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40 Black History Month Activities for February and Beyond

Celebrate and inspire with these Black history lesson ideas.

We know that Black history is American history and needs to be embedded into your classroom experiences year-round. At the same time, Black History Month provides the necessary opportunity to dig deeper with students. Every February, we can support students as they learn more, discover cultural impacts, and follow social movements from the past to the present day. These Black History Month lessons and activities cannot be isolated or one-off classroom experiences. Think of how you can connect these topics to what you’re already doing and make it authentic. And most important, do not just focus on oppression: Focus on the joy too!

Since 1928, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History has provided a theme for Black History Month. In 2024, the theme is African Americans and the Arts .

1. Learn the basics about Black History Month

Watch an introductory video about Black History Month. Then ask students to write their questions about Black history and use those to curate your resources and lessons for the month.

2. Re-create civil rights freedom posters

The Civil Rights Movement Veterans site offers powerful examples of freedom movement posters, as does the Civil Rights Digital Library . Review them with your students, and then have them get into groups and create their own to share.

3. Explore Black history through primary sources from the National Archives

Primary sources are great discussion starters to talk about Black experiences. Choose from thousands of resources , including this 1970s photo series of Chicago.

4. Learn about famous Black artists

Future Jacob Lawrences and Elizabeth Catletts will appreciate learning more about artists and expanding their own talents. Plus, check out these other Black artists .

5. Watch a Black History Month video

Get more specific information or do a deep dive into an area of Black history with a video about civil rights, slavery, accomplished Black Americans, and more.

Check out this list of Black history videos for students in every grade level.

6. Learn about Black Lives Matter

The Black Lives Matter site explains the group’s history while books like Dear Martin and  The Hate U Give explore the movement from a fictional perspective.

7. Learn about the inventor of the traffic light

Garrett Morgan invented the traffic light and patented the three-position traffic signal. Teach students about his achievements as an example of how Black Americans impact our everyday experiences. Watch a video about Morgan and talk about what inspired his invention and how being an African American impacted him as an inventor.

Buy it: Garrett Morgan Activity Pack at Amazon

8. Create a newsletter or magazine with content from Black authors

Have your students generate their own newsletter or literacy magazine to distribute to parents. Include poems and short stories by Black authors, as well as student-generated writings and images that center on Black History Month.

9. Read a Black History Month poem

To enhance our conversations this month, we’ve put together this list of powerful Black History Month poems for kids of all ages.

10. Listen to young poet Amanda Gorman

Amanda Gorman is another accomplished Black American and a great introduction to Black poetry. Watch the poem she read at Barack Obama’s inauguration, read her book Change Sings , and learn about her at Poets.org.

Buy it: Change Sings: A Children’s Anthem at Amazon

11. Turn your classroom (or school!) into a history museum

Have your students choose a notable Black pioneer they’d like to know more about, such as voting rights and women’s rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer, dancer Alvin Ailey, or Betty Reid Soskin, the oldest full-time national parks ranger . Then, host a living museum right in your classroom.

12. Decorate your classroom door for Black History Month

Turn your classroom door into an educational experience. Check out how these teachers decorated their classroom doors in amazing ways to showcase Black History Month, and review this video with ideas.

13. Read books with Black characters in honor of Marley Dias

Dias is a young activist who started the #1000blackgirlbooks campaign as a sixth grader. She has compiled an excellent guide to books with Black girl characters . Check out WeAreTeachers’ list of books with Black protagonists as well.

14. Learn the story of the Henrietta Marie

The Henrietta Marie was a slave ship that sunk off the coast of Florida. Learn about the ship, its journey, and the underwater memorial that honors African slaves. Get more information about the Henrietta Marie at National Geographic.

15. Experience the I Have a Dream speech from multiple perspectives

Read A Place to Land: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Speech that Inspired a Nation by Barry Wittenstein. Then, watch the I Have a Dream Speech online, and explore resources about the speech at National Geographic . Engage students in discussing why this speech is so important in American history and why it continues to resonate today.

Buy it: A Place to Land at Amazon

16. Meet Oprah

Oprah Winfrey is a name every student knows, learn more about this influential Black American in this interview:

17. Read Black History Month books

If you’re looking for more reading activities, these picture books help celebrate Black History Month and educate your students on how these influential Black people helped shape history.

18. Learn the art of stepping

Stepping is a form of dancing in which the body itself is used to create unique rhythms and sounds. The website Step Afrika!  has videos and information about the history of stepping.

19. Take a virtual field trip to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

The digital collections of the Schomburg Center, located in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood, feature some amazing online exhibits, interviews, and podcasts.

20. Virtually visit the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture

You can browse the collection online by topic, date, or place.

21. Host a poetry reading featuring works by Black poets

Have students choose a poem by a Black poet to learn and recite for the class. Choose a student to serve as the emcee, write up a program, and set the tone with dimmed lights and jazz music played between performances. The Poetry Foundation has excellent resources that can help get you started.

Here’s inspiration with Maya Angelou’s Still I Rise:

22. Check out online Black history exhibits

Educating yourself and your students with these shows is one more way to understand Black history and the current moment.

23. Dive into Georgia Stories: Black History Collection on PBS

As a state, Georgia played a huge role in the 2020 presidential election, and its Black history dates back to the earliest days of slavery in the colony.

24. Discuss implicit bias, systemic racism, and social justice

Start a much-needed discussion around implicit bias and systemic racism with these resources that can empower students to fight for justice in our society.

25. Read and discuss Freedom in Congo Square

The award-winning picture book Freedom in Congo Square by Carole Boston Weatherford and R. Gregory Christie is a nonfiction children’s book that describes the tyranny of slavery to help young readers understand how jubilant Sundays were for slaves.

Buy it: Freedom in Congo Square at Amazon

26. Watch Kevin Hart’s Guide to Black History

Kevin Hart highlights the fascinating contributions of Black history’s unsung heroes in this entertaining—and educational—comedy special.

27. Recognize Black visionaries

This great poster featuring activists, artists, authors, and revolutionaries will highlight Black changemakers in your classroom. Use companion activities to deepen understanding by researching several of the visionaries and asking students to write a story or create their own poster about what they’ve learned.

28. Review a timeline of Black history

Why is Black History Month in February? How long ago was it founded, and who started it? Find the answers to these questions and learn more with this timeline .

29. Explore the music of Black artists

This lesson traces the long history of how Black artists have used music as a vehicle for communicating beliefs, aspirations, observations, joy, despair, resistance, and more across U.S. history.

30. Sample Black-founded snack brands

Honor Black History Month with delicious snacks from Black-founded brands delivered to your classroom—5% of proceeds are donated to the Equal Justice Initiative and one meal is donated to Feeding America for every box delivered.

31. Understand the role of Black women in NASA’s history

How much do your students know about Black contributions to space exploration? Rent the film Hidden Figures and watch with your students to remember, honor, and share the incredible accomplishments of three Black women working on NASA’s space flight program. Before watching the movie, research the liberties the film took in telling the story and discuss with your students the function of the choices. Did the filmmakers make the right choices?

Watch it: Hidden Figures at Amazon

32. Support local Black-owned businesses

Research your city’s Black-owned businesses and see if you can purchase a sample of their products, invite some of the entrepreneurs to speak to your class, or book a field trip!

33. Stream Bookmarks: Celebrating Black Voices on Netflix

“ Bookmarks: Celebrating Black Voices is a live-action collection of 12 five-minute episodes featuring prominent Black celebrities and artists reading children’s books from Black authors that highlight the Black experience.”

34. Celebrate the “Black Lives Matter at School” movement

“Black Lives Matter at School” is a national coalition organized for racial justice in education. It encourages all educators, students, parents, unions, and community organizations to join an annual week of action during the first week of February each year.​ For a variety of Black History Month activities, visit their website to learn more about their campaign .

35. Watch a historic moment

When Barack Obama was inaugurated in 2009, it was a monumental day for Black History. Watch his inauguration and discuss what this meant for American history.

36. Analyze Hair Love

You can approach the book Hair Love by Matthew Cherry in a few ways. Talk about the importance of representation in picture books and media, have students share their connections with the story, or analyze the book as a story about modern Black families.

Buy it: Hair Love at Amazon

37. Study the Underground Railroad

Examine the Underground Railroad using various sources, like the picture book biography Before She Was Harriet by Lesa Cline-Ransome. National Geographic has a collection of resources about the Underground Railroad . And you can take a virtual tour of the Harriet Tubman museum.

Buy it: Before She Was Harriet at Amazon

38. Research Juneteenth

Juneteenth is a holiday that celebrates the freedom of enslaved people. Learn about Juneteenth , how it came about, and what it means to Black Americans with these National Geographic resources.

39. Listen to musician Rhiannon Giddens

As she was trying to understand and make sense of violence against Black Americans in 2020, folk musician Rhiannon Giddens wrote and released the song “Build a House.” The song came out on the 155th anniversary of Juneteenth. The song, which was made into a picture book, captures 400 years of Black history in a lyrical and thoughtful way. Use Giddens’ book either to introduce or wrap up a month on Black history.

Read an essay about the song , and watch the video.

Buy it: Build a House at Amazon

40. Study the pivotal court case Loving v. Virginia

Loving v. Virginia, decided in 1967, made marriage between people of different races legal. Learn about the Loving decision and why it’s important at National Geographic.

Plus, get inspiration from these Black History Month bulletin boards for your classroom .

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10 Inspiring Black History Month Activities for Students

Written by Laney Kennedy

• Teacher Resources
• Teaching Activities

7 Black History Month topic ideas

Guidelines for teaching during black history month, 10 black history month activities for your students.

February is Black History Month : the celebration of African American history, contributions, and achievements that’s recognized annually across the United States and Canada. 

For teachers, it’s a great opportunity to teach with intention, honoring the tradition and showing students its importance, along with the importance of Black history and culture. 

And this year, it's more important than ever to uphold this tradition and celebrate Black history — no matter where your students are learning.

Use these 10 activity ideas to teach Black history all month and keep your students engaged, whether they're in-class or online!

Typically, teachers tend to stick with the same few topics during Black History Month: civil rights, historical Black leaders or celebrities, and important milestones.

While these are still great topics to explore, there are also plenty of other important concepts you should consider introducing to your students this year, such as: 

• Current Black political issues
• The Black Family: Representation, Identity, and Diversity
• Stereotypes and microaggressions
• The history and impact of Black culture
• The history of hip hop 
• African Americans and the Vote
• Black Health and Wellness (this year's Black History Month theme!)

For Black History Month 2022, this year's theme is Black Health and Wellness. People are encouraged to explore how North American healthcare has underserved the black community and recognize the contributions to medicine and healthcare by black people.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Firsties♥️Ms. Salamak (@fur_babies_and_firsties)

When teaching Black history, remember to: 

• Follow the  do’s and dont’s
• Always promote  diversity in your classroom
• Remind students that  Black history  is  American history
• Leverage Black voices as much as you can (use relevant media, invite guest speakers etc.)

P.S. If you want to help parents talk about Black history and racial issues with their kids at home, use these 8 tips for parents as a helpful resource to start with — including additional resources for anyone who wants to learn more.

Use these activities throughout the month (and the rest of the year) to keep Black history at the forefront of your lessons and encourage your students to keep learning more.

1. Quote or fact of the day

Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.

Maya Angelou

Every morning, greet your students with a new quote or fact that’s relevant to Black history. 

