground Railroad. 

Dred Scott Case, March 6, 1857

On March 6, 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in Scott v. Sanford, delivering a resounding victory to southern supporters of slavery and arousing the ire of northern abolitionists. During the 1830s, the owner of an enslaved man named Dred Scott had taken him from the slave state of Missouri to the Wisconsin territory and Illinois , where slavery was outlawed, according to the terms of the Missouri Compromise of 1820. 

Upon his return to Missouri, Scott sued for his freedom on the basis that his temporary removal to free soil had made him legally free. The case went to the Supreme Court, where Chief Justice Roger B. Taney and the majority eventually ruled that Scott was an enslaved person and not a citizen, and thus had no legal rights to sue. 

According to the Court, Congress had no constitutional power to deprive persons of their property rights when dealing with enslaved people in the territories. The verdict effectively declared the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional, ruling that all territories were open to slavery and could exclude it only when they became states. 

While much of the South rejoiced, seeing the verdict as a clear victory, antislavery northerners were furious. One of the most prominent abolitionists, Frederick Douglass , was cautiously optimistic, however, wisely predicting that—"This very attempt to blot out forever the hopes of an enslaved people may be one necessary link in the chain of events preparatory to the complete overthrow of the whole slave system.”

John Brown's Raid, October 16, 1859

A native of Connecticut , John Brown struggled to support his large family and moved restlessly from state to state throughout his life, becoming a passionate opponent of slavery along the way. After assisting in the Underground Railroad out of Missouri and engaging in the bloody struggle between pro- and anti-slavery forces in Kansas in the 1850s, Brown grew anxious to strike a more extreme blow for the cause. 

On the night of October 16, 1859, he led a small band of less than 50 men in a raid against the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia. Their aim was to capture enough ammunition to lead a large operation against Virginia’s slaveholders. Brown’s men, including several Black people, captured and held the arsenal until federal and state governments sent troops and were able to overpower them.

John Brown was hanged on December 2, 1859. His trial riveted the nation, and he emerged as an eloquent voice against the injustice of slavery and a martyr to the abolitionist cause. Just as Brown’s courage turned thousands of previously indifferent northerners against slavery, his violent actions convinced slave owners in the South beyond doubt that abolitionists would go to any lengths to destroy the "peculiar institution.” Rumors spread of other planned insurrections, and the South reverted to a semi-war status. Only the election of the anti–slavery Republican Abraham Lincoln as president in 1860 remained before the southern states would begin severing ties with the Union, sparking the bloodiest conflict in American history.

Civil War and Emancipation, 1861

In the spring of 1861, the bitter sectional conflicts that had been intensifying between North and South over the course of four decades erupted into civil war, with 11 southern states seceding from the Union and forming the Confederate States of America . Though President Abraham Lincoln ’s antislavery views were well established, and his election as the nation’s first Republican president had been the catalyst that pushed the first southern states to secede in late 1860, the Civil War at its outset was not a war to abolish slavery. Lincoln sought first and foremost to preserve the Union, and he knew that few people even in the North—let alone the border slave states still loyal to Washington—would have supported a war against slavery in 1861.

By the summer of 1862, however, Lincoln had come to believe he could not avoid the slavery question much longer. Five days after the bloody Union victory at Antietam in September, he issued a preliminary emancipation proclamation; on January 1, 1863, he made it official that enslaved people within any State, or designated part of a State in rebellion, “shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” Lincoln justified his decision as a wartime measure, and as such he did not go so far as to free enslaved people in the border states loyal to the Union, an omission that angered many abolitionists.

By freeing some 3 million enslaved people in the rebel states, the Emancipation Proclamation deprived the Confederacy of the bulk of its labor forces and put international public opinion strongly on the Union side. Some 186,000 Black soldiers would join the Union Army by the time the war ended in 1865, and 38,000 lost their lives. The total number of dead at war’s end was 620,000 (out of a population of some 35 million), making it the costliest conflict in American history.

The Post-Slavery South, 1865

Though the Union victory in the Civil War gave some 4 million enslaved people their freedom, significant challenges awaited during the Reconstruction period. The 13th Amendment , adopted late in 1865, officially abolished slavery, but the question of freed Black peoples’ status in the post–war South remained. As white southerners gradually reestablished civil authority in the former Confederate states in 1865 and 1866, they enacted a series of laws known as the Black Codes , which were designed to restrict freed Black peoples’ activity and ensure their availability as a labor force. 

Impatient with the leniency shown toward the former Confederate states by Andrew Johnson , who became president after Lincoln’s assassination in April 1865, so-called Radical Republicans in Congress overrode Johnson’s veto and passed the Reconstruction Act of 1867, which basically placed the South under martial law. The following year, the 14th Amendment broadened the definition of citizenship, granting "equal protection” of the Constitution to people who had been enslaved. Congress required southern states to ratify the 14th Amendment and enact universal male suffrage before they could rejoin the Union, and the state constitutions during those years were the most progressive in the region’s history.

The 15th Amendment , adopted in 1870, guaranteed that a citizen’s right to vote would not be denied—on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” During Reconstruction, Black Americans won election to southern state governments and even to the U.S. Congress. Their growing influence greatly dismayed many white southerners, who felt control slipping ever further away from them. The white protective societies that arose during this period—the largest of which was the Ku Klux Klan (KKK)—sought to disenfranchise Black voters by using voter suppression and intimidation as well as more extreme violence. By 1877, when the last federal soldiers left the South and Reconstruction drew to a close, Black Americans had seen dishearteningly little improvement in their economic and social status, and what political gains they had made had been wiped away by the vigorous efforts of white supremacist forces throughout the region.

'Separate But Equal,' 1896

As Reconstruction drew to a close and the forces of white supremacy regained control from carpetbaggers (northerners who moved South) and freed Black people, Southern state legislatures began enacting the first segregation laws, known as the “Jim Crow” laws . Taken from a much-copied minstrel routine written by a white actor who performed often in blackface , the name “Jim Crow” came to serve as a general derogatory term for African Americans in the post-Reconstruction South.

By 1885, most southern states had laws requiring separate schools for Black and white students, and by 1900, “persons of color” were required to be separated from white people in railroad cars and depots, hotels, theaters, restaurants, barber shops and other establishments. On May 18, 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its verdict in Plessy v. Ferguson , a case that represented the first major test of the meaning of the 14th Amendment’s provision of full and equal citizenship to African Americans.

