Students view and analyze various artists' representations of slavery. They create their own illustrations of slavery.

Students explore African American history by researching the Jim Crow laws. In this Civil Rights lesson plan, students define the Jim Crow laws, the reasons they were put into place, and how they were ultimately defeated. Students write...

Students study the African Grove Theater in New York. For this African American history lesson, students examine the evolution of race relations in the United States as they research the theater and its history.

Students examine the time period of the Harlem Renaissance. As a class, they are introduced to five artists and discuss their art and techniques. Using the internet, they also research the philosophers of the time period and how...

Students examine African American art. For 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...

A set of 14 primary sources provides background for a study of Lorraine Hansberry's drama, A Raisin in the Sun. Featured are images from stage productions of the play, white supremacy protests, a clip from a television interview, and...

Pupils study African masks. They also study African American Art and look for its influence in Modern Art. They research and design their own culture.

Students take a field trip to an art gallery reflecting on the paintings they like the most. Individually, they use magazines to find pictures related to their personality. In pairs, they make a mask to represent their ethnic group and...

Middle schoolers develop an understanding of how African culture impacted modern dance in the United States.

Students investigate the question "who am I?" They create an original self-portrait of themselves that incorporates written words. Students' self-portraits depict who they are.

Lorna Simpson is a photographer who has put together a collection of photos from the 1950s in order to challenge the idea that primary source documents are objective in their portrayal of history. Learners are introduced to Ms. Simpson's...

Students explore diversity and race by creating art. In this ethnic background activity, students discuss their family history, where their relatives lived and how it affects their life today. Students create pieces of a quilt...

Students investigate the military by examining their uniforms.  For this design lesson, students analyze the military uniforms from different locations and time periods.  Students create new ideas for current military uniforms.

Students explore the cultural significance of masks by investigating the role they play in ceremonies and on special occasions in societies from widely separated regions of the world.

Paintings by Jacob Lawrence titled, "The Migration of the Negro", a series of sixty paintings, illustrates the migration of African Americans to the North in the twentieth century. A link to this artwork can be found within this summary.

This article describes the history associated with the sculpture Black Unity, an image of African American community in 1968 by Elizabeth Catlett.

Examples of the blues inspired by the African American migration to Northern cities. These lyrics and audio clips explores the reasons for, and effects of, these migrations.

The artwork of four nineteenth-century free blacks expressed in portraits, landscapes, sculpture, and photography. Links to works from Joshua Johnson, Robert Scott Duncanson, Edmonia Lewis, and Augustus Washington are provided.

Why do we dance? African-American social dances started as a way for enslaved Africans to keep cultural traditions alive and retain a sense of inner freedom. They remain an affirmation of identity and independence. In this electric...

This resources illustrates how artist Augusta Savage (1892-1962) embodied the virtues of self-help, self-reliance, and close-knit cohesion of the black community in her sculpture Lift Every Voice and Sing (The Harp).

Woodcuts that explore the effects of segregation on the black psyche. Links to Elizabeth Catlett's "The Negro Woman," a series of fifteen linoleum cuts are provided, as well as a summary of their meaning.

This resource by the National Humanities Center discusses the role of physical protest in the civil rights movement. Its primary focus, the print "Freedom Now," by Reginald Gammon (1921-2005), depicts the massing of bodies in the name of...

This article review examples of black protest in art by Claude Clark and Charles White. Links to images and supplemental resources are provided here as well.

This is a very brief encyclopedia entry about Amiri Baraka, born as Everett Leroi Jones. He is an impassioned poet and playwright who wrote about the black racial identity. A link to a website for more information is provided.