Say them aloud during your lesson, add them to your bulletin board or send them in an online message (or all of the above, if you’re feeling ambitious). After this, you can open a discussion with your class about the relevance of each quote or fact.

Your students will love looking forward to what each day brings!

Try these: 

• Black history facts
• 15 Inspiring quotes
• 5 Black history quote posters
• Black history quotes - mini posters

2. Person of the day or week 

Take time to talk about Black influencers and their accomplishments. Highlight a different person every day or week and center your lessons around them!

Explore categories like:

• Politicians
• Historical figures
• Heroes and iconic leaders
• Scientists and mathematicians

Tip: Try to look beyond typical historical figures and popular celebrities. There are plenty of Black contributors students may not have even heard of yet — use this chance to introduce them! 

3. Black history trivia & games

Bring some fun (and maybe a little competition) into your lessons this month! Find trivia and games that focus on Black history, or repurpose other classroom games to incorporate Black History Month questions and answers.

• Black history multiplication - true or false
• Black history quizzes (these online quizzes are perfect for remote learning!)

4. Worksheet activities

Teach students about Black history while they work on fun activities at their own pace. Send worksheets to students online or print them out for independent classroom learning.

• Black history coloring pages
• Barack Obama crossword and trivia

5. Virtual events

Classroom learning is great, but there’s so much students can learn from their own experiences! 

This year especially, there are plenty of online activities and events celebrating Black History Month. So why not choose a youth-appropriate one your class can participate in?

• National Museum of African American History: Classroom Connections
• Black History Every Month: Virtual Events That Inspire Action, Education, and Connection

6. Timeline activity

Provide more context on important events in Black history with a bit of chronology.

Have students put together their own timelines, whether individually or in groups, that focus on specific historical events or people. They’ll have fun putting all the events together and learn lots along the way!

7. Study (and create) art

Art in the Black community carries so much historical and cultural significance that can inspire some great, illuminative lessons.

Assign one of these activities from Creative Child , or get students to:

• Write a story 
• Make a video or podcast
• Create visual art or crafts

8. Use relevant media

There’s so much good media out there to help you teach Black history — use it to your advantage!

Read books or watch videos with your class, then discuss the themes and lessons of each piece of media. After this, you can assign work based on them.

Try these books:

• All Are Welcome by Alexandra Penfold
• The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson

9. Host thought activities

Strengthen collaboration skills with various thought activities during February. These will get students thinking and help them learn new ideas and perspectives from each other. 

Start by posing a relevant question to your class, like: 

• Why do we celebrate?
• What does Black History Month mean to you?
• How can we fight intolerance in our everyday lives?

Encourage plenty of participation, then discuss everyone’s answers together! 

10. Assign a  class project

Give your class a larger assignment they can work on for the entire month, like a collaborative media project or group presentation — like this one from The Core Coaches on Teachers Pay Teachers .

These bigger projects let students build on what they’re learning and work together towards something they can be proud of!

Additional resources

Get inspired by these extra resources to help you even more:

• Black History milestones
• Black History in the National Archives
• Teaching tools for Black History Month
• Black History in America teaching guide
• Black History Month resources and lessons
• 10 Picture book biographies to celebrate Black History Month
• 20 Important lessons to teach kids about Black History Month

P.S. Want to make your math classes more engaging? Research shows Prodigy make math more fun and can even contribute to better test performance! Discover more about Prodigy's adaptive math platform today!

10 Black History Month Activities for Your Classroom

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February is Black History Month. With everything going on in our classrooms (parent/teacher conferences, Valentine’s Day, 100th day of school, President’s Day, and COVID, to name a few), it can sometimes be overlooked or not given the time due. While Black History should be studied throughout the school year, February is the month it zooms into focus. The month that we take a moment to honor the black men and women who have brought so much value into our lives. With that said, consider weaving in these Black History Month activities both during February and the school year.

Getting Students Information

Students need to learn about various Black Americans that have been influential throughout history (and even currently!). The same Black Americans are often discussed repeatedly, such as Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., George Washington Carver, and Ruby Bridges. When we do this, we are reinforcing broken mindsets. You can read about these broken mindsets and the importance of Black History Month here on The Butterfly Teacher’s Blog .

Help your students branch out and learn about Black Americans in various categories such as artists, political activists, inventors, spiritual leaders, business people, writers, musicians, athletes, and entertainers.

Use Biographies

Biographies are a great place to find information about Black Americans. Sandy over at Sweet Integrations shares how she teaches biography elements using various books in different formats. One book she uses is Dave the Potter . It’s a biography about how Dave was a slave that created beautiful, artistic pottery. To learn more about this remarkable book and her way of using it to teach about biographies, click here .

If you’re looking for some easy-to-print biographies on remarkable Black Americans throughout history, check out these TpT Resources:

• The Butterfly Teacher’s Black History Month Biographies
• Delightful Design’s Black History Month Digital Bundle

Use Picture Books and Chapter Books

There are many books related to Black Americans’ achievements that you can bring into your classroom. Picture books are a great way to present historical facts both accurately and in an engaging manner. From Sparkling in Second, Jen has a post featuring over 30 books that your students would love during Black History Month! Head here to check out the books she suggests !

As for chapter books, one series that comes to mind immediately is the Who Was/Who Is series. These books contain biographies on Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Nelson Mandela, Maya Angelou, The Underground Railroad, and so much more. You can read about other chapter books for Black History Month here .

Use 28 Days

The book, 28 Days , features a different influential Black American each day during February. It’s a quick page to read each day and a brief way to introduce stellar Black Americans and events related to them.

Black History Month Activities for Your Students

#1 – class timeline.

Group your students and then assign each group with an important period of Black History. For instance,

• Slavery in America
• Civil War and Reconstruction
• Great Migration
• Harlem Renaissance
• Jim Crow Segregation Era
• Civil Rights Movement
• Post-Civil Rights Movement
• Current/Modern Times

Have the students in those groups research the major events and Black Americans to present to the class. Then provide each group with a large piece of butcher paper or chart paper. Have them write the name of their period along the top with the dates. In their report, they will present images and important “snapshot” events that occurred. Once the entire class has finished, place the papers side-by-side to create a class timeline.

#2 – Student Interviews

After your students have studied various Black Americans, have them create an interview with that individual. This can be done in the format of a news article, a magazine article, or anything. Have students write down questions they would ask, along with the answers he or she would say. Some questions should involve the achievements of that American and his or her’s impact.

#3 – Create an ABC Book

First, read The ABCs of Black History picture book to your students. Conclude by having students create an ABC book similar to the picture book. Students can use Black Americans for the letters or events. Have them illustrate the text and add information they learned.

#4 – Create a Museum Walk

Have students research a specific person from Black History and prepare to give a presentation. This presentation can be in the form of creating posters and hanging them around the room, or a little more involved, like a wax museum activity. If desired, have students dress up as the individual.

#5 – Use Mystery Puzzles with Trivia Facts

All students love puzzles, and trivia can be just as fun. Nesli, from the Teacher wears Prada, likes to tie academics, puzzles, and trivia together. She provides her students with puzzles that involve solving a math problem, and as they work through the problems, they put together a mystery fact. She also likes to do this with sentence building! You learn more about this engaging Black History Month activity by clicking here or on the picture below . You can also have your students create their own mystery puzzles using facts they have learned throughout the unit.

#6 – Create Themed Squares for a Quilt

After studying Black History, provide each student with a square for a quilt . Inside the square, having them include important facts about their Black American, the contributions he or she did, when he or she was around, and other important information. When everyone has finished, connect the squares to create a large themed quilt. For a digital version of making a Black History Quilt, check out this Memory Quilt by the Tech Chick .

#7 – Have a Talent Show

Create groups of students based on the categories mentioned before (artists, inventors, etc.). Assign each student a Black American from within that group. For instance, in the Athletes group, you would assign someone Wilma Rudolph, and another person in the group would be given, Jesse Owens. Have students work together to decide how they will demonstrate each individual’s “talents” as a group.

#8 – Bring Awareness Activities

As you discuss the deeper issues of racism, prejudice, and discrimination, have students bring awareness to what still needs to be done. This can be done through Black History Month activities of having students plan social media campaigns, creating infographics with facts, writing a letter to an editor that uses influential Black American quotes, conducting surveys, and/or making a public service announcement.

#9 – Create Black Hero Puzzles

Provide each student with the puzzle pieces of this Black Hero Puzzle . After they have researched their Black American Hero, have them illustrate the individual in the center, add his or her accomplishments, add some fun facts and a little color- and you have a cute display!

#10 – Have Students Create a Brochure

Have students put together a trifold brochure with all the important events, accomplishments, and so much more. Dr. Loftin’s Learning Emporium has a free brochure on Michelle Obama that students could reference. Click here to download that freebie .

Black History Month is so important in our world today. It’s important to go beyond just reading passages about these legendary heroes and move into meaningful activities, discussions, and reflections. It’s my hope that something in this post was helpful to get you started!

Happy Black History Month!

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National Geographic Education Blog

Bring the spirit of exploration to your classroom.

Resource Library Collection: Ideas to Celebrate Black History Month

Black History Month is the time to celebrate the achievements, life-changing events, and influence of history makers! National Geographic has a Resource Library collection with over 30 resources to help educators cover important events and figures. 

Browse a few suggested highlights to get the conversation with your students started. 

From athletes and musicians to inventors and trailblazers , there are a variety of profiles to read. A snapshot of lesser-known war heroine and businesswoman Mary Seacole is a good starting point to share the depth of history around the lives of these individuals. 

ACTIVITY  

“ How Enslaved People Found Their Way North ” is an activity to introduce your students to the Underground Railroad, a system used to help enslaved people get to free states. Unsure on how to start the conversation? This resource comes equipped with discussion questions, background, vocabulary, and ways to have your students describe related clues. 

Use visual representations such as this map series about human migration to bring history to life. Students will be able to observe the movement of the African-American population from 1860 to 2010. 

We encourage you to celebrate and highlight this content all-month long and the rest of the year! Have an idea? Feel free to share what’s on your lesson plan for Black History Month by tagging us on Twitter and Facebook (@NatGeoEducation). 

Want to connect with like-minded educators? Join our Educator Network to learn from others, build your skills, and be inspired by new ways to bring the world into your classroom.

New to our Resource Library ? Browse thousands of National Geographic classroom resources by grade, subject, and content type. Register for a free account to save activities, articles, lesson plans and more to your library !

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2 thoughts on “ Resource Library Collection: Ideas to Celebrate Black History Month ”

Knowing history always creates curiosity among students. This enables them to build a better tomorrow. AUSD has also taken initiatives to celebrate black history month. Keep motivating us to gain knowledge. Thank you.

Nice post! These ideas are really going to help students Chula Vista District to celebrate black history month to create awareness of our history. Thanks.

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Black history is American history. We've compiled the following lesson plans, teaching ideas and online resources to help teachers celebrate Black history in February and every month throughout the school year. See the materials below, organized by grade level. 