By an 8–1 majority, the Court upheld a Louisiana law that required the segregation of passengers on railroad cars. By asserting that the equal protection clause was not violated as long as reasonably equal conditions were provided to both groups, the Court established the “separate but equal” doctrine that would thereafter be used for assessing the constitutionality of racial segregation laws. Plessy vs. Ferguson stood as the overriding judicial precedent in civil rights cases until 1954, when it was reversed by the Court’s verdict in Brown v. Board of Education .

Washington, Carver & Du Bois, 1900

As the 19th century came to an end and segregation took ever stronger hold in the South, many African Americans saw self-improvement, especially through education, as the single greatest opportunity to escape the indignities they suffered. Many Black people looked to Booker T. Washington , the author of the bestselling Up From Slavery (1900), as an inspiration. As president of Alabama’s Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, Washington urged Black Americans to acquire the kind of industrial or vocational training (such as farming, mechanics and domestic service) that would give them the necessary skills to carve out a niche for themselves in the U.S. economy. George Washington Carver , another formerly enslaved man and the head of Tuskegee’s agriculture department, helped liberate the South from its reliance on cotton by convincing farmers to plant peanuts, soybeans and sweet potatoes in order to rejuvenate the exhausted soil.

By 1940, peanuts had become the second cash crop in the South. Like Washington, Carver had little interest in racial politics, and was celebrated by many white Americans as a shining example of a modest, industrious Black man. While Washington and Carver represented a philosophy of accommodation to white supremacy, another prominent Black educator, the Harvard-trained historian and sociologist W.E.B. Du Bois, became a leading voice in the growing Black protest movement during the first half of the 20th century. In his 1903 book Souls of Black Folk , Du Bois spoke strongly against Washington’s advocacy of industrial education, which he saw as too narrow and economically focused, and stressed the importance of higher education for African Americans.

NAACP Founded, 1909

In June 1905, a group led by the prominent Black educator W.E.B. Du Bois met at Niagara Falls , Canada, sparking a new political protest movement to demand civil rights for Black people in the old spirit of abolitionism. As America’s exploding urban population faced shortages of employment and housing, violent hostility towards Black people had increased around the country; lynching, though illegal, was a widespread practice. A wave of race riots—particularly one in Springfield, Illinois in 1908—lent a sense of urgency to the Niagara Movement and its supporters, who in 1909 joined their agenda with that of a new permanent civil rights organization, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP ). Among the NAACP’s stated goals were the abolition of all forced segregation, the enforcement of the 14th and 15th Amendments, equal education for Black and white students and complete enfranchisement of all Black men. (Though proponents of female suffrage were part of the original NAACP, the issue was not mentioned.)

First established in Chicago , the NAACP had expanded to more than 400 locations by 1921. One of its earliest programs was a crusade against lynching and other lawless acts. Those efforts—including a nationwide protest of D.W. Griffiths’ silent film Birth of a Nation (1915), which glorified white supremacy and the Ku Klux Klan—would continue into the 1920s, playing a crucial role in drastically reducing the number of lynchings carried out in the United States.

Du Bois edited the NAACP’s official magazine, The Crisis , from 1910 to 1934, publishing many of the leading voices in African American literature and politics and helping fuel the spread of the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s.

Marcus Garvey and the UNIA, 1916

Born in Jamaica, the Black nationalist leader Marcus Garvey founded his Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) there in 1914; two years later, he brought it to the United States. Garvey appealed to the racial pride of African Americans, exalting blackness as strong and beautiful. As racial prejudice was so ingrained in white civilization, Garvey claimed, it was futile for Black people to appeal to white peoples’ sense of justice and democratic principles. Their only hope, according to him, was to flee America and return to Africa to build a country of their own. After an unsuccessful appeal to the League of Nations to settle a colony in Africa and failed negotiations with Liberia, Garvey announced the formation of the Empire of Africa in 1921, with himself as provisional president.

Other African American leaders, notably W.E.B. Du Bois of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), criticized Garvey and his “Back to Africa” movement; he was openly contemptuous of them in return. There was no denying the movement’s appeal, however. Garvey’s boast of 6 million followers in 1923 was probably exaggerated, but even his critics admitted that the UNIA had some 500,000 members. In 1923, the U.S. government successfully prosecuted and convicted Garvey for mail fraud in connection with selling stock in his Black Star Line shipping company. After serving a two-year jail sentence, Garvey was pardoned by President Calvin Coolidge and immediately deported; he died in London in 1940.

Harlem Renaissance, 1920

In the 1920s, the great migration of Black Americans from the rural South to the urban North sparked an African American cultural renaissance that took its name from the New York City neighborhood of Harlem but became a widespread movement in cities throughout the North and West. Also known as the Black Renaissance or the New Negro Movement, the Harlem Renaissance marked the first time that mainstream publishers and critics turned their attention seriously to African American literature, music, art and politics. Blues singer Bessie Smith, pianist Jelly Roll Morton, bandleader Louis Armstrong, composer Duke Ellington, dancer Josephine Baker and actor Paul Robeson were among the leading entertainment talents of the Harlem Renaissance, while Paul Laurence Dunbar, James Weldon Johnson, Claude McKay, Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston were some of its most eloquent writers.

There was a flip side to this greater exposure, however: Emerging Black writers relied heavily on white-owned publications and publishing houses, while in Harlem’s most famous cabaret, the Cotton Club, the preeminent Black entertainers of the day played to exclusively white audiences. In 1926, a controversial bestseller about Harlem life by the white novelist Carl von Vechten exemplified the attitude of many white urban sophisticates, who looked to Black culture as a window into a more “primitive” and “vital” way of life. W.E.B. Du Bois, for one, railed against Van Vechten’s novel and criticized works by Black writers, such as McKay’s novel Home to Harlem , that he saw as reinforcing negative stereotypes of Black people. With the onset of the Great Depression , as organizations like the NAACP and the National Urban League switched their focus to the economic and political problems facing Black Americans, the Harlem Renaissance drew to a close. Its influence had stretched around the world, opening the doors of mainstream culture to Black artists and writers.

African Americans in WWII, 1941

During World War II , many African Americans were ready to fight for what President Franklin D. Roosevelt called the “Four Freedoms”—freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear—even while they themselves lacked those freedoms at home. More than 3 million Black Americans would register for service during the war, with some 500,000 seeing action overseas. According to War Department policy, enlisted Black and white people were organized into separate units. Frustrated Black servicemen were forced to combat racism even as they sought to further U.S. war aims; this became known as the “Double V” strategy, for the two victories they sought to win.

