A century and a half after Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, students in 2013 will continue an 87-year tradition of studying African American history during February.

Historian Carter G. Woodson, along with colleagues at the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), established Negro History Week in 1926. With mobs still lynching African Americans every year (335 deaths reported in the 1920’s) and a surge of race riots sweeping the country, Woodson wanted to provide a counterpoint to the racial discrimination that dominated America. Initially observed in black schools, churches and social organizations, the event grew into Black History Month (also known as African American History Month) with President Gerald Ford’s signature in 1976.

Since 1928 the ASALH has provided a theme for each year. Looking over the thematic titles can provide students with a sense of the concerns of African Americans over the decades. For example, the link for the 2006 theme can help students understand how African Americans, shut out of local and national organizations, developed their own fraternal, civic and social institutions, some of which fought violence against blacks — including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) organized in 1909.

2013: Remembering 1863 & 1963

For 2013 the ASALH theme is “At the Crossroads of Freedom and Equality: The Emancipation Proclamation and the March on Washington.”

The Schomburg Center’s wealth of resources

The New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture covers much of the African American experience with online multimedia exhibits sure to catch the attention of middle graders. ‘IN MOTION: The African American Immigration Experience’ starts with the immigration of Africans to America as slaves and then studies thirteen migrations, culminating with the influx of sub-Saharan Africans in recent years. In addition to the extensive collection of images, texts, maps and timelines, this 2005 exhibit offers grade specific lesson plans, including many for grades 6-8.

At the Schomburg Center’s exhibit, ‘The Abolition of the Slave Trade,’ younger students may find the interactive timeline on the history of abolition of the slave trade — and the interactive map on numbers of slaves departing specific countries and arriving at other countries — most useful. Older students can research the essays, which offer general introductions that lead to more specific topics. The texts section provides extensive primary documents. Overall, this is a visually involving site that provides massive amounts of information in easy-to-access sections.

Another Schomburg exhibit, ‘Lest We Forget: The Triumph over Slavery,’ is also overflowing with interactive  materials arranged  chronologically. This exhibit uses a small font size in a pale color that makes using the resources less engaging than accessing other exhibits from the Center.

‘African Americans and American Politics,’ a Schomburg interactive exhibit from 2009, follows African Americans’ growing participation in American politics with sections for the 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. Students may need a quick demonstration on how to access the photos and documents, which are accompanied by brief explanations.

In  the Center’s ‘Harlem 1900 – 1940′ exhibit, covering the rapid growth of the African American community in New York, students will find advocates, artists, business leaders and politicians. It’s a super source for the Harlem Renaissance. Teachers can click on Main Menu, upper right, to access images and PDFs that explain how to do oral history. The page also links to civic, advocacy and social groups of the early 20th century.

Finally, the Schomburg offers a 2011 exhibit,  Africana Age: African & African Diasporan Transformations in the 20th Century. Its essays, images, brief videos and maps cover the African diaspora to the US and beyond. The essays will interest the upper age range of middle grades students.

Scholastic highlights the Underground Railroad

This year Scholastic helps students understand American slavery and the Underground Railroad with a multi-faceted, highly interactive resource. Through audio and images, slaves held at plantations and traveling north speak for themselves. Accompanying the selected slave narratives are primary resources, mostly photographs plus several documents. Students can also zero in on Harriet Tubman along with Underground Railroad volunteers and abolitionists. Activities include writing letters in code.

Scholastic debunks a long list of generally accepted myths about the Underground Railroad. The site also includes a detailed teacher’s guide. Nearby is Black History Month: Everything You Need.

The Library of Congress has assembled a page for teachers featuring images related to African Americans’ experiences and civil rights, arranged in periods from the 1700’s to 1996. Following the long list of image links are resources drawn from the LOC’s American Memory Collection. To access ready-made lesson plans rather than multitudinous resources, visit this LOC selection. Several  lessons are suited for 6-8 graders.