Multiple grade levels

• Academy of American Poets: Lesson Plans for Black History Month
• African Burial Ground National Monument online resources
• Birmingham Civil Rights Institute: Lesson Plans for K-12 students
• Black Past: African American History Timeline
• Center for Racial Justice: Black History Month resource guide
• Google Arts & Culture: Photos from the Civil Rights Movement, online exhibition
• Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz: Lesson Plans
• "History of Black New York," collection of Professor Ted Henken, Baruch College
• iCivics, "Changemakers of the Civil Rights Era"
• Learning for Justice: "Do's and Don'ts of Teaching Black History" 
• Library of Congress: Black History Month collection
• "More than a Map(p)," teaching activity
• New York Historical Society, "Seneca Village"
• New York Public Library, Schomburg Center digital resources
• New York Times Learning Network, "Celebrating Black History with the NY Times"
• NPR, "In The Story Of U.S. Immigration, Black Immigrants Are Often Left Out"
• National Museum of African American History & Culture, "Black Women Artists"
• National Museum of African American History & Culture, "Hair Joy"
• National Park Service, "Discovering the Underground Railroad"
• PBS Jazz Kids, "Learning through The Duke"
• Welcoming Schools: Family Story Quilts
• Zinn Education Project, "Teaching Young Children about Redlining"
• Civil Rights Teaching: Stepping into Selma
• Facing History & Ourselves, "Choices in Little Rock"
• Kennedy Center, "Drop Me Off in Harlem"
• Learning for Justice, "Mary Church Terrell"
• National Civil Rights Museum, "Before the Boycott" online activity and related teachers' guide  
• New York Times Learning Network, "When Blackness is a Superpower"

Grades 9-12

• AFT Share my Lesson: History of Rap & Hip Hop
• Learning for Justice, "The Color of Law: Creating Racially Segregated Communities"
• Library of Congress, "Segregation: From Jim Crow to Linda Brown"
• National Civil Rights Museum, "Standing Up by Sitting Down" online activity and related teachers' guide
• National Constitution Center, "The 14th Amendment: Battles for Freedom and Equality"
• Paradox of Liberty: Slavery at Jefferson's Monticello

8 classroom activities to celebrate Black History Month in school

Learn how you can bring the richness of Black history to life, encouraging a deeper understanding and appreciation among your students. Explore 8 engaging activities to make this February an educational celebration.

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In 1926, Carter G. Woodson sparked a movement by establishing Negro History Week, a dedicated time to shine a spotlight on the often-overlooked history, lives, and contributions of Black Americans. Fast forward to 1976, and this week-long celebration expanded into the entire month of February, officially becoming Black History Month as we know it today.

Black History Month is like a colorful quilt woven with amazing achievements, challenges, and victories of African Americans. As educators, embracing Black History Month means opening doors to inclusivity, offering a powerful platform for learning, and incorporating the rich narratives of Black history into every student’s education. 

In this blog, we will share Black History Month project ideas that you can incorporate into your classroom activities. These engaging activities will help you promote inclusivity and enrich the educational experience for your students. So let’s begin!

1. Assign a person of the day

You can take a transformative approach to Black History Month by dedicating time to spotlight Black influencers and their remarkable accomplishments. The “Person of the Day” strategy allows students to explore the lives of impactful Black figures across various categories. 

Each day can unwind a new story, ranging from actors and artists to writers, athletes, activists, musicians, politicians, filmmakers, historical figures, and even unsung heroes. This method will help broaden their understanding by showcasing the diverse talents that have shaped history.

Encourage students to explore categories like scientists and mathematicians, highlighting the groundbreaking contributions of individuals often overlooked in traditional curricula. Emphasize the importance of looking beyond well-known historical figures and celebrities to introduce students to lesser-known but equally influential Black contributors. 

2. Decorate the classroom with posters and infographics

Transforming your classroom into an engaging hub for Black History Month becomes even more exciting when you involve students in creating posters and infographics. Encourage students to dive into researching significant figures. As they gather information, guide them in selecting powerful quotes and images of these personalities and their contributions. 

For instance, a poster featuring Martin Luther King Jr. could include a memorable quote from his “I Have a Dream” speech and images capturing moments from the Civil Rights Movement. This approach will help students create content that communicates the importance of Black history in an accessible and visually appealing way. Use the user-friendly platform PosterMyWall to design visuals that showcase key facts, impactful quotes, and images related to Black history. There is a huge variety of black history month flyer templates that you can choose and edit, instead of starting from scratch.

3. Explore African American history

Assigning research projects on influential Black personalities offers students a hands-on opportunity to explore the impactful lives of historical figures. This activity can also help enhance students’ research and presentation skills.

You can start by discussing pivotal events, like the Civil Rights Movement, shedding light on key figures such as Rosa Parks, who sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and Martin Luther King Jr., a prominent leader advocating for racial equality. These discussions aim to offer a comprehensive view, going beyond well-known narratives to highlight lesser-known stories that contribute to a more detailed understanding of history.

To make the learning experience more engaging, use multimedia resources, documentaries, or virtual guest speakers. Incorporate videos, audio clips, or interactive presentations that provide a visual and auditory dimension to the topics you’re covering. Select Black History month programs from Youtube or Netflix that align with your curriculum and showcase diverse perspectives on Black history.

4. Create timeline collages

Another cool Black History Month school activity is constructing a timeline collage to understand the significant events and key milestones of Black history. Provide students with a list of pivotal moments, such as the Emancipation Proclamation, the Civil Rights Act, or the election of Barack Obama. Then, divide the class into small groups and assign each group a specific period or theme.

Encourage students to research and select images or illustrations that represent their assigned events or figures. Once the research is done, have each group create a timeline collage on a large poster board. This collaborative effort allows students to share knowledge, discuss the importance of each event, and piece together a comprehensive timeline that captures the essence of Black history.

5. Organize literature circles

Literature circles are an effective way to immerse students in the powerful narratives of African American authors, promoting critical thinking and cultural understanding. For instance, consider introducing Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.” This autobiographical masterpiece describes Angelou’s experiences as a young Black girl growing up in the racially-segregated South. 

This Black History Month school project lets students gain insight into the challenges faced by African Americans during that era. They can engage in meaningful discussions, sharing perspectives and exploring the complexities of the Black experience. Encourage students to analyze characters’ motivations, societal challenges portrayed, and the broader impact of these works. 

Here are a few impactful reads by African American authors that you can incorporate into literature circles for Black History Month:

• “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas
• “Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates
• “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston
• “Kindred” by Octavia Butler

6. Host quizzes and games

Introducing interactive quizzes and games focused on Black history is an exciting way to infuse energy and enthusiasm into the learning environment. You can structure the questions to cover a range of topics, from influential figures to key events. These quizzes are an effective method to reinforce students’ knowledge while keeping them actively engaged. For example, you can create questions that prompt students to match historical events with the correct dates, identify significant individuals based on their accomplishments, or even solve puzzles related to important milestones in Black history. This way, you can cater to different learning styles, ensuring a well-rounded and enjoyable learning experience.

7. Visit museums

Organizing a museum visit, whether in-person or virtual, is a great way to involve students in the rich history of African Americans. Take advantage of local museums or arrange a virtual tour to places like the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Virtual tours can bring the museum experience directly to the classroom, allowing students to explore artifacts, exhibits, and stories that vividly depict the struggles of the Black community.

During these visits, students can learn about influential personalities who have left a mark on history. For instance, exploring the exhibits may lead them to discover the powerful legacy of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. , the groundbreaking contributions of scientist George Washington Carver, or the artistic brilliance of painter and collagist Romare Bearden. 

This immersive activity provides a unique opportunity to make historical events and figures more relatable. Students get to engage with the real stories behind the struggles for civil rights and the resilience of the Black community. The museum visit becomes a powerful educational tool, making history come alive before their eyes. Here are a few museums students can visit during Black History month:

Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) – Washington, D.C.

A comprehensive exploration of African American history and culture, with exhibits covering topics from slavery and the Civil Rights Movement to the achievements and contributions of Black Americans in various fields.

The National Civil Rights Museum – Memphis, Tennessee

A profound journey through the American civil rights movement, including the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The museum is located at the Lorraine Motel, where Dr. King was assassinated.

The Legacy Museum – Montgomery, Alabama

An examination of the history of slavery, lynching, and racial segregation in America, emphasizing the impact of these injustices on the present-day criminal justice system.

8. Read and write poetry

Introduce your students to the powerful world of poetry by immersing them in the works of influential Black poets like Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Nikki Giovanni. Start by reading and discussing a selection of their poems, highlighting the unique themes and emotions woven into their words. Break down the verses, discussing the historical and emotional context behind each piece.

This Black History Month school activity can also encourage your students to start their own poetic journey. Provide them with prompts that invite personal reflection and expression, allowing them to draw inspiration from the themes explored by the poets. For example, students might write about their own roots, experiences, or aspirations. This creative exercise will also enhance language skills and be a therapeutic outlet for self-expression.

Celebrating Black History Month in the Classroom

Incorporating Black history in your classroom projects ensures that every student has the opportunity to connect with and celebrate the contributions made by African Americans. These engaging ideas shared above will help you make the learning experience more exciting for your students. 

Consider incorporating PosterMyWall to simplify the design process and also empower students to express their creativity, ensuring that the projects highlighting Black history are both informative and visually engaging. The user-friendly features make it easier to create visually appealing posters, infographics, and other visual materials.

Hira is a Content Writer at PosterMyWall. Hira enjoys writing, so she looks forward to exploring different niches. When she’s not writing, she’s either on a trip making new friends, jotting down her thoughts, or just spending quality time with her two cats, Rio and Dusty!

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Black History Month Ideas for School

By Med Kharbach, PhD | Last Update: February 13, 2024

As educators and school communities, we have a unique opportunity each February to engage students in a meaningful exploration of African American history and culture. Black History Month offers a dedicated time to reflect on the contributions, achievements, and struggles of African Americans throughout history.

It’s a chance to enrich our curriculum and school activities with lessons of courage, resilience, and creativity. In this post, we delve into a variety of Black History Month ideas for schools, designed to inspire and educate students of all ages. From decorating class doors to virtual field trips to historic sites, these ideas aim to create a comprehensive and immersive experience for students.

The purpose behind these educational activities is to foster a deeper understanding and appreciation of African American history and culture, encouraging students to carry these lessons of diversity and inclusion throughout their lives.

Related: Black History Month Resources for Teachers

Let’s explore this collection of black month ideas for schools and discuss how they can be implemented to create an enriching and inclusive environment for all students.

1. Decorate Class Doors

Encourage each classroom to decorate their door with themes related to Black history. This could range from tributes to significant African American figures, events, cultural symbols, or themes of unity and diversity. Hold a contest for the most creative or informative door, with students researching and presenting on their chosen theme. This activity not only beautifies the school but also turns the hallways into an immersive learning experience, sparking curiosity and conversations among students and staff.

2. Create Museums in School

Allocate spaces within the school—such as the library, common areas, or empty classrooms—to set up temporary museums dedicated to Black history. Each exhibit could focus on different aspects, such as the civil rights movement, African American inventors, artists, athletes, and leaders. Involve students in the creation of these exhibits, from research to design, encouraging them to dive deep into their subjects. This hands-on approach allows students to become curators of their learning, presenting their findings to their peers, parents, and the wider school community.

3. Design and Paint Murals

Collaborate with art teachers to guide students in designing and painting murals within the school that celebrate Black history and culture. These could depict key figures, historical events, or themes of equality and justice. Murals serve as a powerful visual reminder of the contributions of African Americans and can inspire pride, unity, and respect among the school community. Additionally, involving local artists in the project can enrich the experience, providing mentorship and fostering connections between students and the broader community.