The war’s first African American hero emerged from the attack on Pearl Harbor , when Dorie Miller, a young Navy steward on the U.S.S. West Virginia , carried wounded crew members to safety and manned a machine gun post, shooting down several Japanese planes. In the spring of 1943, graduates of the first all-Black military aviation program, created at the Tuskegee Institute in 1941, headed to North Africa as the 99th Pursuit Squadron. Their commander, Captain Benjamin O. Davis Jr., later became one of the first African American generals (his father— General Benjamin O. Davis Sr .—was the first). The Tuskegee Airmen saw combat against German and Italian troops, flew more than 3,000 missions, and served as a great source of pride for many Black Americans.

Aside from celebrated accomplishments like these, overall gains were slow, and maintaining high morale among black forces was difficult due to the continued discrimination they faced. In July 1948, President Harry S. Truman finally integrated the U.S. Armed Forces under an executive order mandating that “there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion or national origin.”

Jackie Robinson, 1947

By 1900, the unwritten color line barring Black players from white teams in professional baseball was strictly enforced. Jackie Robinson , a sharecropper’s son from Georgia , joined the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro American League in 1945 after a stint in the U.S. Army (he earned an honorable discharge after facing a court-martial for refusing to move to the back of a segregated bus). His play caught the attention of Branch Rickey, general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, who had been considering bringing an end to segregation in baseball. Rickey signed Robinson to a Dodgers farm team that same year and two years later moved him up, making Robinson the first African American player to play on a major league team.

Robinson played his first game with the Dodgers on April 15, 1947; he led the National League in stolen bases that season, earning Rookie of the Year honors. Over the next nine years, Robinson compiled a .311 batting average and led the Dodgers to six league championships and one World Series victory. Despite his success on the field, however, he encountered hostility from both fans and other players. Members of the St. Louis Cardinals even threatened to strike if Robinson played; baseball commissioner Ford Frick settled the question by threatening to suspend any player who went on strike.

After Robinson’s historic breakthrough, baseball was steadily integrated, with professional basketball and tennis following suit in 1950. His groundbreaking achievement transcended sports, and as soon as he signed the contract with Rickey, Robinson became one of the most visible African Americans in the country, and a figure that Black people could look to as a source of pride, inspiration and hope. As his success and fame grew, Robinson began speaking out publicly for Black equality. In 1949, he testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee to discuss the appeal of Communism to Black Americans, surprising them with a ferocious condemnation of the racial discrimination embodied by the Jim Crow segregation laws of the South: “The white public should start toward real understanding by appreciating that every single Negro who is worth his salt is going to resent any kind of slurs and discrimination because of his race, and he’s going to use every bit of intelligence…to stop it…”

Brown v. Board of Education, May 17, 1954

On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered its verdict in Brown v. Board of Education , ruling unanimously that racial segregation in public schools violated the 14th Amendment’s mandate of equal protection of the laws of the U.S. Constitution to any person within its jurisdiction. Oliver Brown, the lead plaintiff in the case, was one of almost 200 people from five different states who had joined related NAACP cases brought before the Supreme Court since 1938.

The landmark verdict reversed the “separate but equal” doctrine the Court had established with Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), in which it determined that equal protection was not violated as long as reasonably equal conditions were provided to both groups. In the Brown decision, Chief Justice Earl Warren famously declared that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”

Though the Court’s ruling applied specifically to public schools, it implied that other segregated facilities were also unconstitutional, thus striking a heavy blow to the Jim Crow South. As such, the ruling provoked serious resistance, including a “Southern manifesto” issued by southern congressmen denouncing it. The decision was also difficult to enforce, a fact that became increasingly clear in May 1955 when the Court remanded the case to the courts of origin due to “their proximity to local conditions” and urged “a prompt and reasonable start toward full compliance.” Though some southern schools moved towards integration relatively without incident, in other cases—notably in Arkansas and Alabama—enforcing Brown would require federal intervention.

Emmett Till, August 1955

In August 1955, a 14-year-old black boy from Chicago named Emmett Till had recently arrived in Money, Mississippi to visit relatives. While in a grocery store, he allegedly whistled and made a flirtatious remark to the white woman behind the counter, violating the strict racial codes of the Jim Crow South. Three days later, two white men—the woman’s husband, Roy Bryant, and his half-brother, J.W. Milam—dragged Till from his great uncle’s house in the middle of the night. After beating the boy, they shot him to death and threw his body in the Tallahatchie River. The two men confessed to kidnapping Till but were acquitted of murder charges by an all-white, all-male jury after barely an hour of deliberations. Never brought to justice, Bryant and Milam later shared vivid details of how they killed Till with a journalist for Look magazine, which published their confessions under the headline “The Shocking Story of Approved Killing in Mississippi.”

Till’s mother held an open-casket funeral for her son in Chicago, hoping to bring public attention to the brutal murder. Thousands of mourners attended, and Jet magazine published a photo of the corpse. International outrage over the crime and the verdict helped fuel the civil rights movement: just three months after Emmett Till’s body was found, and a month after a Mississippi grand jury refused to indict Milam and Bryant on kidnapping charges, a citywide bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama would begin the movement in earnest.

Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, December 1955

On December 1, 1955, an African American woman named Rosa Parks was riding a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama when the driver told her to give up her seat to a white man. Parks refused and was arrested for violating the city’s racial segregation ordinances, which mandated that Black passengers sit in the back of public buses and give up their seats for white riders if the front seats were full. Parks, a 42-year-old seamstress, was also the secretary of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP. As she later explained: “I had been pushed as far as I could stand to be pushed. I had decided that I would have to know once and for all what rights I had as a human being and a citizen.” 

Four days after Parks’ arrest, an activist organization called the Montgomery Improvement Association—led by a young pastor named Martin Luther King Jr. —spearheaded a boycott of the city’s municipal bus company. Because African Americans made up some 70 percent of the bus company’s riders at the time, and the great majority of Montgomery’s Black citizens supported the bus boycott, its impact was immediate.