The US Census: Focus on the 21st Century

For a look at African Americans in the 21^st century, students can visit the US Census Bureau’s 2011 report on how people of African descent reported their race in the 2010 Census. Geographical locations are included. The report offers opportunities to study graphs and maps. A snapshot of African American culture can be found in the Census “Facts for Features” report prepared for Black History Month in 2012. The 2013 version of this “Facts to Features” report is scheduled for release January 24.

The Smithsonian: Civil rights and American art

The Smithsonian can help teachers bring art into the study of Black History with its online exhibit, ‘Oh Freedom! Teaching African American Civil Rights through American Art at the Smithsonian.’ Glean ideas for bringing the exhibit into your classroom by participating in the ‘Oh Freedom! Online Conference: Teaching Civil Rights through Smithsonian Collections.’ The free event, set for Wednesday, February 6, 2013 from 10:30 until 5 pm eastern, will feature museum curators and grade school educators as well as keynoter Richard J. Powell of Duke University. Registration is required. (The conference will be archived.) For an overview on using the site’s resources before the conference, visit the FAQ.

While exploring, don’t miss the interactive timeline covering civil rights in the 20^th century which links to artists and artworks, including photographs, in the Smithsonian collection. At the More Resources link, the Smithsonian provides strategies for incorporating art into history and includes graphic organizers and worksheets. The site invites student comments and teacher lesson plans. Two of the lesson plans included in the exhibit target middle schoolers: ‘Citizens Making Choices: The Role of the U.S. Constitution in Peaceful Protest’ features the Memphis sanitation workers strike in 1968 and the 1992 LA riots. The other lesson introduces ‘The Many Faces of Civil Rights.’ The Resources page also links to extensive online resources for teachers as well as a detailed glossary. At present the resources for students are limited to books. Students do have their say in a series of podcasts.

Students can see the impact of history and current culture on contemporary African American artists at the website for ’30 Americans,” a 2010 show at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. The guide for educators includes selected artist bios, discussions of their art, and suggested discussion.

Black History Month: Reading & Writing

For English/Language Arts involvement in Black History Month, READ WRITE THINK offers a page which centers on the month-long National African American Read-In  from the Black Caucus of NCTE. The NCTE provides a packet to report read-in participation. The RWT page also includes lesson plans and links to the Library of Congress’ African American Odyssey: A Quest for Full Citizenship and PBS’ African American World.

To introduce poetry by African Americans, consider using Elizabeth Alexander’s engaging talk on the sources of black poetry and its interplay with hip-hop. Just a couple of words will need to be explained. Students can view Alexander’s 2009 Inauguration poem, “Praise Song for the Day,” here. (Warning: you may want to embed this YouTube video elsewhere – many comments at the link are highly inappropriate.)

For a chronological look into African American poetry, students could contrast Phillis Wheatley, the first black woman poet published in America, and Natasha Trethewey, the current US Poet Laureate. Trethewey links the Civil War to present day America in her poem, “Elegy for the Native Guard,’ remembering slaves and freedmen who enthusiastically served the Union. This link provides video of her reading the poem during a trip to Mississippi’s Ship Island where some of the Guard served. It features African American Native Guard re-enactors.

Sciencemakers: Leaders in STEM

The National Science Foundation-funded Historymakers’ collection, Sciencemakers, offers images and interviews of contemporary African American scientists and mathematicians. Teachers could adapt one aspect of the Sciencemakers page: encouraging students to create speeches or videos imagining themselves as future scientists or as scientists of the past or present. Historymakers also hosts collections of text interviews with hundreds of African American leaders in education, the military, the law, music, and other categories. Through a subscription service Historymakers sells videos of the interviews.

As part of its Black History Month resources, Science NetLinks  offers ‘The Faces of Science: African Americans in the Sciences.’ The brief biographies of the scientists, engineers and mathematicians are organized by profession and cover past and present. Other resources at the Science NetLinks page look into skin color. For students interested in space travel, NASA provides brief bios of current and past black astronauts. In 2011 Leland Melvin, a former astronaut who also worked as an engineer, chemist, musician, NFL player, and NASA educator, explained the history of African Americans in flight.

