Resources for Black History Month

In this poem, the speaker explores how our culture would be lacking—in people, in music, in movements, in contributions—without contributions of African Americans.

In this poem, a black woman carefully analyzes her interaction with a white waitress, whose actions, although civil, are smoldering with superiority.

This excerpt focuses on the lives of African American students during Freedom Summer. After reading Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech in class in 1963, students in main character C.J.'s school are asked to share their dreams at an assembly.

Solomon Northup was kidnapped and sold into slavery for 12 years before he was freed. This excerpt from his memoir of those years, Twelve Years A Slave, details a New Orleans slave auction.

In this poem, the speaker traces the senseless killings taking place abroad and at home, with a particular focus on the African-American community. The speaker also calls communities to action to "grow our hope and heal our hearts" in order to live together in peace.

Protesting the death of Alton Sterling and the Baton Rough Police Department’s request for Black Lives Matter demonstrators to clear roadways, Iesha Evans stands in the middle of a street as two Louisiana state troopers, dressed in riot gear, approach to arrest her.

This 1974 print depicts Bloody Sunday, when a group of nonviolent protestors marching for voting rights in 1965 faced police violence at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala.

A white man writes about his journey to understanding his racial privilege and the “benefit of the doubt” that life has afforded him.

In this blog post, Steve Locke—a college professor of 13 years—details being wrongfully detained by the police while walking to get lunch all because they believed he matched a description.

With only one wing, the little bird cannot fly to the raspberry patch with her brothers. As luck would have it, she meets a little dog, a chipmunk, and a frog who work together to get them all across the street to the raspberry patch.

In this story, Elizabeth and her family escape their plantation in the middle of the night with help from Harriet Tubman.

This story is the retelling of Robert Smalls' escape from slavery with his entire family in tow. With a plan "as dangerous as it was brilliant," Smalls commandeers a Confederate ship and successfully navigates it out of Charleston's blockaded port and into the hands of the Union army.

Elijah McCoy overcame many obstacles to become a renowned inventor who paved the way for others.

In this story, a young boy learns the history behind the abolitionist song “John Brown’s Body.”

Two friends who attend different schools in the same community learn that one of their schools has no instruments for their music program, while the other has multiple different kinds. They use their friendship and musical abilities to confront this inequity and try to bring about change.

Letitia and Mae join children leaving school to march in Birmingham, Alabama. Disappointed that they were not arrested while picketing Woolworth’s, they feel reassured by Rev. Bevel, who tells them they made a great contribution to the movement.

The freedom riders, black and white, joined together to effect change. Traveling across the South while enduring ridicule and pain, they helped ensure that doors were open to all people, regardless of skin color.

A chance meeting of a family of frogs and a family of snakes in the woods one day allows wonderful new friendships to be made. Later, when the siblings tell their parents about their new friends, they are told never to play together again. Find out why in this easy-to-produce play that teaches about the serious topic of prejudice.

Frederick Douglass made an amazing journey from slavery to freedom. Once free, Douglass committed his life to fighting for the freedom of others.