About 90 participants in the Montgomery Bus Boycott , including King, were indicted under a law forbidding conspiracy to obstruct the operation of a business. Found guilty, King immediately appealed the decision. Meanwhile, the boycott stretched on for more than a year, and the bus company struggled to avoid bankruptcy. On November 13, 1956, in Browder v. Gayle, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s decision declaring the bus company’s segregation seating policy unconstitutional under the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. King, called off the boycott on December 20, and Rosa Parks—known as the “mother of the civil rights movement”—would be one of the first to ride the newly desegregated buses.

Central High School Integrated, September 1957

Although the Supreme Court declared segregation of public schools illegal in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the decision was extremely difficult to enforce, as 11 southern states enacted resolutions interfering with, nullifying or protesting school desegregation. In Arkansas, Governor Orval Faubus made resistance to desegregation a central part of his successful 1956 reelection campaign.

The following September, after a federal court ordered the desegregation of Central High School, located in the state capital of Little Rock, Faubus called out the Arkansas National Guard to prevent nine African American students from entering the school. He was later forced to call off the guard, and in the tense standoff that followed, TV cameras captured footage of white mobs converging on the “ Little Rock Nine ” outside the high school. For millions of viewers throughout the country, the unforgettable images provided a vivid contrast between the angry forces of white supremacy and the quiet, dignified resistance of African American students.

After an appeal by the local congressman and mayor of Little Rock to stop the violence, President Dwight D. Eisenhower federalized the state’s National Guard and sent 1,000 members of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division to enforce the integration of Central High School. The nine Black students entered the school under heavily armed guard, marking the first time since Reconstruction that federal troops had provided protection for Black Americans against racial violence. Not done fighting, Faubus closed all of Little Rock’s high schools in the fall of 1958 rather than permit integration. A federal court struck down this act, and four of the nine students returned, under police protection, after the schools were reopened in 1959.

Loving v. Virginia Ruling, 1958

Mildred and Richard Loving were one of the first interracial couples legally married in the United States and their union marked a pivotal moment in marriage rights for mixed-race families. At 2 a.m. on July 11, 1958, Mildred Jeter was lying next to her husband Richard Loving, when police began knocking on their door, demanding to know about the nature of their relationship. At the time, interracial marriage was illegal in Virginia and the newly-wed couple was guilty of breaking the law.

Richard spent the night in prison, and his sister had to pay a $1,000 bond for his release. Mildred, however, spent three nights in a small women’s cell and was released to her father. The couple was then given a choice: spend 25 years in prison or leave Virginia. They chose exile and abandoned the state for nine years, making periodic trips back to visit family while trying to avoid being detected.

Amidst the civil rights movement, ACLU lawyers Bernard S. Cohen and Philip J. Hirschkop decided to take on the couple’s case. They tried to have the case vacated and the ruling overturned without success. They then tried appealing the decision to the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, but the court ultimately stuck to the original ruling. The case eventually made its way to the Supreme Court , where a majority of members decided on June 12, 1967, that laws banning interracial marriage were unconstitutional.

Sit-In Movement and Founding of SNCC, 1960

On February 1, 1960, four Black students from the Agricultural and Technical College in Greensboro, North Carolina , sat down at the lunch counter in a local branch of Woolworth’s and ordered coffee. Refused service due to the counter’s "whites-only" policy, they stayed put until the store closed, then returned the next day with other students. Heavily covered by the news media, the Greensboro sit-ins sparked a movement that spread quickly to college towns throughout the South and into the North, as young Black and white people engaged in various forms of peaceful protest against segregation in libraries, on beaches, in hotels and other establishments. Though many protesters were arrested for trespassing, disorderly conduct or disturbing the peace, their actions made an immediate impact, forcing Woolworth’s—among other establishments—to change their segregationist policies.

To capitalize on the sit-in movement ’s increasing momentum, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ( SNCC ) was founded in Raleigh, North Carolina in April 1960. Over the next few years, SNCC broadened its influence, organizing so-called “Freedom Rides” through the South in 1961 and the historic March on Washington in 1963; it also joined the NAACP in pushing for the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 . Later, SNCC would mount an organized resistance to the Vietnam War . As its members faced increased violence, SNCC became more militant, and by the late 1960s it was advocating the “Black Power” philosophy of Stokely Carmichael (SNCC’s chairman from 1966–67) and his successor, H. Rap Brown. By the early 1970s, SNCC was effectively disbanded.

CORE and Freedom Rides, May 1961

Founded in 1942 by the civil rights leader James Farmer, the Congress of Racial Equality ( CORE ) sought to end discrimination and improve race relations through direct action. In its early years, CORE staged a sit-in at a Chicago coffee shop (a precursor to the successful sit-in movement of 1960) and organized a “Journey of Reconciliation,” in which a group of Black and white activists rode together on a bus through the upper South in 1947, a year after the U.S. Supreme Court banned segregation in interstate bus travel.

In Boynton v. Virginia (1960), the Court extended the earlier ruling to include bus terminals, restrooms and other related facilities, and CORE took action to test the enforcement of that ruling. In May 1961, CORE sent seven African Americans and six white Americans on a “freedom ride” on two buses from Washington, D.C. Bound for New Orleans , the freedom riders were attacked by angry segregationists outside of Anniston, Alabama, and one bus was even firebombed. Local law enforcement responded, but slowly, and U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy eventually ordered State Highway Patrol protection for the freedom riders to continue to Montgomery, Alabama, where they again encountered violent resistance.

Kennedy sent federal marshals to escort the riders to Jackson, Mississippi, but images of the bloodshed made the worldwide news, and the freedom rides continued. In September, under pressure from CORE and other civil rights organizations, as well as from the attorney general’s office, the Interstate Commerce Commission ruled that all passengers on interstate bus carriers should be seated without regard to race and carriers could not mandate segregated terminals.

Integration of Ole Miss, September 1962

By the end of the 1950s, African Americans had begun to be admitted in small numbers to white colleges and universities in the South without too much incident. In 1962, however, a crisis erupted when the state-funded University of Mississippi (known as “Ole Miss”) admitted a Black man , James Meredith. After nine years in the Air Force, Meredith had studied at the all–Black Jackson State College and applied repeatedly to Ole Miss with no success. With the aid of the NAACP, Meredith filed a lawsuit alleging that the university had discriminated against him because of his race. In September 1962, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Meredith’s favor, but state officials including Governor Ross Barnett vowed to block his admission.