Leland Melvin with DC students

The Future of Black History Month

A recurrent discussion among educators and other Americans is whether racial and ethnic groups - African Americans, Latinos and Asians, for example – should be singled out for annual observations of their cultures. African Americans discuss whether Black History Month should continue to be observed in a five-minute PBS news segment.

For a longer treatment of the questions about celebrating Black History Month, visit Independent Lens’ page on African American filmmaker Shukree Hassan Tilghman’s documentary, ‘More than a Month.’ Aired on PBS in 2012, the film follows Tilghman as he begins by soliciting signatures to end Black History Month and then goes on to present differing points of view. The Independent Lens page provides several clips. Clip 3 returns to Carter G. Woodson, the creator of the annual observance, and goes on to discuss the impact of politics on how history is taught in American schools. The page includes an interview with Tilghman which can show students the challenges of making a documentary. The comments following the interview give a cross-section of attitudes toward Black History Month.

Update (January 31): Black History Month Has Been an Epic Failure – In a Huffington Post article, journalist Dion Rabouin faults teachers and proponents of Black History Month in the United States for failing to heed Malcolm X’s message: “Our history did not begin in chains.” Rabouin goes on to recount many great achievements by Black people in world history which he contends are given short shrift in American history lessons.

Update (January 31): Dos and Don’ts of Teaching Black History from the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Tolerance.  From Larry Ferlazzo’s collection of Black History Month listings.

Update (February 1): Don’t miss EDSITEment’s Guide to Black History Month Teaching Resources. It provides educators with over 550 years of the African American experience arranged chronologically.

Update (February 5): The US House of Representatives has just launched a website about its history. Included is “Black Americans in Congress” which features profiles of the congressmen and women along with 7-12^th grade lessons plans following these members’ participation in the House from 1870 forward. Civil Rights history is provided in oral histories and an outline of Amendments and legislation.

Update (February 14):  Awesome Stories provides resources reaching from Africa before the trans-Atlantic slave trade to Ronald McNair, the African American astronaut who died in the crash of the shuttle Challenger in 1986.

Art and photo credits:

Carter G. Woodson: US Office for Emergency Management. Office of War Information. Domestic Operations. Branch. News Bureau. (06/13/1942 – 09/15/1945)

1st Vote for African Americans: Waud, Alfred R. (Alfred Rudolph). “The First Vote.” Nov. 16, 1867, from Harper’s Weekly. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

Underground Railroad:  Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, [reproduction number, LC-USZ62-28860]

Evening Attire: James VanDerZee (1886–1983), Evening Attire, 1922, gelatin silver print, 10 x 8 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum

Leland Melvin: NASA/Carla Cioffi

The countdown is underway! Election 2012 is fast approaching. In this Resource Roundup you can access election basics – past and present – and find lessons, videos and a mock election “how-to” guide. We’ve even located some art-oriented ideas to further interest middle grades students in their country’s history in the making.

When you need a quick overview of the 2012 election, visit Scholastic. Its resource offerings span the middle grades: you’ll find breaking news, videos, very basic bios of the presidential candidates, a timeline, and an up-to-date glossary featuring terms like Tea Party, Green Party, Super PAC and more. Students can get a quick look at how the electoral college math works (with an interactive electoral map and a video game). Only the background pieces supplied by Grolier may be too advanced for upper elementary students.

Scholastic links to NBC Learn for its Decision 2012 materials, including a detailed election resource from the Newseum. The Newseum’s resources target grade 6 and up with lessons for middle school students following three themes: historical connections, civics & citizenship, and media literacy.  You will find an interactive timeline reaching back to the first US elections, plus activities that can help students understand media bias.  Kids.gov hosts another helpful visual, How to Become President.

What Kids Can Do (WKCD) is working with the youth-led news bureau Y-Press to profile politically active youth and research the youth vote. Y-Press reporters have also filed from the national conventions. Find youth voting resources at WKCD’s ‘Youth on the Trail 2012’ webpage.

