Fourteen Black History Month resources for middle- and high-schoolers
It’s easy to conflate Black American history with Black history in general—but it’s not possible to teach students to understand the glories and tragedies of the contemporary Black experience without looking both wider and deeper. We’ve selected fourteen of our favorite learning materials from our collection that you can use to highlight these histories in your classroom. They range from one-page illustrated biographies of notable individuals to videos, articles, and activities on Black social movements, revolutions, and innovations.
Each of these activities and materials can stand alone, but they are also pieces of larger, full-year courses like OER Project: World History and OER Project: Big History—you can open the lessons through the links below and explore free teaching tips as well. Resources are in chronological order so you can find a lesson that fits where you are in the historical narrative—but make sure you scroll to the end. We don’t want you to miss a video conversation with National Geographic Explorer Tara Roberts and tips for teaching about today’s Black explorers documenting slave trade shipwrecks.
1100–900 CE States and Empires of West Africa
Agriculture wasn’t easy in the dry West African Sahel, but people there grew whole kingdoms. Rulers who could manage trade routes, religion, and relationships with pastoralists had the best chance of success. This short article from San Francisco State University Professor of African and World History Trevor Getz provides a great snapshot of this fascinating period.
1280–1337 CE Mansa Musa: Contextualizing the Wealthiest Person in History
Mansa Musa of the Mali Empire was unquestionably one of the most powerful African rulers of his time. We recommend this OER Project: World History activity to help students put his achievements (and his wealth) in context. After watching a Crash Course World History video featuring John Green, students play an interactive group game and learn more about the world of west Africa in the fourteenth century.
16th–19th Century CE The Middle Passage
The advent of the transatlantic slave trade irrevocably altered the course of millions upon millions of Black lives, and its ramifications continue to be felt both in Africa and across the Black diaspora. This lesson from the World History: Origins course includes articles, videos, and comics that explore this painful historical epoch. Our innovative graphic biographies use comic book illustrations to introduce students to some of the most interesting people in history, with a special focus on stories that don’t always show up in traditional textbooks. Try the graphic biography of Domingos Álvares, a healer who even while enslaved built communities and networks wherever he went.
(We also recommend using our Teaching Sensitive Topics in Social Studies guide for some before, during, and after discussion strategies that can help with using this article in your classroom!)
1731–1806 CE Benjamin Banneker: Science in Adversity
Benjamin Banneker, born in Baltimore County in 1731, was a largely self-taught academic whose passions were mathematics and astronomy. As a result of the social prejudices of the time, he had no opportunity to try higher education, and lived most of his life as a tobacco farmer and private scholar. Nevertheless, Banneker’s contributions to science were far-reaching, among them a yearly almanac that calculated the tides, phases of the moon, and occurrences of eclipses, and other natural events. Help students discover this underknown genius of his time.
1791–1808 CE The Haitian Revolution
The Haitian Revolution was one of the most inspiring of the so-called “Age of Revolutions” (1750 to 1900 CE)—and, on the face of it at least, one of the most unlikely. This video activity explores the networks of trade and culture that encompassed Haiti—and made it possible for its population to free themselves of direct French control.
19th Century CE Resistance in Ghana
It’s important to make sure students understand that Africans did not simply accept the yoke of European colonialism. This video, shot in Ghana with the help of local scholars, explores the ways, both passive and active, that Ghanaians resisted their oppressors. It makes an excellent case study for indigenous resistance movements around the world.
1804–1811 CE West Africa in the Age of Revolutions
Your students may be familiar with Atlantic revolutions in France and the United States, but do they know that people in northern Nigeria united under ‘Uthman dan Fodio and the revolutionary force of Islam in West Africa? Guide your students to compare West African conflicts with others in the Age of Revolutions.
1830–1905 CE African Resistance to Colonialism
African people resisted colonial rule through varied tactics, from daily sabotage to military campaigns. Uncover stories of resistance and resilience to colonial rule. Use this lesson to dive deep into an article and primary sources that show African force in the face of foreign rule.
1851–1922 CE George McJunkin and Understanding Migration to the Americas
This graphic biography looks at George McJunkin (1852–1922), an African American cowboy born into slavery whose discoveries would transform archeology and the understanding of human history in the Americas. If this is your first time teaching with comics, try the Three-Step Reading method outlined in the lesson to help students develop a new form of literacy!
1864–1943 CE George Washington Carver’s Early Environmentalism
Try this vivid one-pager on George Washington Carver, whose technological breakthroughs helped create sustainable farming as we know it today.
1909–1972 CE Kwame Nkrumah and Decolonization
Get immersed in the story of Kwame Nkrumah who led the British Gold Coast Colony to independence as the modern nation-state of Ghana. Examine his story with students, including his support for other independence movements, the coup that overthrew him, and how the two may be related.
1920–1951 CE Henrietta Lacks’s Immortal Legacy
Surely one of the strangest stories in recent history is that of Henrietta Lacks, an African American woman whose cancerous tumor exhibited an unusual mutation that made its cells functionally “immortal.” Lacks perished from her cancer in 1951, but unbeknownst to her or her family, a sample had been taken that lived on in laboratories around the world, enabling immensely valuable research. This activity and graphic biography allow students to explore how the nonconsensual exploitation of Lacks’ DNA uncomfortably mirrors the slavery endured by her ancestors, and the discrimination experienced by her descendants.
1950s–1960s CE Movements to End Racial Injustice: Connecting Rights Movements
The successes of the American Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and 70s are deservedly lauded as one of the great triumphs of contemporary Black culture. But it also inspired other movements around the world, especially in Latin America. Students read this article to learn how civil rights victories were won, and about the connections between the various liberation struggles. Use the related Guiding Questions as prompts to get your students thinking!
2020s CE Tara Roberts: Uncovering the Legacy of the Transatlantic Slave Trade
Follow National Geographic Explorer Tara Roberts’s journey with Black divers, marine biologists, and historians who search for shipwrecks from the transatlantic slave trade. This blog links to resources from OER Project and National Geographic to bring her story to your classroom. And don’t miss Roberts in conversation with OER Project to share about her explorer’s mindset and the value of learning and honoring this history.
Oh, and one more thing! It sounds a bit meta, but the history of Black History Month itself is plenty interesting. If you’ve never heard of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), they’re the original founders of Black History Month and continue to do important work to this day. We recommend having a look around their website (https://asalh.org/about-us/) to learn more!