When Meredith arrived at Ole Miss under the protection of federal forces including U.S. marshals, a mob of more than 2,000 people formed on the Oxford, Mississippi campus. Two people were killed and close to 200 injured in the ensuing chaos, which ended only after President Kennedy’s administration sent some 31,000 troops to restore order. Meredith went on to graduate from Ole Miss in 1963, but the struggle to integrate higher education continued. Later that year, Governor George Wallace blocked the enrollment of a Black student at the University of Alabama, pledging to “stand in the schoolhouse door.” Though Wallace was eventually forced by the federalized National Guard to integrate the university, he became a prominent symbol of the ongoing resistance to desegregation nearly a decade after Brown v. Board of Education.

Birmingham Church Bombed, 1963

Despite Martin Luther King Jr.’s inspiring words at the Lincoln Memorial during the historic March on Washington in August 1963, violence against Black people in the segregated South continued to indicate the strength of white resistance to the ideals of justice and racial harmony King espoused. In mid-September, white supremacists bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama during Sunday services; four young African American girls were killed in the explosion. The church bombing was the third in 11 days after the federal government had ordered the integration of Alabama’s school system.

Governor George Wallace was a leading foe of desegregation, and Birmingham had one of the strongest and most violent chapters of the Ku Klux Klan. Birmingham had become a leading focus of the civil rights movement by the spring of 1963 when Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested there while leading supporters of his Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in a nonviolent campaign of demonstrations against segregation.

While in jail, King wrote a letter to local white ministers justifying his decision not to call off the demonstrations in the face of continued bloodshed at the hands of local law enforcement officials, led by Birmingham’s police commissioner, Eugene “Bull” Connor. “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” was published in the national press even as images of police brutality against protesters in Birmingham–including children being attacked by police dogs and knocked off their feet by fire hoses–sent shock waves around the world, helping to build crucial support for the civil rights movement.

'I Have a Dream,' 1963

On August 28, 1963, some 250,000 people—both Black and white—participated in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the largest demonstration in the history of the nation’s capital and the most significant display of the civil rights movement’s growing strength. After marching from the Washington Monument, the demonstrators gathered near the Lincoln Memorial, where a number of civil rights leaders addressed the crowd, calling for voting rights, equal employment opportunities for Black Americans and an end to racial segregation.

The last leader to appear was the Baptist preacher Martin Luther King Jr. of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), who spoke eloquently of the struggle facing Black Americans and the need for continued action and nonviolent resistance. “ I have a dream ,” King intoned, expressing his faith that one day white and Black people would stand together as equals, and there would be harmony between the races: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

King’s improvised sermon continued for nine minutes after the end of his prepared remarks, and his stirring words would be remembered as undoubtedly one of the greatest speeches in American history. At its conclusion, King quoted an “old Negro spiritual: ‘Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!'” King’s speech served as a defining moment for the civil rights movement, and he soon emerged as its most prominent figure.

Civil Rights Act of 1964, July 1964

Thanks to the campaign of nonviolent resistance championed by Martin Luther King Jr. beginning in the late 1950s, the civil rights movement had begun to gain serious momentum in the United States by 1960. That year, John F. Kennedy made passage of new civil rights legislation part of his presidential campaign platform; he won more than 70 percent of the African American vote. Congress was debating Kennedy’s civil rights reform bill when he was killed by an assassin’s bullet in Dallas, Texas in November 1963. It was left to Lyndon Johnson (not previously known for his support of civil rights) to push the Civil Rights Act —the most far-reaching act of legislation supporting racial equality in American history—through Congress in June 1964.

At its most basic level, the act gave the federal government more power to protect citizens against discrimination on the basis of race, religion, sex or national origin. It mandated the desegregation of most public accommodations, including lunch counters, bus depots, parks and swimming pools, and established the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to ensure equal treatment of minorities in the workplace. The act also guaranteed equal voting rights by removing biased registration requirements and procedures and authorized the U.S. Office of Education to provide aid to assist with school desegregation. In a televised ceremony on July 2, 1964, Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law using 75 pens; he presented one of them to King, who counted it among his most prized possessions.

Freedom Summer and the 'Mississippi Burning' Murders, June 1964

In the summer of 1964, civil rights organizations including the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) urged white students from the North to travel to Mississippi, where they helped register Black voters and build schools for Black children. The organizations believed the participation of white students in the so-called “Freedom Summer” would bring increased visibility to their efforts. The summer had barely begun, however, when three volunteers—Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, both white New Yorkers, and James Chaney, a Black Mississippian—disappeared on their way back from investigating the burning of an African American church by the Ku Klux Klan. After a massive FBI investigation (code–named “Mississippi Burning”) their bodies were discovered on August 4 buried in an earthen dam near Philadelphia, in Neshoba County, Mississippi.

Although the culprits in the case—white supremacists who included the county’s deputy sheriff—were soon identified, the state made no arrests. The Justice Department eventually indicted 19 men for violating the three volunteers’ civil rights (the only charge that would give the federal government jurisdiction over the case) and after a three-year-long legal battle, the men finally went on trial in Jackson, Mississippi. In October 1967, an all-white jury found seven of the defendants guilty and acquitted the other nine. Though the verdict was hailed as a major civil rights victory—it was the first time anyone in Mississippi had been convicted for a crime against a civil rights worker—the judge in the case gave out relatively light sentences, and none of the convicted men served more than six years behind bars.

Selma to Montgomery March, March 1965

In early 1965, Martin Luther King Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) made Selma, Alabama, the focus of its efforts to register Black voters in the South. Alabama’s governor, George Wallace, was a notorious opponent of desegregation, and the local county sheriff had led a steadfast opposition to Black voter registration drives: Only 2 percent of Selma’s eligible Black voters had managed to register. In February, an Alabama state trooper shot a young African American demonstrator in nearby Marion, and the SCLC announced a massive protest march from Selma to the state capital in Montgomery .

On March 7, 600 marchers got as far as the Edmund Pettus Bridge outside Selma when they were attacked by state troopers wielding whips, nightsticks and tear gas. The brutal scene was captured on television, enraging many Americans and drawing civil rights and religious leaders of all faiths to Selma in protest. King himself led another attempt on March 9, but turned the marchers around when state troopers again blocked the road; that night, a group of segregationists fatally beat a protester, the young white minister James Reeb.

On March 21, after a U.S. district court ordered Alabama to permit the Selma-Montgomery march, some 2,000 marchers set out on the three-day journey, this time protected by U.S. Army troops and Alabama National Guard forces under federal control. “No tide of racism can stop us,” King proclaimed from the steps of the state capitol building, addressing the nearly 50,000 supporters—Black and white—who met the marchers in Montgomery.

