Draw on your students' prior knowledge to help them understand the importance of the labor movement.

Period songs give students an understanding of early 19th century labor conditions

Fifty-plus years after the end of legal segregation, individual African Americans have achieved amazing successes – including Barack Obama’s election as president. However, the black community as a whole remains under great stress. African Americans are overrepresented in prisons, underrepresented in college, and make less money, on average, than white counterparts in similar positions. How did this happen? As Obama pointed out in his groundbreaking 2008 speech on race, African Americans have historically been shut out of a number of paths to wealth, including membership in labor unions, access to FHA mortgages, jobs in civil service, and education in well-equipped schools. Other communities of color have faced similar obstacles – leading to a racial wealth gap that has made white people, on average, wealthier than people of color.In this lesson, students will get a glimpse of the long-term economic effects of race-based policies that have limited the economic opportunities of African Americans, Native Americans, and other communities of color.