Among the many resources collected by Larry Ferlazzo in “The Best Resources for Learning about the 2012 U.S. Presidential Election” is the super election channel at YouTube with videos of speeches and ads from several news sources and political organizations.

Once you have shown political ads to students, visit the Annenberg Center’s FlackCheck.org for videos that employ both humor and high production values to show how the campaigns’ ads rate on truthfulness. You might want to start with “Comedians Attack FlackCheck.org.” The Center’s FactCheck.org (that’s FACT) service is less amusing, but proves more reliable than some organizations that purpost to fact-check politicians and their ads.

For a discussion on building media literacy to increase students’ understanding of political communications, read a MiddleWeb post by media literacy expert Frank Baker. And kids can try their hands at evaluating election media using handouts from Brown University’s Choices Program election lessons.

The nonpartisan nonprofit ProCon.org hosts a 2012 election site that is packed with information on current and past elections. Teachers can use it as the go-to resource for finding election basics, quotations and videos of candidates, including 3^rd parties. Older middle grades students may access it for research. ProCon.org’s “Find Your [Political] Match” quiz is likely much too detailed for students in the middle. The Pew Research Center’s “Where Do You Fit? The Political Party Quiz” is more succinct and has the advantage of showing students where they fit on a continuum of political thought in several demographics. For an even briefer and more graphically gripping survey, consider USA Today’s “Candidate Match Game II.” The Pew Center also provides a study of party affiliation that can broaden students’ understanding of demographics.

The Youth Leadership Initiative (YLI) of the UVA Center for Politics – supported the American Bar Association, the League of Women Voters and others – provides a national mock election for grades K-12. Teachers who register for their students to participate can access the free resources including lesson plans. YLI also offers a downloadable political campaign simulation, “A More Perfect Union.”

A series of three lessons for grades 5-8 from the Kennedy Center’s ArtsEdge combines research with creativity. Once they have studied the electoral process, students get to plan campaign tours, write a campaign song and draw electoral cartoons.

For resources with a wider age range, visit the New York Times Learning Network’s multiple posts on the election. In addition to the blog’s series of election lessons, find “Great Free Web Sites for Teaching Election 2012” and “‘The Words They Used’ at the Democratic and Republican Conventions,” featuring graphics of most-frequently-used words at each convention followed by quotations highlighting the words.

Parents may have questions about introducing their children to the election season. Nemours’ nonprofit KidsHealth site has suggestions for parents to talk with their children about the political campaign and the election. In part, the article suggests checking in with kids about any concerns or misconceptions they might have and suggesting ways they could become involved.

Nowadays Labor Day offers last-minute summer vacations and family get-togethers for many. But why is it a federal holiday? Here we look into the history of Labor Day and the current challenges facing labor unions in the United States.

For the basics, turn to TimeandDate.com for an overview of the US Labor Day. If students want to know how the rest of the world celebrates labor, the site includes a link to its May Day content.  At USA.gov’s Labor Day page, you’ll find links to the Department of Labor history of the holiday along with statistics for workers today. The history of labor unions is written for an older audience. In the kids’ section the Employment Quiz link is defunct, but students can look into career paths.

The folks at Education World offer a page full of Labor Day links. Two are particularly helpful for younger learners. Fact Monster from Pearson Education presents a kid-friendly overview of the struggle for labor rights. It is the only source included here that references union corruption, noting the Teamsters’ criminal activity in the second half of the 20^th century.  For lots of statistics covering decades, click ‘more Labor Day features’ at the bottom of the page. The History Place presents photographs of children at work around 1910. The photographs are by Lewis W. Hine who left teaching to become an investigative photographer working for National Child Labor Committee.

History.com hosts several brief videos (including a dramatization of a young girl who helped lead a walk-out) and photos on Labor Day and the history of labor unions in the US. The site’s article describing the development of the holiday is concise. Its articles on the rise and decline of unions and strikes, which are chronological through the 1980’s, make for more challenging reading. For a comparison of organized labor membership and strength in 1983 and 2011, turn to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Edsitement, from the National Endowment for the Humanities, provides a detailed unit for grades 6-8 on three major labor events: the Haymarket Affair, the Homestead Strike and the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. The unit concludes with an activity comparing attitudes toward modern sweat-shop labor in developing countries and US territories.