Malcolm X Shot to Death, February 1965

In 1952, the former Malcolm Little was released from prison after serving six years on a robbery charge; while incarcerated, he had joined the Nation of Islam (NOI, commonly known as the Black Muslims), given up drinking and drugs and replaced his surname with an X to signify his rejection of his “slave” name. Charismatic and eloquent, Malcolm X soon became an influential leader of the NOI, which combined Islam with Black nationalism and sought to encourage disadvantaged young Black people searching for confidence in segregated America.

As the outspoken public voice of the Black Muslim faith, Malcolm challenged the mainstream civil rights movement and the nonviolent pursuit of integration championed by Martin Luther King Jr. Instead, he urged followers to defend themselves against white aggression “by any means necessary.” Mounting tensions between Malcolm and NOI founder Elijah Muhammad led Malcolm to form his own mosque in 1964. He made a pilgrimage to Mecca that same year and underwent a second conversion, this time to Sunni Islam. Calling himself el–Hajj Malik el–Shabazz, he renounced NOI’s philosophy of separatism and advocated a more inclusive approach to the struggle for Black rights.

On February 21, 1965, during a speaking engagement in Harlem, three members of the NOI rushed the stage and shot Malcolm some 15 times at close range. After Malcolm’s death, his bestselling book The Autobiography of Malcolm X popularized his ideas, particularly among Black youth, and laid the foundation for the Black Power movement of the late 1960s and 1970s.

Voting Rights Act of 1965, August 1965

Less than a week after the Selma-to-Montgomery marchers were beaten and bloodied by Alabama state troopers in March 1965, President Lyndon Johnson addressed a joint session of Congress, calling for federal legislation to ensure protection of the voting rights of African Americans. The result was the Voting Rights Act, which Congress passed in August 1965.

The Voting Rights Act sought to overcome the legal barriers that still existed at the state and local levels preventing Black citizens from exercising the right to vote given them by the 15th Amendment. Specifically, it banned literacy tests as a requirement for voting, mandated federal oversight of voter registration in areas where tests had previously been used and gave the U.S. attorney general the duty of challenging the use of poll taxes for state and local elections.

Along with the Civil Rights Act of the previous year, the Voting Rights Act was one of the most expansive pieces of civil rights legislation in American history, and it greatly reduced the disparity between Black and white voters in the U.S. In Mississippi alone, the percentage of eligible Black voters registered to vote increased from 5 percent in 1960 to nearly 60 percent in 1968. In the mid-1960s, 70 African Americans were serving as elected officials in the South, while by the turn of the century there were some 5,000. In the same time period, the number of Black people serving in Congress increased from six to about 40.

Rise of Black Power

After the heady rush of the civil rights movement’s first years, anger and frustration was increasing among many African Americans, who saw clearly that true equality—social, economic and political—still eluded them. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, this frustration fueled the rise of the Black Power movement . According to then–SNCC chairman Stokely Carmichael, who first popularized the term “Black Power” in 1966, the traditional civil rights movement and its emphasis on nonviolence, did not go far enough, and the federal legislation it had achieved failed to address the economic and social disadvantages facing Black Americans.

Black Power was a form of both self-definition and self-defense for African Americans; it called on them to stop looking to the institutions of white America—which were believed to be inherently racist—and act for themselves, by themselves, to seize the gains they desired, including better jobs, housing and education. Also in 1966, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, college students in Oakland, California , founded the Black Panther Party .

While its original mission was to protect Black people from white brutality by sending patrol groups into Black neighborhoods, the Panthers soon developed into a Marxist group that promoted Black Power by urging African Americans to arm themselves and demand full employment, decent housing and control over their own communities. Clashes ensued between the Panthers and police in California, New York and Chicago, and in 1967 Newton was convicted of voluntary manslaughter after killing a police officer. His trial brought national attention to the organization, which at its peak in the late 1960s boasted some 2,000 members.

Fair Housing Act, April 1968

The Fair Housing Act of 1968, meant as a follow-up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, marked the last great legislative achievement of the civil rights era. Originally intended to extend federal protection to civil rights workers, it was later expanded to address racial discrimination in the sale, rental or financing of housing units. After the bill passed the Senate by an exceedingly narrow margin in early April, it was thought that the increasingly conservative House of Representatives , wary of the growing strength and militancy of the Black Power movement, would weaken it considerably.

On the day of the Senate vote, however, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis. Pressure to pass the bill increased amid the wave of national remorse that followed, and after a strictly limited debate, the House passed the Fair Housing Act on April 10. President Johnson signed it into law the following day. Over the next years, however, there was little decrease in housing segregation, and violence arose from Black efforts to seek housing in white neighborhoods.

From 1950 to 1980, the total Black population in America’s urban centers increased from 6.1 million to 15.3 million; during this same time period, white Americans steadily moved out of the cities into the suburbs, taking with them many of the employment opportunities Black people needed. In this way, the ghetto—an inner city community plagued by high unemployment, crime and other social ills—became an ever more prevalent fact of urban Black life.

MLK Assassinated, April 4, 1968

On April 4, 1968, the world was stunned and saddened by the news that the civil rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Martin Luther King Jr. had been shot and killed on the balcony of a motel in Memphis, Tennessee , where he had gone to support a sanitation workers’ strike . King’s death opened a huge rift between white and Black Americans, as many Black people saw the killing as a rejection of their vigorous pursuit of equality through the nonviolent resistance he had championed. In more than 100 cities, several days of riots, burning and looting followed his death.

The accused killer, a white man named James Earl Ray, was captured and tried immediately; he entered a guilty plea and was sentenced to 99 years in prison; no testimony was heard. Ray later recanted his confession, and despite several inquiries into the matter by the U.S. government, many continued to believe that the speedy trial had been a cover-up for a larger conspiracy. King’s assassination, along with the killing of Malcolm X three years earlier, radicalized many moderate African American activists, fueling the growth of the Black Power movement and the Black Panther Party.

The success of conservative politicians that year—including Richard Nixon ’s election as president and the third-party candidacy of the ardent segregationist George Wallace, who won 13 percent of the vote—further discouraged African Americans, many of whom felt that the tide was turning against the civil rights movement.