Related: Black History Month Activities for Adults

4. Visualize Black History

Create a large, interactive timeline along a prominent wall in the school or in a communal space. This timeline can cover significant milestones in Black history, from ancient African civilizations to modern-day achievements and milestones in civil rights and culture. Encourage students from different grades to contribute by researching and adding events or figures to the timeline, making it a collaborative, school-wide project. This visual representation helps students understand the breadth and depth of Black history as an integral part of the world’s history.

5. Invite Local Community

Invite local historians, speakers, activists, and artists to share their knowledge and experiences related to Black history and culture. These guest speakers can offer personal stories, historical insights, and artistic performances, providing students with diverse perspectives and a deeper connection to the material. Hosting panel discussions or Q&A sessions with guests can further engage students, allowing them to ask questions and participate in meaningful dialogues.

6. Organize Movie Screenings

Organize movie screenings that highlight important themes, stories, and figures in Black history. Choose films that are appropriate for the school setting and conducive to educational discussions. After each screening, facilitate guided discussions or group projects based on the movie’s themes, encouraging students to reflect on what they’ve learned and how it relates to their understanding of history and contemporary issues. Here is a list of the best 20 Black History movies to check out.

6. Host a Black History Month Book Fair

Organize a book fair featuring works by African American authors across genres, including history, fiction, poetry, and autobiographies. This can introduce students to the rich literary heritage of Black writers and encourage reading and discussion around their works. Incorporate book talks, author visits (virtually or in person), and reading challenges to engage students further. Highlighting books for all age groups ensures that every student finds something inspiring to read and learn from.

7. Conduct a Black Innovators and Leaders Science Fair

Create a science fair that focuses on the achievements of African American innovators and leaders in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Students can select an individual or invention to research and then present their findings through experiments, models, or presentations. This not only educates students on the significant contributions of Black professionals in STEM but also inspires them to pursue their interests and talents in these fields.

Related: Best TED Talks on Black History Month

8. Host Black History Month Performance Showcase

Host a performance showcase where students can express what they’ve learned about Black history through music, dance, drama, or spoken word. This could include reenactments of historical events, performances of civil rights movement songs, or original pieces created by the students themselves. Encouraging artistic expression provides a powerful avenue for students to connect with and honor African American culture and history.

9. Organize Interactive Workshops on African American Cultures

Organize workshops that explore the diversity within African American cultures, including sessions on traditional African dances, the history and significance of soul food, or the origins and impact of different musical genres like jazz and hip-hop. These workshops can be led by community members or school staff who have expertise in specific areas, offering students hands-on experiences that celebrate the rich cultural traditions of African Americans.

10. Take Virtual Field Trips to Historic Sites

With technology, students can take virtual field trips to significant sites in Black history, such as the National Museum of African American History and Culture , the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site , or other important monuments and museums across the country. Following the virtual tours, students can engage in discussions, write reflections, or create projects based on their experiences and the information they’ve gathered, helping to make history tangible and relevant.

Related: Black History Month Activities for Kids and Elementary Students

Final thoughts

Implementing these Black History Month ideas for schools can profoundly impact students, educators, and the entire school community. By dedicating time to celebrate and learn about the contributions of African Americans, schools can create an environment of inclusivity, respect, and appreciation for diversity. These activities not only educate but also inspire students to recognize the importance of Black history as an integral part of American history. From interactive exhibits and performance showcases to workshops that explore the rich cultural traditions of African Americans, each activity provides a unique learning opportunity.

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Meet Med Kharbach, PhD

Dr. Med Kharbach is an influential voice in the global educational technology landscape, with an extensive background in educational studies and a decade-long experience as a K-12 teacher. Holding a Ph.D. from Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, Canada, he brings a unique perspective to the educational world by integrating his profound academic knowledge with his hands-on teaching experience. Dr. Kharbach's academic pursuits encompass curriculum studies, discourse analysis, language learning/teaching, language and identity, emerging literacies, educational technology, and research methodologies. His work has been presented at numerous national and international conferences and published in various esteemed academic journals.

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Engaging Activities for Black History Month in the Primary Classroom

Black History Month is filled with interesting social studies topics to explore with your primary students. Come along to see how you can weave the incredible stories of Rosa Parks, Ruby Bridges, and others into your daily classroom lessons throughout February. Not only will your students learn about important people throughout history, but you’ll also be able to target important ELA skills along the way!

Exploring Black History Month in the Classroom

Teaching young students about famous African Americans who helped to shape the world is an integral part of primary social studies instruction. Over the years, these topics were among my favorite to teach. They offered a strong dose of inspiration to my little learners and always grabbed their interest.

In my classroom, we focused on a few people in particular in our Black History Month lessons. Most of our studies included activities on George Washington Carver, Martin Luther King Jr., Ruby Bridges, and Rosa Parks. These four people have fascinating stories to follow that are perfect for kindergarten through third-grade students!

I’ve bundled together all the Black History Month resources I used in my classroom. Having a variety of lessons, readers, and extension activities in one place made planning and teaching easy. Ready to see what that looked like?

Introducing our Black History Month Heroes

Typically, we’d focus on one person at a time throughout the month. I liked to start our lessons by using an instructional PowerPoint as a group. The slides we used are filled with facts and pictures to help tell each person’s story in a developmentally appropriate way. This is a great way to introduce each person and spend some time discussing as a group to ensure comprehension.

The slides also include charts, graphic organizers, and questions to help facilitate deeper understanding. I tend to revisit these slides throughout our time working on these topics. We might complete a chart or two per day to recap, review, and assess.

Student Readers

After our introduction, it would be time to dive a little deeper into each of the people we were learning about. For this, I used little books and mini-readers that provided even more information. The students loved having their own book about each of the famous people.

There are two different readers to choose from. Younger students might do better with the smaller version that contains more condensed facts and shorter sentences. The second option is perfect for challenging your second and third-grade students with more facts and information on each page.

I liked to read through the mini-book as a group and have students color in the pictures as we discussed what we read. This was also the time I would weave in questioning strategies. This not only allowed us to focus on the facts of the individual we were learning about but also weave in some of the reading comprehension strategies we were working on.

You can ask students what they found to be most interesting or why they think certain events occurred. This is a great time to see what your students connect with and better understand the unique lens of each person’s achievements.

Teaching with Timelines

One of my favorite tools to use when teaching social studies is a timeline. Timelines not only allow us to order historical events and see where one event was in relation to another. But there are also a variety of math and critical thinking skills involved too!

After reading through our mini books, we always used timelines to help students fully grasp the life of each person we learned about throughout Black History Month. In my classroom, I used printable cards with dates and facts. This helps children visually see each important event that occurred and understand the order they took place.

My favorite way to do this activity is as a group. I pull a card, read a fact, and then have students help me get them in the correct order. You may have to place a few cards on the timeline to get things started. This will help provide a point of reference for your kiddos.

I also liked to wrap up the activity by having students create their own timelines. This activity is fantastic for helping students truly grasp and understand these events and their significance.

The timeline worksheets we used also come in differentiated versions to meet the diverse needs of a broad range of primary learners.

Connecting to the Past

As we learned about each of these famous African-Americans I wanted students to gain more than just knowledge and facts. I wanted them to start to develop an understanding of how someone’s actions in the past can affect our lives today.

To do this we would complete a variety of different extension activities for each of the people in our unit. For some, this might include foldables or graphic organizers added to our social studies notebooks. For others, it was to share what we had learned through writing.

Graphic Organizers and Printables

Graphic organizers and other printables are a great way to make extending student learning easy. Students can reflect on what they’ve learned, write down some important facts, and organize the information on their own or with a partner.

The graphic organizers are great for cutting out pasting into a notebook as well. In my classroom, we used a spiral-bound notebook for social studies lessons. As we learned about a new topic or person, students could add a few pages to help them remember what they learned. I love this extra step because students can flip through and see all the hard work they’ve done throughout the year. Plus, parents will love looking back and seeing the progression of their students’ writing with each new entry.

In the Black History Month Bundle, these charts and organizers are also included in the PowerPoint slides. This allows you to use them to model the activity as students complete it or as a whole group review activity. Either option is a great way to give students another opportunity to review the stories of each person in your Black History Month lessons.

Black History Month Writing Activities

Writing activities are a wonderful way to expand on student understanding. They’re always my favorite part of any social studies unit.

In these units, I have included a full page of writing paper along with clipart that illustrates important events and themes related to each person. I liked to have students flip through their notebooks and mini-readers to decide what information they’d like to include in their biographical writing. Then, they can write out a few sentences and choose some pictures to cut and glue down to their paper.

The fun thing about this activity is that even though the whole class will be writing about the same person, the writing assignments always turn out very differently! I liked to save these and then bind them together with a simple, construction paper cover for each student. This way students will have a mini book with everything they’ve learned throughout our Black History Month lessons.

Learning Crafts

I love a good craft! And even more so when it ties into what we’ve been learning. As the final activity for each unit, I have students make their very own “Bag of Facts”. This is a brown paper bag that’s filled with interesting tidbits we learned about each person of study.

Students get to pick out their favorite facts about each person, write them out, and add them to the bag. Then they decorate the front of the bag and make it their own.

As another option, the bundle also includes a Crown of Facts option. This activity focuses on the same concept, but students will wear the facts on their heads. Choose whichever option works best for your students, or mix it up and use a couple of each throughout the month!

Both of these end of unit crafts make a fun keepsake for students to take home and share what they’ve learned with their parents.

Grab the Black History Month Activities

These activities make learning about these important figures in history a breeze! If you’re looking for a low-prep way to teach Black History Month topics in your classroom, be sure to check out all of the fun resources in this bundle. It’s filled with all of the activities mentioned in this post for George Washington Carver, Martin Luther King Jr., Ruby Bridges, and Rosa Parks.

Use the instructional PowerPoint to introduce each person, then use the mini readers and timelines to dive deeper into the facts about each person. Follow up with worksheets and writing activities. Finally, assess student understanding with the quizzes and celebrate each person with a craft! This bundle will save you time and make teaching these topics fun and easy!

Looking for More?

Check out these posts for more fun and engaging social studies activities for the primary classroom!

Introducing Famous Americans to Young Students

• 3 Benefits of Using Cross-Curricular Teaching

Save These Black History Month Activities

Save this post to your favorite social studies Pinterest board so you can come back when you need engaging resources for your Black History Month lessons.

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51 Creative Black History Project Ideas for Students [2024]

As Black History Month gains more attention, people are starting to see why it’s so important, especially for students. 

It’s a chance for them to learn more about the struggles and successes of Black people throughout history. 

Doing projects about Black history helps students learn in a fun way and also teaches them to understand and appreciate different cultures.

In this blog, we’ll share many black history project ideas for students to explore and enjoy Black history. 

Whether it’s making presentations, doing research, or getting creative with art, our goal is to give students the tools they need to learn about and celebrate the impact of Black history. 

Come along as we discover and honor the amazing contributions of the Black community together.

A Look At Black History

Table of Contents

Black History encompasses the stories, struggles, and achievements of Black individuals throughout time. From enduring the hardships of slavery to leading movements for civil rights and social justice.

However, Black History is a testament to resilience, creativity, and perseverance in the face of adversity. It highlights the contributions of Black leaders, artists, scientists, and activists who have shaped culture, politics, and society worldwide. 

Exploring Black History offers valuable insights into the complexities of race, identity, and power dynamics, fostering greater understanding, empathy, and appreciation for the diverse experiences of Black people.

