Black History Month

We're excited to share ideas that strengthen the everyday lives of Black and Brown students within our schools and communities. Each episode is aimed at empowering our knowledge for collective liberation.

This Black History Month and every month, there are a great many figures, moments, and concepts to highlight while teaching Black history in the classroom. But as information about possible material and approaches becomes more widely available, it can be difficult to pinpoint the best tools, strategies, and resources.

Every student deserves an equitable education. That means that more Black educators must be recruited, supported, and elevated. This Black History Month, ASCD asked influential Black authors and Faculty members to tell the story of their experiences in the classroom and how Black history has shaped their lives and careers.

Black history isn’t only in the past—it’s happening right now. This Black History Month, commit to acknowledging and elevating today’s young Black change makers and their accomplishments year-round. Our resources will help you uplift Black activists who are changing history and those fighting for justice within their communities, and they will encourage your students to see themselves as change makers too.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics 2017-18 report, 79% of teachers are white, even as the majority of students attending public schools are children of color. However, research shows schools are missing out on many potential benefits when teachers don’t reflect the ethnic or racial diversity of their students.

Education is among the highest stated priorities right out of the gate for the new administration. Besides the obvious–getting students and teachers back to school safely and quickly–major challenges remain around what some call “unfinished learning” and others call “learning loss.”

Included in this post are not only biographies of great people but also books that impart beautiful images and words. Such inspirational images, stories, and poems by Black authors and mostly Black illustrators, uplift and validate the culture, every day experiences, and reflections of Black children—and that is worth celebrating during Black History Month and all year.

Black History Month (originally “Negro History Week”) was started by Carter G. Woodson in 1915. He had a very simple theory to promote the liberation and success of Black people: Black history has to be taught without centering Whiteness. That is why Woodson created his own teaching tool, “The Negro History Bulletin,” for children to learn about Black history.

To commemorate and celebrate the contributions to our nation made by people of African descent, American historian Carter G. Woodson established Black History Week (then called “Negro History Week”) nearly a century ago. The event was first celebrated during the second week of February 1926, selected because it coincides with the birthdays of both Abraham Lincoln (February 12) and abolitionist/writer Frederick Douglass (February 14).

Edutopia - Black History Month provides a great opportunity for students to explore and learn more about a variety of issues. But it's important that teachers "reinforce that 'Black history' is American history," writes Pat Russo in Do's and Don'ts of Teaching Black History Month. Russo's article is a great place to start when determining how to best incorporate Black history into your lesson plans.

The goal of the Library's National Digital Library Program is to offer broad public access to a wide range of historical and cultural documents as a contribution to education and lifelong learning. The Library of Congress presents these documents as part of the record of the past. These primary historical documents reflect the attitudes, perspectives, and beliefs of different times. The Library of Congress does not endorse the views expressed in these collections, which may contain materials offensive to some readers.

This exhibit marks the publication of The African-American Mosaic: A Library of Congress Resource Guide for the Study of Black History and Culture. A noteworthy and singular publication, the Mosaic is the first Library-wide resource guide to the institution's African-American collections. Covering the nearly 500 years of the black experience in the Western hemisphere, the Mosaic surveys the full range size, and variety of the Library's collections, including books, periodicals, prints, photographs, music, film, and recorded sound.

A collection of online resources provided by the National Archives on Black History Month.

In episode 154, Dan and Michael chat with friend of the pod Dr. LaGarrett King about his new article in Social Education titled, “Black History is Not American History: Toward a Framework of Black Historical Consciousness.”