Shirley Chisholm Runs for President, 1972

By the early 1970s, the advances of the civil rights movement had combined with the rise of the feminist movement to create an African American women’s movement. “There can’t be liberation for half a race,” declared Margaret Sloan, one of the women behind the National Black Feminist Organization, founded in 1973. A year earlier, Representative Shirley Chisholm of New York became a national symbol of both movements as the first major party African American candidate and the first female candidate for president of the United States.

A former educational consultant and a founder of the National Women’s Caucus, Chisholm became the first Black woman in Congress in 1968, when she was elected to the House from her Brooklyn district. Though she failed to win a primary, Chisholm received more than 150 votes at the Democratic National Convention. She claimed she never expected to win the nomination. It went to George McGovern, who lost to Richard Nixon in the general election.

The outspoken Chisholm, who attracted little support among African American men during her presidential campaign, later told the press: “I’ve always met more discrimination being a woman than being Black. When I ran for the Congress, when I ran for president, I met more discrimination as a woman than for being Black. Men are men.”

The Bakke Decision and Affirmative Action, 1978

Beginning in the 1960s, the term “affirmative action” was used to refer to policies and initiatives aimed at compensating for past discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, religion or national origin. President John F. Kennedy first used the phrase in 1961, in an executive order calling on the federal government to hire more African Americans. By the mid 1970s, many universities were seeking to increase the presence of minority and female faculty and students on their campuses. The University of California at Davis, for example, designated 16 percent of its medical school’s admissions spots for minority applicants.

After Allan Bakke, a white California man, applied twice without success, he sued U.C. Davis, claiming that his grades and test scores were higher than those of minority students who were admitted and accusing UC Davis of “reverse discrimination.” In June 1978, in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the use of strict racial quotas was unconstitutional and that Bakke should be admitted; on the other hand, it held that institutions of higher education could rightfully use race as a criterion in admissions decisions in order to ensure diversity.

In the wake of the Bakke verdict, affirmative action continued to be a controversial and divisive issue, with a growing opposition movement claiming that the so-called “racial playing field” was now equal and that African Americans no longer needed special consideration to overcome their disadvantages. In subsequent decisions over the next decades, the Court limited the scope of affirmative action programs, while several U.S. states prohibited racially based affirmative action.

Jesse Jackson Galvanizes Black Voters, 1984

As a young man, Jesse Jackson left his studies at the Chicago Theological Seminary to join Martin Luther King Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in its crusade for Black civil rights in the South; when King was assassinated in Memphis in April 1968, Jackson was at his side. In 1971, Jackson founded PUSH, or People United to Save Humanity (later changed to People United to Serve Humanity), an organization that advocated self-reliance for African Americans and sought to establish racial parity in the business and financial community.

He was a leading voice for Black Americans during the early 1980s, urging them to be more politically active and heading up a voter registration drive that led to the election of Harold Washington as the first Black mayor of Chicago in 1983. The following year, Jackson ran for the Democratic nomination for president. On the strength of his Rainbow/PUSH Coalition , he placed third in the primaries, propelled by a surge of Black voter participation.

He ran again in 1988 and received 6.6 million votes, or 24 percent of the total primary vote, winning seven states and finishing second behind the eventual Democratic nominee, Michael Dukakis. Jackson’s continued influence in the Democratic Party in the decades that followed ensured that African American issues had an important role in the party’s platform. 

Throughout his long career, Jackson has inspired both admiration and criticism for his tireless efforts on behalf of the Black community and his outspoken public persona. His son, Jesse L. Jackson Jr., won election to the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois in 1995.

Oprah Winfrey Launches Syndicated Talk Show, 1986

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the success of the long-running sitcom The Cosby Show —featuring popular comedian Bill Cosby as the doctor patriarch of a close-knit middle-class African American family—helped redefine the image of Black characters on mainstream American television. Suddenly, there was no lack of educated, upwardly mobile, family-oriented Black characters for TV viewers to look to, both in fiction and in life. In 1980, entrepreneur Robert L. Johnson founded Black Entertainment Television (BET), which he later sold to entertainment giant Viacom for some $3 billion. Perhaps the most striking phenomenon, however, was the rise of Oprah Winfrey .

Born in rural Mississippi to a poor unwed teenage mother, Winfrey got her start in television news before taking over a morning talk show in Chicago in 1984. Two years later, she launched her own nationally syndicated talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, which would go on to become the highest rated in TV history. Celebrated for her ability to talk candidly about a wide range of issues, Winfrey spun her talk show success into a one-woman empire—including acting, film and television production and publishing.

She notably promoted the work of Black female writers, forming a film company to produce movies based on novels like The Color Purple , by Alice Walker, and Beloved , by Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison. (She starred in both.) One of the most influential individuals in entertainment and the first Black female billionaire, Winfrey is also an active philanthropist, giving generously to Black South Africans and to the historically Black Morehouse College, among other causes.

Los Angeles Riots, 1992

In March 1991, officers with the California Highway Patrol attempted to pull an African American man named Rodney King over for speeding on a Los Angeles freeway. King, who was on probation for robbery and had been drinking, led them on a high-speed chase, and by the time the patrolmen caught up to his car, several officers of the Los Angeles Police Department were on the scene. After King allegedly resisted arrest and threatened them, four LAPD officers shot him with a TASER gun and severely beat him.

Caught on videotape by an onlooker and broadcast around the world, the beating inspired widespread outrage in the city’s African American community, who had long condemned the racial profiling and abuse its members suffered at the hands of the police force. Many demanded that the unpopular L.A. police chief, Daryl Gates, be fired and that the four officers be brought to justice for their use of excessive force. The King case was eventually tried in the suburb of Simi Valley, and in April 1992 a jury found the officers not guilty.

Rage over the verdict sparked the four days of the L.A. riots , beginning in the mostly Black South Central neighborhood. By the time the riots subsided, some 55 people were dead, more than 2,300 injured, and more than 1,000 buildings had been burned. Authorities later estimated the total damage at around $1 billion. The next year, two of the four LAPD officers involved in the beating were retried and convicted in a federal court for violating King’s civil rights; he eventually received $3.8 million from the city in a settlement.

Million Man March, 1995

In October 1995, hundreds of thousands of Black men gathered in Washington, D.C. for the Million Man March, one of the largest demonstrations of its kind in the capital’s history. Its organizer, Minister Louis Farrakhan, had called for “a million sober, disciplined, committed, dedicated, inspired Black men to meet in Washington on a day of atonement.” Farrakhan, who had asserted control over the Nation of Islam (commonly known as the Black Muslims) in the late 1970s and reasserted its original principles of Black separatism, may have been an incendiary figure, but the idea behind the Million Man March was one most Black—and many white—people could get behind.