Organized labor has faced growing challenges in recent decades. Reasons cited for the decline vary. Students can read recent articles to discover current thinking about labor’s decline and its effect on American life.  In The Atlantic, Derek Thompson looks at the impact of technology in considering ‘Who Killed American Unions?’ Steven Greenhouse, writing for the New York Times, tracks labor’s decline and the increase in wage inequality. The two articles are moderate in tone and content. Commenters for both articles show the variety of strong opinions among readers.

As industrial union membership has dropped, membership among government workers has remained strong. The past two years have seen an effort to decrease the strength of public service unions by several states. Older students can look into both sides of the issues – union busting versus controlling state budgets – in this NYT Learning Network post. One activity places students in roles on both sides of the debate. The article also provides resources to look into the history of unions in the US and offers suggestions for reading fiction and nonfiction to immerse students in the working conditions and attitudes experienced by workers and employers. The comments following the post also offer a range of attitudes toward unions.

1st photo: BigStock image
2nd photo: Seattle Municipal Archives, Creative Commons

Most of us live within driving distance of one or more national parks. The National Park Service can help educators across content areas enrich their lessons by bringing some direct summer experience back to the classroom. And if you don’t have time to get face-to-face with these preserved and honored pieces of America, Park Service web pages often describe the history, culture or geology underlying the parks.

America on a Grand Scale

Learn about educational opportunities for all ages provided at major parks from the Park Service’s Institutes and Field School page. Most of these parks are out west. Another western park, on a smaller scale, is Manzanar National Historic Site. You can visit to see and hear about the US internment of Japanese Americans at the Manzanar War Relocation Center near Los Angeles, which began in 1942.

The Civil War, 150 Years Later

Moving east, educators can observe the Civil War Sesquicentennial. In 2012, national parks and battlefields are hosting events to commemorate 1862 battles. On July 7 the Fort Donelson Battlefield in northern Tennessee will host “Ulysses Grant,” 150 years after his previous visit, to talk about the Union’s February 1862 win over rebel forces. Like other Park Service properties, Fort Donelson will also reach beyond history in its programming with a “Water Education for Teachers” workshop on June 12. Almost three hours to the south, the Park Service will remember the fighting around Shiloh with June encampments and other events.

The 1862 Peninsular Campaign that centered around the Confederate capital is being commemorated by the Richmond National Battlefield Park through June. The Park Service provides a useful timeline of the many battles that made up the campaign. The Manassas National Battlefield Park will offer a week of events in late August to remember the 2^nd Battle of Bull Run. Learn about Robert E. Lee’s September 1862 thrust into Maryland, which led to the savage Battle of Antietam in the area now known as the Antietam National Battlefield. Events crowd the park’s 2012 calendar, including an August 11 and 12 program, Before the Storm, offering interaction with historical interpreters who will represent the soldiers and townspeople living nearby in the days before the battle.

The War of 1812: The British were coming, again

Of course, this year also marks the 200^th centennial of the War of 1812. The battles of the war’s first year centered in the north and mid-west. For a look at the Park Service sites commemorating those events, visit this site.

A National Landmark Recalls a Heroine

To reach beyond the history of war in the United States, Americans can celebrate the 150^th birthday of an outstanding journalist who faced danger and discrimination to work for African American and women’s rights. The Park Service lists the Chicago home of Ida B. Wells-Barnett as a National Historic Landmark. The house is a private residence, but her hometown of Holly Springs, Mississippi, and the Ida B. Wells Museum will host a birthday festival in mid-July.

We know that quite a few history teachers trek to memorable locales during the summer, in search of high-interest stories to share with students. The National Park Service provides a quick search page to help you find national parks and historical sites close to you or your vacation destinations. And if you travel up or down the nation’s longest and narrowest national park (the Blue Ridge Parkway) and find yourself at Milepost 334, give John at MiddleWeb a call and he’ll have a cup of coffee with you!

