Holt Library: Black History Month: Celebrate Black Liberation Movements in the Classroom

Classroom materials online

Black History Month: Teaching Beyond Slavery
It is critical that teachers show that people of African descent have contributed more than forced, free labor to U.S. history. Students deserve opportunities to examine black literature, art, innovations and customs that have helped shape the culture of the United States—and the world.
NEA Black History Month Lessons & Resources
To help you integrate Black History Month into your classroom, we offer a selection of lesson plans that cover a variety subjects and that can be adapted to fit multiple grade levels.
Article: Teaching Black History after Obama
This article is both an analysis of the state of the academic field and a primer on how to integrate the past few decades of scholarship in black history broadly across standard K-12 curriculum. It demonstrates the importance of theorizing black history as American history rather than just including African American content in US History courses and offers specific methods that can shift the narrative in this direction even within the confines of a more traditional telling of the American past. Finally, it situates the voluminous work of historians of the black past as critical interventions in pedagogy necessary to challenge today's unrelenting attacks on public education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Article: Mad at History
Teaching black history gets complicated when one black student finds all the injustice and violence studied too hard to take.
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FYI (Freshman Year Initiative [at Lehman College]) was designed to bridge the transition from high school to college by providing reinforced academic support, mentorship opportunities, and integrated courses. While many described it as a very rewarding experience, others warned that classroom dynamics could be challenging and student evaluations were often low. A student's initial question was summarily dismissed by his peers and the conversation turned to the real issue - managing the emotions involved in learning about brutal episodes in history.
Upon talking with the student, the author/teacher's comment is striking: "I saw just how upset this man-child was, underneath the swag. All of a sudden my classroom was the front lines. I saw Tupac, Fred Hampton, and the guys on the corner. In that moment, Hakim became the embodiment of all of the young men who chose college despite the fact that society told them that statistically they should be in jail."
Article: Social Media: A Vital Tool in Teaching Contemporary Black American Protest
The author begins with a survey of the ways college students have participated within the history of African American activism from the Civil Rights Movement to Black Lives Matter. She then explores how social media has become a generative space for such activism, especially as the Trump presidency has exposed the fantasy that the US became a "post-racial" society during the presidency of Barack Obama.
Say It Loud: An Action Research Project Examining the Afrivisual and Africology, Looking for Alternative African American Community College Teaching Strategies
[original research] For this study, the researcher sought to implement a visual arts-based Afrivisual to help inspire, motivate and empower African American students in gaining a culturally relevant education in Euro-American-centered schools.