The march was intended to bring about a kind of spiritual renewal among Black men and to instill in them a sense of solidarity and of personal responsibility to improve their own condition. It would also, organizers believed, disprove some of the stereotypical negative images of Black men that existed in American society.

By that time, the U.S. government’s “war on drugs” had sent a disproportionate number of African Americans to prison, and by 2000, more Black men were incarcerated than in college. Estimates of the number of participants in the Million Man March ranged from 400,000 to more than 1 million, and its success spurred the organization of a Million Woman March, which took place in 1997 in Philadelphia.

Colin Powell Becomes Secretary of State, 2001

As chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1989 to 1993—the first African American to hold that position—the Vietnam veteran and four–star U.S. Army general Colin Powell played an integral role in planning and executing the first Persian Gulf War under President George H.W. Bush . After his retirement from the military in 1993, many people began floating his name as a possible presidential candidate. He decided against running, but soon became a prominent fixture in the Republican Party.

In 2001, George W. Bush appointed Powell as secretary of state, making him the first African American to serve as America’s top diplomat. Powell sought to build international support for the controversial U.S invasion of Iraq in 2003, delivering a divisive speech to the United Nations regarding that country’s possession of weapons material that was later revealed to be based on faulty intelligence. He resigned after Bush’s reelection in 2004.

In another history-making appointment, Condoleezza Rice, Bush’s longtime foreign policy adviser and the former head of the National Security Council, succeeded Powell, becoming the first African American woman to serve as secretary of state. Though he largely stayed out of the political spotlight after stepping down, Powell remained an admired figure in Washington and beyond.

Though he continued to brush off any speculation of a possible future presidential run, Powell made headlines during the 2008 presidential campaign when he broke from the Republican party to endorse Barack Obama , the eventual winner and the first African American to be elected president of the United States.

Barack Obama Becomes 44th US President, 2008

On January 20, 2009, Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States; he is the first African American to hold that office. The product of an interracial marriage—his father grew up in a small village in Kenya, his mother in Kansas—Obama grew up in Hawaii but discovered his civic calling in Chicago, where he worked for several years as a community organizer on the city’s largely Black South Side.

After studying at Harvard Law School and practicing constitutional law in Chicago, he began his political career in 1996 in the Illinois State Senate and in 2004 announced his candidacy for a newly vacant seat in the U.S. Senate . He delivered a rousing keynote speech at that year’s Democratic National Convention, attracting national attention with his eloquent call for national unity and cooperation across party lines. In February 2007, just months after he became only the third African American elected to the U.S. Senate since Reconstruction, Obama announced his candidacy for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.

After withstanding a tight Democratic primary battle with Hillary Clinton, the New York senator and former first lady, Obama defeated Senator John McCain of Arizona in the general election that November. Obama’s appearances in both the primaries and the general election drew impressive crowds, and his message of hope and change—embodied by the slogan “Yes We Can”—inspired thousands of new voters, many young and Black, to cast their vote for the first time in the historic election. He was reelected in 2012.

The Black Lives Matter Movement 

The term “Black lives matter” was first used by organizer Alicia Garza in a July 2013 Facebook post in response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman, a Florida man who shot and killed unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin on February 26, 2012. Martin’s death set off nationwide protests like the Million Hoodie March. In 2013, Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi formed the Black Lives Matter Network with the mission to “eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes.” 

The hashtag #BlackLivesMatter first appeared on Twitter on July 13, 2013, and spread widely as high-profile cases involving the deaths of Black civilians provoked renewed outrage.

A series of deaths of Black Americans at the hands of police officers continued to spark outrage and protests, including Eric Garner in New York City, Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, Tamir Rice in Cleveland Ohio and Freddie Gray in Baltimore, Maryland.

The Black Lives Matter movement gained renewed attention on September 25, 2016, when San Francisco 49ers players Eric Reid, Eli Harold, and quarterback Colin Kaepernick kneeled during the national anthem before the game against the Seattle Seahawks to draw attention to recent acts of police brutality. Dozens of other players in the NFL and beyond followed suit. 

George Floyd Protests

The movement swelled to a critical juncture on May 25, 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 epidemic when 46-year-old George Floyd died after being handcuffed and pinned to the ground by police officer Derek Chauvin. 

Chauvin was filmed kneeling on Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes. Floyd had been accused of using a counterfeit $20 bill at a local deli in Minneapolis. All four officers involved in the incident were fired. In April 2021, Chauvin  was convicted of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. In February 2022, the three other officers were found guilty of depriving Floyd of his civil rights when they helped with the restraint that led to his death. 

Floyd’s killing came on the heels of two other high-profile cases in 2020. On February 23, 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery was killed while out on a run after being followed by three white men in a pickup truck. And on March 13, 26-year-old EMT Breonna Taylor  was shot eight times and killed after police broke down the door to her apartment while executing a nighttime warrant.

On May 26, 2020, the day after Floyd’s death, protestors in Minneapolis took to the streets to protest Floyd’s killing. Police cars were set on fire and officers released tear gas to disperse crowds. After months of quarantine and isolation during a global pandemic, protests mounted, spreading across the country in the following days and weeks.

Kamala Harris Becomes the First Woman and First Black US Vice President, 2021

In January 2021, Kamala Harris became the first woman and first woman of color to become vice president of the United States. Then-candidate  Joe Biden had nominated Harris in August 2020 during the Democratic party’s “remote” national convention. Harris, whose mother immigrated to the United States from India and whose father immigrated from Jamaica, was the first person of African or Asian descent to become a major party’s vice presidential candidate—and the first to win the office. 

In her victory speech in November 2020, Harris said that she was thinking "about the generations of women, Black women, Asian, white, Latina, Native American women—who throughout our nation’s history have paved the way for this moment tonight—women who fought and sacrificed so much for equality and liberty and justice for all.”

HISTORY Vault: Black History

Watch acclaimed Black History documentaries on HISTORY Vault.

Ferguson shooting victim Michael Brown. BBC . George Floyd Protests: A Timeline. The New York Times . Tamir Rice. PBS.org. The Matter of Black Lives. The New Yorker . The Hashtag Black Lives Matter. Pew Research . The Path to Eric Garner’s death. The New York Times . Timeline of Murder Trial of Amber Guyger. ABC . 

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