In this lesson, students investigate the Reconstruction Amendments to determine their strengths, weaknesses, and lasting impact on our divided nation after the American Civil War.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
This lesson examines how the institution of race-based slavery was created over time. It traces how reactions to specific events led to the codification of slavery in Virginia, which created a pattern for other colonies to follow.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
This resource packet contains a collection of biographies of 18th-century Williamsburg residents and related primary source materials.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
In this lesson, students read advertisements placed in the Virginia Gazette by slave owners for the return of self-emancipating enslaved people, then summarize the information and use it to make inferences about slavery in 18th-century Virginia.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
What makes history come alive? Take a behind-the-scenes look at how historical African American character portrayals are created for Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Area. From research through performance, experienced museum interpreters share their techniques for bringing the past to life.
Material Type: Other
What makes history come alive? Take a behind-the-scenes look at how historical African American character portrayals are created for Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Area. From research through performance, experienced museum interpreters share their techniques for bringing the past to life.
Material Type: Other
What makes history come alive? Take a behind-the-scenes look at how historical African American character portrayals are created for Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Area. From research through performance, experienced museum interpreters share their techniques for bringing the past to life.
Material Type: Other
Using these literacy resources related to the No Master Over Me video program, students read primary sources about Matthew Ashby and the narrative to Paul Hook to explore the lives of free Black people in the 18th century. They also analyze self-liberation advertisements.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
Free Black men and women forged a place for themselves between the free white and enslaved communities. They were a key part of the American story from nearly the beginning. Through the story of Matthew Ashby, explore the lives and struggles of free Blacks during the eighteenth century.
Material Type: Other
Free Black men and women forged a place for themselves between the free white and enslaved communities. They were a key part of the American story from nearly the beginning. Through the story of Matthew Ashby, explore the lives and struggles of free Blacks during the eighteenth century.
Material Type: Other
Free Black men and women forged a place for themselves between the free white and enslaved communities. They were a key part of the American story from nearly the beginning. Through the story of Matthew Ashby, explore the lives and struggles of free Blacks during the eighteenth century.
Material Type: Other
In the aftermath of the Civil War, African-American leaders debated different plans for achieving racial equality. Booker T. Washington believed the initial focus should be on educating African Americans. W. E. B. Du Bois insisted that achieving equal rights was essential. In this lesson, students read a speech of Washington’s and a selection from Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk to consider how their philosophies compared.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
This lesson introduces students to the work of historians and to the historical figure Biddy Mason, an African American woman who lived in Los Angeles in the 19th century. Students practice sourcing and contextualization as they investigate three historical documents to answer the question: Who was Biddy Mason? Note: This lesson was designed with upper elementary school students in mind but can be used with a wide range of students as an introduction to the field of history. We developed this lesson as part of a partnership with the Los Angeles Unified School District to create lessons about African American history in L.A. Although Biddy Mason is a lesser-known historical figure and her story is exceptional, studying her life offers insights into various national historical topics, including enslavement, westward expansion, and the long African American freedom struggle.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
Too often, archival photos are not analyzed as historical sources. Instead, they are treated as windows into the past. This lesson introduces students to reasoning about photographs as historical evidence through 4 activities. Students are first given an opportunity to practice thinking historically with a familiar classroom scene, then examine different historical photographs of African Americans in Los Angeles.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
This assessment gauges whether students can identify the historical event or development depicted in a photograph from the past and evaluate the historical significance of the development. Successful students will draw on their knowledge of the past to explain that this photograph is from the Tulsa Massacre of 1921 and then explain how this event was historically significant.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
In this lesson, students read a passage on Black Power from a popular textbook. Students then examine four historical documents to complicate the textbook’s description and answer the historical question: What was the Black Power Movement in Los Angeles?
Material Type: Lesson Plan
When President Eisenhower authorized troops under federal authority to desegregate Little Rock Central High School in 1957, he became the first president since Reconstruction to use federal forces to help enforce equal rights for African Americans. Using the example of Executive Order 10730, students will explore how executive orders can be used to enforce the law and examine how Eisenhower justified his actions.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
In 1937, the Federal Writers' Project began collecting what would become the largest archive of interviews with formerly enslaved African Americans. Few firsthand accounts exist from those who suffered enslavement, making this an exceptional resource for students of history. However, as with all historical documents, there are important considerations for students to bear in mind when reading these sources. In this lesson, students examine three of these accounts to answer the question: What can we learn about slavery from interviews with formerly enslaved people?
Material Type: Lesson Plan
The constitutional amendments passed during Reconstruction vastly expanded formerly enslaved people's rights and opportunities. At the same time, the Black Codes passed in most Southern towns, cities, and states curtailed those rights and opportunities. The tension between African Americans’ federal and local rights raises questions about the impact of Reconstruction on the freedom of formerly enslaved people. In this structured academic controversy, students examine constitutional amendments, a Black Code, a personal account of a formerly enslaved person, and other documents to answer the question: “Were African Americans free during Reconstruction?"
Material Type: Lesson Plan
Portraiture of Resistance is an exhibit at America's Black Holocaust Museum, located at the intersection of North Avenue and 4th Street in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Through art and poetry, visitors come to understand those African-Americans who have fought against injustice in our country.
Material Type: Other