List of Black History Project Ideas for Students

Here’s a list of Black History project ideas suitable for elementary to high school students:

Black History Project Ideas for Elementary School Students

1. Black History Storybook

Have students collaborate to create a storybook featuring notable Black figures and their achievements, illustrated by the class.

2. Interactive Timeline

Construct a classroom timeline showcasing important events in Black History, with students adding illustrations and descriptions.

3. Art Showcase

Host an art exhibition where students create paintings or drawings inspired by influential Black artists or historical events.

4. Music Performance

Organize a music recital where students sing or play songs by Black musicians, accompanied by brief explanations of their significance.

5. Community Mural

Collaborate on a mural project depicting scenes from Black History, with each student contributing a portion of the artwork.

6. Role-Playing Skits

Write and perform short skits based on significant moments in Black History, allowing students to step into historical roles.

7. Biography Presentations

Assign each student a notable Black figure to research and present to the class, sharing key facts and accomplishments.

8. Cultural Food Fair

Host a food fair featuring dishes from different African and African-American traditions, with students and families contributing homemade recipes.

9. Inventors Exhibition

Create a classroom exhibit showcasing inventions by Black inventors, with students presenting models or demonstrations of selected inventions.

10. Storytelling Circle

Arrange a storytelling session where students share stories passed down from their families or communities, focusing on Black culture and heritage.

11. Black History Storybook

Collaborate on creating a storybook featuring notable Black figures and their achievements, with each student illustrating a page.

12. Timeline of Black History

Construct a classroom timeline highlighting key events and figures in Black History, allowing students to research and add important dates.

13. Artistic Portraits

Have students create portraits of famous Black leaders, artists, and activists using various art mediums like paint, collage, or drawing.

14. Musical Tribute

Organize a musical performance where students sing or play songs by Black musicians, accompanied by short explanations of their significance.

15. Community Mural Project

Collaborate on painting a mural depicting scenes from Black History, with each student contributing a part of the artwork.

16. Biographical Presentations

Assign each student a notable Black figure to research and present, sharing their life story, contributions, and impact on history.

17. Cultural Cuisine Showcase

Host a food fair featuring dishes from different African and African-American cultures, allowing students to share recipes and sample food.

Black History Project Ideas for Middle School Students

18. Civil Rights Timeline

Create a timeline highlighting key events of the Civil Rights Movement, accompanied by illustrations and explanations.

19. Biographical Sketches

Research and present biographical sketches of significant figures in Black History, exploring their contributions and impact.

20. Freedom Fighter Posters

Design posters honoring prominent civil rights activists like Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr. , and Malcolm X.

21. Civil Rights Debate

Host a debate on pivotal civil rights issues, such as school desegregation or voting rights, with students arguing different perspectives.

22. Civil Rights Documentary

Produce a documentary film examining the struggles and triumphs of the Civil Rights Movement, interviewing local activists if possible.

23. Civil Rights Art Exhibition

Curate an art exhibition featuring student-created pieces inspired by the Civil Rights Movement, expressing themes of equality and justice.

24. Civil Rights Poetry Slam

Organize a poetry slam where students perform original poems inspired by the Civil Rights Movement, exploring themes of empowerment and resilience.

25. Freedom March Reenactment

Stage a reenactment of a historic civil rights march, allowing students to experience the passion and courage of activists.

26. Civil Rights Museum Tour

Plan a field trip to a local museum with exhibits on the Civil Rights Movement, followed by group discussions and reflections.

27. Civil Rights Panel Discussion

Invite guest speakers or community members to participate in a panel discussion on the legacy and relevance of the Civil Rights Movement today.

28. Civil Rights Newspaper

Create a classroom newspaper featuring articles, editorials, and interviews related to the Civil Rights Movement and its impact.

29. Civil Rights Podcast Series

Produce a series of podcast episodes exploring different aspects of the Civil Rights Movement, interviewing experts, and discussing key events.

30. Civil Rights Research Project

Assign students to research and present on a specific aspect of the Civil Rights Movement, such as sit-ins, boycotts, or landmark court cases.

31. Civil Rights Artifacts Exhibition

Organize an exhibition displaying replicas or photographs of artifacts from the Civil Rights era, with students providing historical context for each item.

32. Civil Rights Songwriting Workshop

Host a workshop where students write and perform original songs inspired by the struggles and triumphs of the Civil Rights Movement.

33. Civil Rights Role-Playing Game

Develop a role-playing game set during the Civil Rights era, allowing students to experience the challenges faced by activists and leaders.

34. Civil Rights Film Festival

Screen films or documentaries about the Civil Rights Movement, followed by discussions on the themes and messages portrayed.

Black History Project Ideas for High School Students

35. Black History Research Symposium

Host a symposium where students present research papers on various topics in Black History, fostering scholarly discussion.

36. Civil Rights Documentary Film

Produce a documentary film exploring the Civil Rights Movement, featuring interviews with activists, historians, and community members.

37. Black History Art Exhibition

Curate an art exhibition showcasing student-created pieces inspired by Black History, addressing themes of identity, resilience, and social justice.

38. Black History Oral History Project

Interview local community members to collect oral histories related to Black experiences, creating a multimedia archive for future generations.

39. Black History Podcast Series

Produce a series of podcast episodes delving into different aspects of Black History, featuring interviews, storytelling, and analysis.

40. Black History Debate Tournament

Organize a debate tournament where students argue topics related to Black History, such as reparations, affirmative action, or representation in media.

41. Black History Literary Magazine

Create a literary magazine featuring poetry, prose, and artwork celebrating Black voices, experiences, and perspectives.

42. Black History Community Engagement Project

Plan and implement a community engagement project focused on addressing contemporary issues facing the Black community, such as police brutality or educational inequity.

43. Black History Multimedia Presentation

Develop a multimedia presentation exploring a specific theme or time period in Black History, incorporating images, videos, and music.

44. Black History Cultural Festival

Organize a cultural festival celebrating the diversity and richness of Black culture through music, dance, food, and art, inviting participation from the wider community.

45. Black History Play Production

Collaborate on writing and staging a play or theatrical production that highlights significant events or figures in Black History.

46. Black History Research Project

Conduct in-depth research on a specific aspect of Black History, culminating in a comprehensive research paper or presentation.

47. Black History Social Media Campaign

Create a social media campaign to raise awareness about lesser-known aspects of Black History, sharing facts, stories, and resources.

48. Black History Documentary Screening

Organize a screening event featuring documentaries or films about Black History, followed by discussions and reflections on the content.

49. Black History Panel Discussion

Host a panel discussion with guest speakers, scholars, and community leaders to explore contemporary issues within the context of Black History.

50. Black History Cultural Exchange Program

Partner with schools or organizations in predominantly Black communities for a cultural exchange program, fostering cross-cultural understanding and collaboration.

51. Black History Community Art Project

Collaborate on a public art installation or mural that celebrates Black History and promotes unity and diversity within the community.

These project ideas can be adapted and tailored to suit different grade levels and learning objectives, providing students with engaging opportunities to explore and learn about Black history.

Also Read: Pottery Project Ideas

Importance of Black History Project Ideas and Its Impact on the Present

Black History projects are important for several reasons, and their impact extends beyond the classroom to shape our understanding of the present in significant ways:

• Cultural Preservation: Black History projects help preserve and celebrate the rich cultural heritage and contributions of Black individuals and communities.
• Promoting Diversity and Inclusion: These projects promote diversity and inclusion by highlighting the experiences and achievements of marginalized groups.
• Educational Enrichment: Black History projects offer valuable learning opportunities, fostering empathy, critical thinking, and understanding of historical injustices and struggles.
• Empowerment: By acknowledging and honoring Black History, these projects empower individuals to take pride in their heritage and inspire future generations to advocate for equality and social justice.
• Addressing Inequities: Black History projects shed light on systemic inequities and injustices, fostering dialogue and action towards creating a more just and equitable society.

Tips for the Implementation of Black History Projects

Implementing Black History projects effectively requires careful planning and consideration to ensure students engage meaningfully with the subject matter. Here are some tips for successful implementation:

• Thematic Focus: Choose a specific theme or aspect of Black History to provide clarity and direction for the project.
• Research Resources: Give students access to diverse and reliable resources, including books, articles, documentaries, and online archives.
• Critical Thinking: Encourage critical analysis and interpretation of historical events, challenging students to consider multiple perspectives and draw conclusions.
• Community Engagement: Connect local communities and organizations to enrich learning experiences and promote civic engagement.
• Creativity: Encourage students to express themselves creatively through various mediums, such as art, music, drama, and multimedia presentations.
• Reflection: Facilitate opportunities for students to reflect on their learning and personal connections to Black History, fostering empathy and understanding.
• Collaboration: Promote collaboration among students, allowing them to share ideas, resources, and perspectives to enhance their projects.
• Feedback and Evaluation: Provide constructive feedback throughout the project process and establish clear criteria for assessment to ensure accountability and growth.
• Celebration: Celebrate students’ achievements and contributions to Black History projects, recognizing their efforts to honor and commemorate the legacy of Black individuals and communities.
• Continued Learning: Encourage ongoing exploration and discussion of Black History beyond the project timeline, fostering a lifelong commitment to learning and advocacy for social justice.

By following these tips, educators can create engaging and meaningful Black History project ideas that empower students to explore, learn, and appreciate the rich and diverse history of Black communities.

Final Thoughts

Studying Black history is essential for understanding the complexities of our society and promoting inclusivity and equity. 

By learning about Black individuals and communities’ struggles, achievements, and contributions, we gain insights into the ongoing fight for justice and equality. 

Today, more than ever, it’s crucial to recognize the significance of Black heritage and its relevance to contemporary issues. 

I encourage students to engage in meaningful projects that honor and celebrate Black history, fostering empathy, understanding, and a commitment to creating a more just and inclusive world for all. Together, let’s continue to learn, advocate, and celebrate Black heritage every day.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. why is black history month celebrated in february.

February was chosen to honor the birthdays of two iconic figures in Black history: Frederick Douglass (February 5th) and Abraham Lincoln (February 12th). However, it’s crucial to remember that Black history is significant year-round.

2. How can I learn more about Black history beyond Black History Month?

There are numerous resources available, including museums, documentaries, books, websites, and educational initiatives. Engaging with the Black community directly through conversations and events can also be extremely enriching.

3. What are some common misconceptions about Black history?

Unfortunately, many misconceptions persist, such as portraying slavery as the entirety of the Black experience or overlooking the significant contributions of Black people in various fields throughout history.

4. What are some ways I can actively support the Black community?

Support Black-owned businesses, advocate for racial justice initiatives, educate yourself and others about systemic racism, and amplify the voices of Black creators and influencers.

5. What are some inspiring figures in Black history that I can learn about?

The list is vast and diverse! Consider exploring individuals like Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King Jr., Maya Angelou, Madam C.J. Walker, George Washington Carver, Shirley Chisholm, and countless others who made significant contributions.

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Teaching Black History, Thought, and Culture Through Art

From Alma Thomas to Jean-Michel Basquiat and Augusta Savage, here are eight remarkable artists to talk about in class—and art projects inspired by their work.  

Exploring the vast and brilliant contributions of African American artists is especially significant in February, when educators are looking for creative ways to recognize Black History Month, but it’s also work that can happen anytime during the school year.

As a teacher, I like to use art as a way to celebrate Black artists and start conversations that help situate their experiences in the larger framework of American and world history. It’s a productive way to help students grapple with complex questions and topics and to inspire them to make art that tells their own unique stories.

