Smithsonian Institution
Spirits Across the Ocean: Yoruban and Dahomean Cultures in the Caribbean Brought by the Slave Trade
Much of Latin American music owes its origins to the slave trade. Peoples from the Yoruban and Dahomean cultures brought with them the distinctive rhythms, time signatures, and eighth note patterns that now characterize Caribbean music....
Curated OER
A South African Storm
Students explore racial prejudice in South Africa through the reading of "A South African Storm" by Allison Howard. In this cultural and geography lesson, students discuss ethnicity and prejudices and cite examples from the letter....
Facing History and Ourselves
Insights on Democracy from South Africa
As part of their study of democracy, high schoolers listen to a podcast featuring two South African educators and their efforts to support the process of transforming the nation from apartheid rule into a democracy. Learners also read...
Curated OER
Enslaved African Americans and Expressions of Freedom
Students analyze a painting from African-American culture to determine its meaning. Reading slave spirituals, they discover what live was like for African-Americans who were enslaved in the South. They draw conclusions about their desire...
Curated OER
The South, the North and the Great Migration: Blues and Literature
Here is a complex lesson plan that interweaves the history of the Jim Crow South and the Great Migration with the study of poetry, art, and blues music from the Harlem Renaissance. The plan helps young historians develop a deep...
Curated OER
Folktales (African American, Chinese, Japanese and Korean)
High schoolers participate in a variety of activities that are concerned with comparing different cultures through the literary genre of folktales. The stories are used to stimulate student interest and provide a context for how a...
Curated OER
Romare Bearden's The Dove - A Meeting of Vision and Sound
Students explore African american culture of the late 1950's and 60's through various primary sources including literature, music, art and others. They then prepare and conduct a mock interview and present with the class.
Smithsonian Institution
The Vocal Blues: Created in the Deep South of the U.S.
Bring the sounds of the deep South vocal blues to the classroom with a Smithsonian Folkways lesson. In preparation, scholars listen to and count the 12 bar blues patterns in several works and identify the I, II, IV, and V chords as well...
Curated OER
Exploring Cultural Rituals
Students analyze images and music of common rituals in America with those of other countries. They use worksheets to compare and contrast the events.
Curated OER
South Africa Story: Apartheid, Diamonds & Gold
Students use the internet to research the history, culture and political issues in South Africa. Using writing activities, they discover more characteristics of the country. They write how the natural resources found in the area affect...
Curated OER
Out and About: Masks
Students investigate the art of mask-making. In this cultural masks instructional activity, students may visit the Hancock or Horniman Museums in Britain online or in-person to discover details about cultural masks and give a try at...
Curated OER
Entrepreneurs and the African-American Dream
Students make a simple graph of labor supply and labor demand in the North and South in the early twentieth century. They conduct research to identify top contemporary African-American entrepreneurs.
Center for History Education
Understanding the Great Migration
What would make someone leave home and travel thousands of miles to find another one? Young historians look at letters, demographic data, and artwork to answer the question for the Great Migration, or the movement of thousands of African...
Curated OER
Prairie Voices: Where People Come From
Students examine the human experience. In this migration lesson, students determine reasons for migration, discover the traits of cultural groups, and explore how groups of people come to share their experiences despite language,...
Curated OER
Chicago's South Side
Students discover the cultural of Chicago's South Side. In this African American History lesson, students examine the migration and contributions of African Americans as they moved into cities of the North. Students will explore...
PBS
Civil War: Face Jug
Students examine African American art. In this African American history lesson, students research face jugs created by African American freedmen after they watch a video about the artifact and its significance. Students then create...
Curated OER
What Happened to Slaves When their Owners Died?
Students analyze last and testaments of former slaveowners to identify and explain economic, social and cultural differences between the North and the South leading up to the Civil War.
Curated OER
Back To Africa
Students analyze the massive immigration after 1850 and how new social patterns, conflicts, and ideas of national unity developed amid growing cultural diversity, and how the Progressive movement influenced different groups in American...
Curated OER
MANY REASONS TO LEAVE
Students research different economic, cultural, and social characteristics of slavery after 1800, how slavery hindered the emergence of capitalist institutions and values, and slavery both prior to and after the Civil War.
Curated OER
The Colonization of Liberia
Young scholars analyze how slavery shaped social and economic life in the South. They study methods of passive and active resistance to slavery, and the similarities and differences between African-American and white abolitionists.
Curated OER
The Rise and Fall of the Jim Crow Era
Students explore African American history by researching the Jim Crow laws. In this Civil Rights lesson, students define the Jim Crow laws, the reasons they were put into place, and how they were ultimately defeated. Students write a...
Curated OER
Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. DuBois: The Problem of Negro Leadership
Students focus on the problem of African American leadership throughout American history. In groups, they research the life and works of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois and how they worked to promote the need for African American...
Library of Virginia
Antebellum Freedom
From indentured servitude to involuntary race-based servitude, slavery has taken many forms in American history. Class members examine three manumission petitions that reveal how the rights of African Americans and African American...
Curated OER
Jackie Steals Home
Students draw on their previous studies of American history and culture as they analyze primary sources from Jackie Robinson and Other Baseball Highlights, 1860s - 1960s in American Memory. A close reading of two documents relating to...