As the eleventh anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks nears, the Smithsonian continues to offer its “September 11: Teaching Contemporary History” website from last year. Recordings of conference sessions, broken into EL, MS, and HS levels, remain relevant. The site also links to the extensive resources of the three memorial websites. Teachers as well as parents can benefit from the Smithsonian PDF ‘Talking to Your Children about 9/11’ which provides guidelines and links to professional organizations.

Also for teachers, Pam Moran makes the argument for including 9/11 in students’ study of history in a NYT Learning Network post from 2011. Last year, at the 10th anniversary, the Learning Network also posted teachers’ 9/11 lesson ideas and projects.

Scholastic also offers its 9/11 resources assembled last year. A set of FAQs is available for younger students. ”I Was 11 on 9/11” describes sixth-grader Emily Sussell‘s escape from a school four blocks from the Twin Towers and the days that followed. The article is detailed enough to provide a timeline of events. Writing for older middle grades children, a Scholastic editor remembers the morning of 9/11 when her brother died in one of the Twin Towers and the impact of the almost 3000 deaths on families and friends. Elsewhere on the site, Scholastic provides an October, 2011 article on the war in Afghanistan, including the death of Osama bin Laden. A December, 2011 article, in noting the end of the war in Iraq, gives a quick review of the US fighting in that country. This year Scholastic is working with MyGoodDeed to provide service learning resources to give students opportunities to commemorate 9/11 by helping others. The 9/11 Day materials include lessons, projects, and a teacher’s guide.

Students can find news stories and other primary resources at the FAQ section of the September 11 Digital Archive created by CUNY and George Mason University. Many items are from the New York Times. If students have limited access to NYT content, they will find useful resources from the Washington Post, the BBC and government documents.

Students can also access September 12, 2001 newspaper front pages from across America and the world. The Newseum in Washington, DC, maintains the collection. Many pages feature photographs of the World Trade Center, some with the attacking planes and others with people in the streets of New York. Pentagon photos are limited.

If you decide to use video and audio of the attacks, the History Channel provides timelines and  interactive maps with linked video clips. The site also contains resources on the rebirth of the World Trade Center. TeachingHistory.org has collected wide-ranging materials in several media. The site’s blog post on the ten year anniversary makes resources easy to access at one point.

The September 11, 2001 attacks affected many aspects of life in America in the past 11 years. Students can get an overview of the changes from a PBS News Hour article posted in 2011.

The anti-Muslim/anti-foreigner hate crimes that erupted immediately following 9/11 continue. Just this month a Joplin, Missouri mosque was burned. The new Murfreesboro, Tennessee Islamic center opened after months of vandalism, arson, and court challenges. In the same month a gunman killed six members of the Sikh community in Oak Creek, Wisconsin as they worshiped.This op-ed article in the Atlanta Black Star expresses concern about the lack of “national outrage.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Tolerance project provides lessons to help students recognize stereotyping. “Debunking Muslim Myths” uses graphs to show Muslims’ place in American society. “Because I Had a Turban” goes inside schools to report students’ experiences of discrimination. The lesson offers suggestions for building tolerance in the classroom. You will also find links to other Teaching Tolerance lessons on the sensitivity and legal issues around discussing religion in the classroom. “Bringing 9/11 in the Classroom—Useful Lessons,” from 2011, links to several with most resources still available.

Students can see how writers respond to loss in “The Names,” a poem by former poet laureate Billy Collins, read at PBS News Hour September 11, 2011. The video features photographs of people killed on 9/11.

In a Book Whisperer post on books to build community in the classroom, Donalyn Miller recommends 14 Cows for America by Carmen Agra Deedy.  The book recounts how Maasai villagers in Kenya responded to the 9/11 attacks by giving 14 cows, their most prized possessions, to America.

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Photos: From the Smithsonian, SEPTEMBER 11 BEARING WITNESS TO HISTORY: WTC stairway by John Labriola, an eyewitness going to work, Shanksville by Tim Shaffer of Reuters, Pentagon by firefighter Jon Culberson