Here are eight artists—with some details about their lives and creative work—to help get these discussions started in your classroom. I’ve included project suggestions, but you might think of these as starting points: Students could also do their own research to discover other Black artists; learn about their lives, motivation, style, and message; and then make art inspired by what they learn.

Kara Walker Born 1969 Black and white cut-paper silhouettes were affordable, thrifty portraits before the advent of photography. They’re usually likenesses of people—traced from the subject’s profile cast in light and then snipped out with scissors—resulting in a high-contrast black-paper image against a light background. In the hands of contemporary artist Kara Walker , cut-paper silhouettes become an ethereal story revealing what you might find in the shadows of typically quaint, domestic images.

The power of her work is in the shock of finding strange and sometimes violent imagery where you would expect formality and decorum. She doesn’t shy away from painful imagery and explores the brutality of antebellum slavery and issues of race and gender.

Classroom project: One of the best things about cut-paper silhouettes is the strong impact that comes from inexpensive, accessible materials, making it a deceptively simple medium for investigating complex and even difficult topics. In the classroom, kids can explore cutting out profiles of each other, or use stencils or other objects that strike their interest. For a more involved project, ask students to identify themes that come up in the texts you’re reading together in class—good and evil, honesty and trust, courage and fear—and then brainstorm how to illustrate these themes in a classroom mural, creating a Walker-inspired contrast of complex storytelling and unexpected materials.

Gordon Parks 1912–2006 Gordon Parks created enough work for 10 artists. Born into poverty, segregation, and social upheaval, he was a self-taught filmmaker, writer, and composer but became widely known for his photography. As a photographer for the Farm Security Administration and later for the Office of War Information, he documented social conditions, elevating the work to an art form through beautiful compositions, iconography, and symbolism. Parks saw his camera as a weapon against the unfair conditions afflicting his African American subjects affected by poverty, and he believed that by highlighting and preserving their beauty and dignity, he could invite awareness and forge a connection in the viewer.

Classroom project: Ask your middle or high school students to use their phone cameras to capture a striking image without the benefit of fancy lighting, posing, and multiple retakes or filters. Challenge them to capture action, emotion, or daily lived experience, finding and conveying, as Parks did, the beauty that others might not see.

Faith Ringgold Born 1930 Faith Ringgold ’s award-winning book Tar Beach has lined early-grade bookshelves since it was first published in 1990. The bulk of Ringgold’s work, however, is more confrontational and politically charged. Born in Harlem, she began making art in the early 1960s, unflinchingly documenting and responding to the world through her lens as a Black woman, taking on issues of racism, sexual violence, American identity, family, freedom, and hope. She painted White people at a time when most Black artists did not, flipping the gaze and pushing her art to do the heavy lifting of exploring who is in the center of American history and why. She used quilts, a domestic craft, to tell stories of labor exploitation, systemic economic injustice, and personal agency.

Classroom project: Story quilts are accessible to all ages, but they also can tell complex, unexpected stories, depending on the grade level of your students. For a Ringgold-inspired quilt, use materials like fabric strips or colored paper. You might also explore the rich history of African American quilting, including the quilts of the Underground Railroad that incorporated symbolic language to help Black people escaping slavery navigate their journey.

Jean-Michel Basquiat 1960–1988 Jean-Michel Basquiat was extremely prolific, but he died at age 27, leaving a distinctively modern body of work that helps students connect with his world. The very recognizable crown symbol and his tag SAMO—he started out as a high school student spray-painting graffiti on buildings in Lower Manhattan—are recurring motifs throughout his work and became the building blocks of his visual language. Sampling from advertising, educational texts, and historical resources, Basquiat’s work contended with racism, poverty, and access, as well as identity, sexuality, and the addiction that would ultimately take his life in 1988.

Classroom project: Using similar resources—literature, advertising, newspapers, magazines, and other materials students feel inspired by—ask students to tell their own stories in whatever format they’re drawn to. They can even create their own personal stamp or coat of arms.

Alma Thomas 1891–1978 The light, rhythm, and immediacy in Alma Thomas’s work are distinctively her own. She had a remarkably intuitive way of using color to elicit emotion and psychological response, and her large, bright canvases pulse with life.

Thomas, who began painting in the 1960s at age 68, didn’t directly tackle issues of racism and identity the way her counterparts did. Her radicalism lies in the very fact of her existence: She inhabited a space ordinarily occupied exclusively by White men. After just a decade of work, she became the first Black woman to earn a solo show at a major New York City museum—shortly after Black artists staged boycotts of these same museums because they excluded Black artists. Thomas’s work leaves us with questions such as: Where and when can the art of Black women be seen? Are Black artists obligated to address issues of racism in their art?

Classroom project: Students of all ages can emulate Thomas’s kinetic, mosaic-like style by creating paintings or cut-paper collages with intentional color choices that tell stories about the beauty in their lives.

Jacob Lawrence 1917–2000 Jacob Lawrence was a historian and may be one of the most recognizable artists from this list. He documented the African American experience, creating series devoted to Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman, and explored migration, life in Harlem, and the civil rights movement. His paintings also depict everyday American life in church, weddings, schools, and shared domestic moments.

His work is characterized by a bold, primary color palette; strong shapes; and simplified, outlined faces that universalize his characters, making it possible for all of us to see ourselves in his recording of history.

Classroom project: In history class, with a canvas of any kind and a way to make color, students can identify key points in a historical narrative and illustrate it as they see fit. Lawrence spoke of the freedom he experienced when painting and the power he felt in being able to make choices about shape, color, story. This idea of power and agency over our own art and story is something to encourage all students to connect with as they create.

Augusta Savage 1892–1962 Sculptor Augusta Savage was a trailblazing superstar. She moved to Harlem in 1921 to study at Cooper Union art school, and when she was denied a scholarship to study at an art school in Paris, she galvanized support from the press and artistic community until the school relented and allowed her to attend. When she returned to New York, she opened her own gallery, giving others the opportunity she might have been denied. Savage was classically trained and created in classical traditions. Her work was exaggerated and idealized, and sometimes it betrayed the barriers she faced to make her art.

Classroom project: It’s difficult to find another artist who so aptly shows us how to find beauty and possibility in pain and struggle. When Savage didn’t have access to bronze for her sculptures, for example, she used plaster and covered it with shoe polish. Commissioned to create a statue about slavery, she chose to show the power found in faith and exaltation. Classroom discussions about Savage’s work can examine what it means to find equanimity—calm and beauty in adversity—and a related art project can explore this theme using clay or by making 3D art.

Archibald J. Motley Jr. 1891-1981 The work of painter Archibald Motley , known as a Jazz Age modernist, documented a specific time and place in history and revealed a complex view of the African American experience. Born in New Orleans and trained as an artist in Chicago, Motley was an important contributor to the Harlem Renaissance. Using vibrant color and exaggerated, lively forms, some of his canvases are populated, noisy, and bustling; others are isolated and deeply self-reflective.

He painted the world that he saw and lived: newly elite Blacks on the South Side of Chicago and impoverished migrants who had recently arrived in the city. He wanted to share his world of nuanced and progressive blackness, and he wanted to bring his world of art and culture to his Black community. His belief that art was a great equalizer is still present and relevant in his work today.

Classroom project: Motley’s self-portraits were highly composed and formal, often elegant, aspirational, and embedded with the symbols of his cultural and personal identity. This can be replicated in a classroom with paints, photography, even music or other media. Ask students to consider how they’d like to present their best selves and communicate their ambitions and values.

Free Black History Month Activities for Your Classroom

Black History Month is a time to celebrate the Black community and learn about its history – throughout the month of February, it’s especially important to bring this celebration into the classroom by teaching students Black history, and this collection of Black History Month activities can help you do so.

By integrating explorations of American history through the perspectives of Black Americans and discussions about racial bias and privilege into your curriculum, you can help your students learn about and commemorate influential Black figures throughout history and trace movements for racial equality to the present day. 

These Black History Month activities include worksheets, research opportunities, and projects that explore Black American history, all while integrating core skills that you’re already teaching, such as reading comprehension and critical thinking. 

Plus, check out our new collection of poems to celebrate Black History Month and our list of books by Black authors for each grade level to boost your students’ ELA skills even more!

Black History Month Activities for Elementary School

The following Black History Month activities for kids allow younger students to learn about Black history while staying engaged and exploring their creativity.

1. Biography in a Bag Project

This assignment is simple yet engaging, giving students an opportunity to do their own independent research while integrating their own creativity. It’s a great way to start teaching kids Black history!

Following the assignment prompt, students are assigned a notable individual in Black history who they then research. Their final project is to decorate a paper bag with imagery and information about that individual and fill the bag with items of importance to that individual’s life. Students then present their projects, allowing them to demonstrate their creativity, resourcefulness, and (most importantly) their newfound knowledge of this influential figure.

You can adjust this project to include prominent Black figures throughout history, including individuals in the arts and/or sciences, or important figures in a specific time period, such as before/during/after the Civil War or civil rights activists from the early-to-mid 20th century. In doing so, you can tailor the assignment to whatever curriculum you have already been teaching.

Created and made available for free download by Neeti Gregg .

2. Black Heroes Coloring & Information Pages

Another creative activity, these coloring pages of significant figures in Black history are paired with information pages that can be handed out or distributed digitally. From civil rights activists to athletes and individuals in the arts, these figures contributed greatly to American history, sports, and entertainment and are monumental in Black history and representation.

Created and made available for free download by Teaching the Whole Child Store .

3. Black Women in History Coloring & Information Pages

A similar activity to the above is these coloring pages that showcase significant Black women throughout history – celebrating both Black History Month and International Women’s Month, this activity is perfect for the last few days of February or first few days of March.

This art style engages students in a different way than the above activity, and the information about each woman is embedded on the page, making the finished products from students perfect to hang up around the classroom.

Created and made available for free download by The Mindful Maestra .

4. Martin Luther King Jr. Activities

The activity also gives teachers an opportunity to let students write about another individual (of their choosing, or one they have been assigned) and form a biography page about them. The exercises allow students to practice their reading comprehension and writing skills while learning about civil rights activism.

Created and made available for free download by Ryan Monche .

Black History Month Activities for Middle and High School

Learning about Black history becomes more complex and comprehensive for students as they age into secondary education – the following Black History Month activities dive deeper into specific movements, individuals, and events, all while remaining engaging for students.

1. Black History Quotes Activity

Words can be incredibly powerful. In this activity, students are given an assortment of famous quotes from influential Black leaders, from activists to politicians to inventors, and tasked to analyze one of them – both for its structure and diction as well as its application in both the leader’s society and the society the student lives in today. 

This activity lets students sharpen their reading comprehension and writing skills in understanding a quote itself, as well as their history and critical thinking skills in placing the quote into an American sociopolitical context.

Created and made available for free download by Teaching on Lemon Lane .

2. Black History Month Research Activities

These Black History Month activities are a collection of lesson plans that teachers can choose from to find what works best for their classroom! These activities dive deeper into specific issues the Black community has faced and currently faces, including environmental racism, representation, displacement, migration, and assimilation. 

Each page focuses on a specific topic and comes with a lesson plan including a warm-up, lecture, resources, and two activities an instructor or students may choose from. Some pages focus on issues of race in Canada and can be modified to fit the US, or even a specific US state. 

