African American History Resources

February is Black History History Month - Investigate the contributions that African Americans have made to the history and cultural development of the United States.

General Information    Lesson Plans   Videos in eMedia

General Information

Library of Congress Resources
Educators can find images, audio and videos files and more from the Library of Congress, National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution and other organizations. Don't miss their African American History Month collection.

Black History Month
Put the power of primary sources to work in the classroom. Browse ready-to-use lesson plans, student activities, collection guides and research aids.

Civil Rights
Learn about the Civil Rights Movement - from 1954 to present day. You can also access related lesson plans.

Voyages, the African Slave Trade Database
This web site aggregates information on almost 35,000 slaving voyages that forcibly embarked over ten million Africans for transport to the Americas.

PBS: Africans in America
This web site chronicles the history of racial slavery in the U.S. - from the start of the Atlantic slave trade to the end of the Civil War.

African American Odyssey: A Quest for Full Citizenship
A showcase of the African American collections of the Library of Congress.

African-American Mosaic
This exhibit marks the publication of The African-American Mosaic: A Library of Congress Resource Guide for the Study of Black History and Culture.

UEN Thempark: African American History
The history of African Americans covers the rise from enslavement to accomplishments in every field of human endeavor--literature, art, science, business, industry, education, government, diplomacy, athletics, exploration.

Lesson Plans

Dr. King's Dream
In this lesson, students will learn about the life and work of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. (Grades K-2)

Martin Luther King, Jr. and Me
This lesson explores ways to help students identify with Dr. King through activities that provide a glimpse into his life. (Grades K-2)

Free African Americans in the North
Students meet African American individuals who lived in the North in the years between the American Revolution and the Civil War. (Grades 6-8)

Birth of a Nation, the NAACP, and the Balancing of Rights
Students learn how Birth of a Nation influenced racial attitudes, and they analyze the efforts of the NAACP to prohibit showing of the film. (Grades 9-12)

The Election of Barack Obama 44th President of the United States
In this lesson, students put Barack Obama's election as the first African American President of the United States in historical context by studying two of his speeches. (Grades 9-12)

NAACP's Anti-Lynching Campaign in the 1920s
This lesson focuses on the constitutional arguments for and against the enactment of federal anti-lynching legislation in the early 1920s. (Grades 9-12)

NAACP's Anti-Lynching Campaign in the 1930s
Students will become members of a newspaper editorial board preparing a retrospective report about the NAACP's anti-lynching campaign of the 1930s. (Grades 9-12)

TeachRock for Black History Month
High School lessons related to Black history, including an introduction to the Almost Emancipated series that examines the Civil War and Reconstruction eras for Social Studies teachers.(Grades 9-12)

Videos in eMedia

Utah educators and students can login to UEN's eMedia and download the following videos.

America Beyond the Color Line
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. examines the legacy of the Civil Rights movement since the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

American Experience: Citizen King
Citizen King explores the last five years in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s life by drawing on the personal recollections and eyewitness accounts of friends, movement associates, and historians.

American Experience: Marcus Garvey
Both a powerful orator and a pompous autocrat, Garvey inspired the loyalty of millions of African Americans while infuriating many black leaders.

American Experience: Murder of Emmett Till
The murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till, a black boy who whistled at a white woman in a Mississippi grocery store in 1955, was a powerful catalyst for the civil rights movement.

Ellington Was Not a Street
In a reflective tribute to the African-American community of old, noted poet Ntozake Shange recalls her childhood home and the close-knit group of innovators that often gathered there.

In Remembrance of Martin
To memorialize the life and work of Dr. King, Coretta Scott King is joined by others to remember highlights in Dr. King's career and trace his leadership in the civil rights movement.

Jazz
The 10 episodes of this Ken Burn's film cover the history of jazz music in the US, from its origins at the turn of the twentieth century to the present day. Visit web site.

Reading Rainbow: Follow the Drinking Gourd
By following the directions in a song, "The Drinking Gourd," runaway slaves journey north along the Underground Railroad to freedom in Canada.

The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross Into the Fire
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. travels throughout the U.S., taking viewers on an engaging journey through African-American history.

This Far By Faith
This six-part documentary presents a dramatic interpretation of the African-American religious experience through powerful storytelling.

Thurgood Marshall: Portrait of an American Hero
The program traces the illustrious career of the first black person appointed as a Supreme Court justice.

Utah's African American Voices
Although few in number, Utah's African Americans have profoundly influenced the course of Utah history since the early 1800s