Black History Month

NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick has added momentum to a remarkable wave of protests by athletes against racial injustice and police killings. Students discuss tweets about the protests, consider multiple points of view about them, and construct a timeline of events.   

Through a series of engaging "opinion continuum" exercises, students explore a range of views about the phrases "Black Lives Matter" and "All Lives Matter."  

This first of three lessons on the Black Lives Matter movement serves as an introduction.  Students learn about the origins of the Black Lives Matter movement through tweets, quotes, and discussion of the movement's principles.    

What are the demands of the Black Lives Matter movement, and what progress has it made in bringing social change? Students explore these questions with readings and discussion.  

History has a way of smoothing out the complexities of real-life events. This brief TeachableInstant lesson explores some forgotten or misrepresented facts about the movement for civil rights.  

Students consider what it means to be an ally and to stand up for justice by examining a famous photo of a protest  at the 1968 Olympics and then learning about and discussing the story behind the photo.  

In this brief Teachable Instant activity, students learn about how organizing by Black students and their allies at the University of Missouri led to the resignation of the university's president and helped spark a wave of organizing on campuses nationwide.   

Through reading, discussion, and small group activities, students learn about three relatively unknown women in the civil rights movement: Diane Nash, Virginia Durr, and Claudette Colvin.    

This brief activity focuses on the African American girl who refused to give up her seat on the bus, months before Rosa Parks touched off the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott. Please also see the segment about Colvin in this Teachable Moment lesson.  

This brief activity kicks off Black History Month by examining King's letter from a Birmingham jail in light of current events.