This activity is a great way to make a classroom’s education on and commemoration for Black History Month more intersectional and complex by introducing issues students may not have learned about before. It also contains several opportunities to enhance specific skills for students, such as reading comprehension, research, writing, creativity, and critical thinking skills.

Created and made available for free download by SJE with Saskteaches .

3. Musicians of the Civil Rights Movement

The arts have always been essential to any struggle for change, and the civil rights movement is no exception. This resource is a virtual music history exploration that highlights several musicians who had an impact on the civil rights movement. It emphasizes the importance of involvement in social change, especially for those that have influence on society and culture.

Each page dives into a musician’s background, music, connection to the civil rights movement, and legacy. After learning about these artists, students can be formed into groups and assigned to do a research project on one of the artists. Alternatively, students can use this resource as inspiration for a research project on a different musician with an impact on social change.

Created and made available for free download by Newman Music Academy .

Black History Month Reading Comprehension Questions by Piqosity  

W.E.B. Du Bois is one of the most widely studied authors and civil rights activists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was a founding member of the NAACP, and his writings discussed the experience of Black Americans during and after reconstruction, focusing heavily on education. He believed that Black children deserve an equal quality of education to White children, including a well-rounded liberal arts education.

The following excerpt is from one of his most well-known books, The Souls of Black Folk . The Piqosity team has written three reading comprehension questions about the excerpt, each more difficult than the last and covering a distinct subtopic, to quiz the ELA knowledge of students and introduce them to (or remind them of) an exceptional writer and brilliant mind in Black history.

Excerpt from The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois  

Reading Comprehension Questions

1. Which of the following types of figurative language does the author use most frequently in the passage?

A. Similes. B. Metaphors. C. Understatement. D. Personification.

2. Based on the passage, which phenomenon did schools in the South not experience?

A. A shortage of teachers. B. Segregation. C. Inadequate Schoolhouses. D. Education for teachers.

3. What does the “veil” symbolize?

A. The pathway to equitable opportunities for the speaker. B. The division between White and Black Americans’ perspectives. C. The laws that oppress Black Americans. D. The differences between the North and the South.

Passage Answer Key and Explanations

Personification is the correct answer choice – if you look at the figurative language used, there is only personification. This includes lines such as “…the white, hot roads lazily rise and fall and wind before me…” (lines 25-26) and “The road ran down the bed of a stream; the sun laughed and the water jingled…” (lines 43-44).

“ A shortage of teachers ” is correct. The passage describes how the narrator struggled to find a teaching position everywhere he went for a long time – “There came a day when all the teachers left the Institute and began the hunt for schools… I feel my heart sink heavily as I hear again and again, ‘Got a teacher? Yes.’ So I walked on and on…” (lines 18-30). All of the schools already had teachers, so there was no shortage of them. Further, the passage does show how schooling in this time and region contained the remaining answer choices. It was segregated, as the speaker travelled with another prospective teacher looking to teach at a “white school” (lines 42-43); teachers were educated, as the speaker went to the Teachers’ Institute (described in lines 11-15), which was also segregated; and the schoolhouses were inadequate, based on his descriptions in the last paragraph – “The schoolhouse was a log hut…furniture was scarce… my desk was made of three boards, reinforced at critical points… they had the one virtue of making naps dangerous, – possibly fatal, for the floor was not to be trusted,” (lines 50-66).

To understand the role of the veil, reread each part of the text in which it is mentioned. In lines 4-8: “I was a Fisk student then, and all Fisk men thought that Tennessee – beyond the Veil – was theirs alone, and in vacation time they sallied forth in lusty bands to meet the county school commissioners.” In lines 45-49: “‘Come in’, said the commissioner, – ‘come in. Have a seat. Yes, that certificate will do. Stay to dinner. What do you want a month?’ ‘Oh,’ thought I, ‘this is lucky’; but even then fell the awful shadow of the Veil, for they ate first, then I – alone.” This second instance gives the most context to understand the “veil”. In that quote, the narrator describes the way he finds an opportunity to teach from the school commissioner, who seems kind. Despite inviting the narrator to dinner, the commissioner eats first and makes him eat alone. The narrator writes that this exchange about eating triggered the Veil to fall.  We can infer from the fact that the commissioner eats first and makes the narrator eat alone that the commissioner looks down on him, despite giving him an opportunity to teach. This hints that the Veil is a concept that signals racial inequality.  This also demonstrates which answer choices are incorrect. “The pathway to equitable opportunities for the speaker.” is incorrect because the veil is described as “awful” and falls in a context when the narrator is disrespected. “The laws that oppress Black Americans.” is incorrect because the narrator faces no trouble with the law nor oppression due to a certain law in this passage. “The differences between the North and the South.” is also incorrect because this quote has nothing to do with the geo-social differences in the United States. The correct answer choice is “The division between White and Black Americans’ perspectives.” The veil falls when the narrator realizes the commissioner (who you can infer based on the passage to be White) sees him as a lesser being, when he had to eat dinner alone after him, showing how his perspective changed when he saw the commissioner treat him unequally. The veil falling is a Black American realizing he is being treated unfairly because of a circumstance out of his control – race.

Find More ELA Resources Like These at Piqosity! 

We hope you found these Black History Month activities insightful and resourceful for your classroom, both in their historical and sociopolitical significance and in the opportunities to sharpen key ELA skills for students. 

Among Piqosity’s regular offerings, of particular relevance is our newest ELA course, designed for 11th Grade English Language Arts instruction. This course includes an entire unit focused on Frederick Douglass’ memoir, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave . Teachers looking for a month-long text-based unit will find this perfect for their needs, as it includes unique questions on every chapter, as well as focused question sets on critical excerpts. 

You can also find more (non-themed) ELA lessons with questions of similar difficulty levels to the above questions in our ELA courses! These are complete courses available online through our app and can be purchased separately or received for free when bundled with our ISEE test prep courses !

• 5th Grade ELA Course  
• 6th Grade ELA Course
• 8th Grade ELA Course
• 11th Grade ELA Course

For your convenience, we have outlined lessons relevant to or at the same difficulty level as the above passages and accompanying questions. These can be found below.  

Related ELA Lessons by Piqosity  Lessons related to question #1: ELA 5 – Figurative Language ELA 6 – Figurative Language ELA 8 – Figurative Language ELA 11 –  Rhetorical Analysis Lessons related to question #2: ELA 5 – Main Idea ELA 5 – Supporting Ideas ELA 6 – Main Idea ELA 6 – Supporting Ideas ELA 8 – Main Idea ELA 8 – Supporting Ideas ELA 11 – Main Idea ELA 11 – Supporting Ideas Lessons related to question #3: ELA 5 – Main Idea ELA 5 – Figurative Language ELA 6 – Main Idea ELA 6 – Figurative Language ELA 8 – Main Idea ELA 8 – Figurative Language ELA 11 – Main Idea ELA 11 – Rhetorical Analysis

Thank You, and Piqosity wishes you an empowered Black History Month! 

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14 Fun Black History Month Activities for Elementary and Middle School Students

Black History Month, also known as African American History Month, takes place every February to honor the accomplishments of Black people in the United States and the important roles they have played in the past and the present. We've designed activities that give students the opportunity to dive into history and learn about the people and events that have shaped our nation.

Black History Month Ideas for School

Encourage students to engage in crafts, teach them about significant figures in Black history, and celebrate with your class using these Black History Month activities for elementary and middle school.

1. Review the Timeline of the Civil Rights Movement

As the civil rights movement progressed over several decades, many key events helped to shape the outcome. For this activity, you should first hold a discussion with your students about the definitions of civil rights and social movements .

Explain that civil rights are written and unwritten rights provided to anyone who is a U.S. citizen or who belongs to a civil society. A movement includes activities undertaken by a group of people to achieve change. Then, distribute the  timeline activity and have your students fill in details about nine key events of the civil rights movement based on their research. Once complete, your students should cut out each event; place them in chronological order; and glue, paste, or tape them to a piece of paper. Encourage them to add a title to their timeline before sharing it with the class.

2. Pen a Persuasive Essay

Many Black people have made valuable contributions to the world throughout history. Have students write a persuasive essay convincing the U.S. Postal Service to create a new stamp honoring an influential Black person. They should explain their choice and the impact the person has had on the world.

Maybe they want to focus on the historic election of Kamala Harris as U.S. Vice President, Katherine Johnson's contribution to science and space exploration, or Stevie Wonder's legacy in music. Have students read their essays to one another or submit them for extra credit. Here are steps to teaching students how to write an effective persuasive argument .

This is also an opportunity to have students participate in their government! The U.S. Postal Service welcomes suggestions for stamp subjects that "celebrate the American experience." Check out the USPS website for the criteria for selecting a stamp subject and the process for submitting a proposal. 

3. Write about Black History

With these Black History Month writing prompts from fourth-grade teacher Perry Hollins, you can introduce your students to Black innovators of the past and present. Your students can then tie these figures' experiences to their own lives. For each prompt, students explore the life of a Black innovator, reflect on a quote from the individual, and then tackle a writing prompt. The prompts each focus on a particular writing style, such as narrative, informative, or persuasive.

4. Do a Crossword Puzzle on Civil Rights

Have your students test their knowledge of Black history with this downloadable crossword puzzle , including an answer key for teachers. Topics covered include slavery in the United States, civil rights protests, key figures, and relevant holidays. This is particularly well suited for students in Grades 4–8.

5. Create an Encyclopedia of Black Leaders

Students can create a biographical encyclopedia with one or two paragraphs each about Black leaders who contributed to the civil rights movement. Alternatively, students can focus on any Black leader in the U.S. throughout history. They can choose three to five leaders whom they feel had the greatest impact on U.S. history and explain why those individuals' accomplishments deserve to be recognized.

Then, students can dive into the role that each figure played in history, what events they influenced, and their legacy. This is a good chance to teach students about finding credible sources online, creating a bibliography, and improving their writing. Your students can exchange their final Black History Month projects and provide peer feedback, or share them with the entire class.

6. Explore Famous Black Scientists in History

If you're looking to explore famous Black scientists in history , you can download these posters , hang them in your classroom or distribute them to your students. This activity can take a lot of different forms. You may simply have a classroom discussion about the legacies of each of these scientists, or you can encourage your students to dig further and create their own list of famous Black scientists. Students might even focus on influential Black innovators in specific scientific fields, such as chemistry or mathematics. Your students can write about these individuals' lives, accomplishments, and continued legacy today, and perhaps create their own posters to hang on a bulletin board.

7. Conduct Experiments Inspired by the Works of Black Scientists 

Get hands on and further explore the extraordinary works of famous Black scientists, inventors, and mathematicians by conducting experiments inspired by their work. Find a collection of Black History Month science activities and experiments that touch on earth and space sciences, agriculture, biology, and more, so students can study space like Dr. Mae Jemison, or nurture plants like George Washington Carver.

8. Test Students' Knowledge with Our Black History Month Quiz

Have students explore Black history with this short multiple choice quiz . A teacher answer key is also included. You can have students hand this in for a grade, or have them work in teams and see which group answers the most questions correctly.

9. Complete a Word Search 

Download this word search for students that includes the names of influential figures, key events, and terms related to Black history. Once students find all the words listed, have them write a short description or definition of each term. The specifics are up to you as to what they need to include in their writing.

10. Read Books about Black History

There are many books you can read about Black history that highlight both the triumphant and tragic journeys of Black people in the United States. One example is The Undefeated , written by poet Kwame Alexander and illustrated by Kadir Nelson. The book won the 2020 Caldecott Medal and the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award. Alexander won a Newbery Honor for the book as well. The beautifully crafted book of poetry doesn't hold back on illustrating the cruelties Africans faced on their journey to and arrival in the U.S., but it's presented in a way that's easy for kids to digest and understand. The book showcases themes such as determination, self-actualization, and perseverance, and covers the horrors of slavery, the triumphs of the civil rights movement, and the actions of influential Black figures.

If you're looking to teach students about the impact of the Chicago Race Riots on history, consider these two literary texts  recommended by HMH's archivist, Susan Steinway.

11. Showcase Black History in Your School’s Halls

Work with your school’s leadership team to organize a school-wide Black History Month door decorating or bulletin board decorating contest. Each class can showcase significant moments, figures, and accomplishments in Black history, for example the Harlem Renaissance, the Tuskegee Airmen, or the work of the Freedom Riders. Find inspiration for Black History Month bulletin board ideas and Black History Month classroom door decoration ideas on Shaped .

12. Create a Quote Gallery with Words from Notable Black Figures

Display quotes from notable Black figures in your classroom and engage students in a quote gallery walk. On chart paper, write or print quotes from famous Black leaders or notable figures. Use these Black History Month quotes for students for the gallery walk. Alongside the quote, include the person’s name, title, and brief biography. Post the quotes around the room. Place students in small groups and have them explore each quote. As groups stop at a quote, ask students to discuss with each other what the quote means to them. Then have them use a marker to jot down their thoughts and reflections on the chart paper. Afterwards, lead a class discussion about the powerful words the class just read. Extend this activity by having students choose their favorite quote displayed and complete a quote discussion chart .

13. Host a Poetry Reading and Recite Poems from Black Poets

Study the works of famous Black poets, like Maya Angelou and Langston Hughes, and teach students the art of performing poetry by hosting a class poetry reading. Show students videos of Black poets reciting their works, so students can learn about the change of tone, inflection, and body language when poems are read aloud. Then have students choose a poem penned by a Black author that they will share during the class poetry reading. Give students the time to practice reciting their poems aloud in small groups. On the day of the event, you can convert your classroom into a poetry café. If possible, invite caregivers or guardians to watch the performances. After their reading, students can share fun facts about the poet, why they chose the poem they did, and what resonated with them.

14. Transform Your Classroom into a Black History Museum

Bring the museum into your classroom with this Black History Month activity. Ask students to research notable Black figures or key events in Black history. Students will then create posters based on their research. Display students’ work throughout the classroom, organizing the posters into exhibits, such as science, history, art, and literature, to transform your classroom into a Black history museum. If possible, chose a date and invite other classes and guardians or caregivers to a museum showing of your class’s Black history exhibits. Students can present the information on their posters to guests as museum guides and educators.

Share Your Black History Month Projects and Activities

Have any fun Black History Month activity ideas for school? Share them with us at [email protected].

We hope these Black history month activities for elementary and middle school students provide you with plenty of ideas for honoring the achievements of Black people and shed light on the triumphs and tragedies that they have faced in the United States. By doing so, we can create a world that prioritizes equality and freedom for all.

For more ways to celebrate Black History Month with your students, check out:

• 8 Black History Month Writing Prompts
• 5 Teaching Tools to Honor Black History Month in the Classroom
• Black History Month: Teaching Historical Triumphs and Tragedies
• Ann Petry: Honoring the Author's Legacy During Black History Month
• A Rosa Parks Lesson Plan: Teaching About Her Legacy

Discover more lesson plans and classroom resources o n Shaped .

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This blog, originally published in 2020, has been updated for 2024.

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7 Black History Month Classroom Activities You Need to Try with Your Students

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February is Black History Month, a time when we celebrate the accomplishments of black Americans. This year, why not try some new classroom activities to help your students learn more about this important topic? In this blog post, I am going to share seven fun, engaging, and meaningful Black History Month classroom activities that you can do with your students.

Black History Month Activities Your Students will LOVE #1: Influential Black American Research Reports

This activity is a huge hit in my classroom every year. I have students each choose an influential Black individual to research. My Black History Month Research Report Pennant resource has 123 different people for students to choose from. Students love having the opportunity to choose someone they are genuinely interested in learning about.

Students use books, the internet, or other resources to learn about their person’s life and accomplishments. Once they have gathered information, they can write a report on a pennant banner.

Students share their reports with the rest of the class to teach them about the person and then the completed pennants are displayed on a bulletin board in the hallway or in our classroom. The pennant shape is perfect for the celebratory spirit of the activity! This bulletin board always gets tons of compliments and is one of my students’ favorite Black History Month classroom activities.

There are so many people in this resource , you can have students research more than one person. You might want to guide them through researching one individual in class and then have them research one independently or at home with their families. 

Grab a free sample of this resource with reports for Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks, Ruby Bridges, and Frederick Douglass so you can try them with your class by clicking the link.

Meaningful Black History Month Activities to Try #2: Invite Influential African American People from Your Community to Come to Speak to Your Class

Locate influential African American people living in your community and reach out to them to see if they would like to come to speak to your class during Black History Month. Your students will love hearing first-hand accounts from people who have made a difference in their community. This is also a great opportunity for students to ask questions and learn more about what it means to be Black in America today.

You can also invite someone to speak to your class through Skype or another video chat service if you can’t find anyone local.

Black History Month Classroom Activities Your Students will Enjoy #3: Collect & Display African Folktale Picture Books

Folktales are an important part of African culture. They are often used to teach lessons about morality, wisdom, and other life lessons. During Black History Month, take some time to collect and display African folktale picture books in your classroom. You can read them aloud to your students or have them read them on their own. Either way, your students will love these stories and they’ll be learning about another culture at the same time!

Some great picture books of African folktales are:

• A Story, A Story written and illustrated by Gale E. Hayley
• Anansi the Spider written and illustrated by Gerald McDermott
• Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters : An African Tale by John Steptoe
• Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears by Verna Aardema; illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon
• Why the Sky is Far Away: a Nigerian Folktale by Mary-Joan Gerson; pictures by Carla Golembe

You can find these titles in my Amazon Store by clicking the link. There are so many others to check out as well!

Bonus bulletin board idea: Have each student choose a different folktale to read and then write a brief book report or review. Print out the cover images from each book (or scan and copy the actual covers) and display the covers alongside the reports.

Black History Month Classroom Activities Your Students will Go Crazy For #4: Explore Africa Through Google Earth

Google Earth is a great way to explore the world without ever leaving your classroom! During Black History Month, use Google Earth to take a virtual tour of Africa . You can fly over the continent, zoom in on different countries, and learn about the geography, climate, and culture of this fascinating continent. This is a great activity for students who are visual learners or who are interested in geography.

Black History Month Classroom Activities to Try #5: Explore African Art Online

There are many wonderful examples of African art available online. During Black History Month, spend some time exploring African art with your students. You can look at paintings, sculptures, pottery, and more. Talk about the different styles of art you see and what they might represent. This is a great way to help students understand and appreciate the rich cultural heritage of Africa.

Black History Month Classroom Activities to Try #6: Inventions Bulletin Board

Black Americans have made many important inventions that we use every day. During Black History Month, have students research some of these inventions. Have them write what the invention is and who invented it on an index card. Then, have them draw or print out pictures of the invention and inventor and display the cards and images on a bulletin board. This is a great way to help students understand the importance of black history in our country’s history.

You could also extend this into several different Black History Month classroom activities and create additional displays for Black American art, music, activism, etc.

Meaningful Black History Month Classroom Activities #7: Create a Timeline Bulletin Board of Important Events in Black History

Timelines are a great way to visualize history. They can help students see how events are connected and understand the order in which they occurred. During Black History Month, create a timeline of important events in black history. You can use construction paper, poster board, or even an online tool like Timetoast. This is a great activity for students who are visual learners or who like to work with numbers and dates.

Have Fun with Black History Month Classroom Activities

Celebrate this February in your classroom with these engaging and culturally sensitive Black History Month classroom activities. From collecting African folktale picture books to exploring African art online, your students will love learning about the rich culture and history of Africa.

Learning about influential Black individuals and hearing from people within the community are meaningful Black History Month classroom activities that are sure to make an impact. These activities are also a great way to help students understand the importance of black history in our country’s history.

Do you have another awesome way to celebrate Black History Month? Tell me about it in the comments!

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Melissa Glenn

I’m a teacher, a certified Reading Specialist, and the author behind "Real Life in the Classroom". I love to create classroom resources and share ideas to help real teachers in real classrooms easily plan and implement instruction that they can feel great about.

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Exploring History: Engaging Lesson Plans and Resources for Teachers

Welcome to our website, where we dive into the captivating world of history education. Whether you’re a seasoned educator or a passionate homeschooling parent, we’ve curated a collection of engaging lesson plans and resources to make your history teaching journey both exciting and informative. Join us as we explore a variety of historical topics, from ancient civilizations to modern events, while incorporating interactive activities and primary source documents that bring history to life.

• History Lesson Plans: Unveiling the Past: Our history lesson plans cater to different age groups and cover a wide range of topics, ensuring that you can find the perfect resources for your classroom. From exploring ancient civilizations like Egypt, Rome, and Greece to understanding the causes and consequences of World War I and II, our comprehensive lesson plans provide a solid foundation for historical learning.
• Social Studies Resources: Cultivating Global Citizens: Social studies is an integral part of history education, fostering an understanding of cultures, geography, and citizenship. Our social studies resources complement history lessons by integrating geography into historical narratives, helping students grasp the significance of locations and how they shaped historical events. Additionally, we offer activities that promote global citizenship and encourage students to explore the diverse perspectives that have shaped our world.
• Primary Source Documents: Hearing Voices from the Past: One of the most effective ways to connect students with history is through primary source documents. We believe in bringing historical figures and events to life by allowing students to engage directly with the voices of the past. Our curated collection of primary source documents, including letters, speeches, photographs, and diary entries, provides valuable insights into different historical periods, fostering critical thinking and historical analysis skills.
• Interactive History Lessons: Learning Through Engagement: Gone are the days of dry and passive history lessons. Our interactive history lessons encourage active participation and engagement, making learning a fun and immersive experience. Whether it’s organizing mock debates on historical controversies or creating hands-on projects that recreate historical artifacts, our resources ensure that students become active participants in their own learning journey.
• Black History Month Activities: Celebrating Diversity and Contributions: Black history is an essential part of our collective narrative, and we provide a range of activities to celebrate and honor the contributions of Black individuals throughout history. From biographies of influential figures to lessons on the Civil Rights Movement, our resources offer opportunities for students to explore the rich tapestry of Black history and its significance in shaping society.

As educators, it’s our responsibility to ignite a passion for history in our students. Our blog is dedicated to providing you with the tools and resources necessary to create engaging and meaningful history lessons. By incorporating our carefully curated lesson plans, social studies resources, primary source documents, and interactive activities, you’ll inspire your students to become critical thinkers, empathetic global citizens, and lifelong lovers of history. Join us on this exciting journey of exploration and discovery as we unlock the doors to the past and bring history alive in your classroom.

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The Attack on Black History in Schools

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Across much of the country, Republican officials are reaching into K-12 classrooms and universities alike to exert control over what can be taught. In Florida, Texas, and many other states, laws now restrict teaching historical facts about race and racism. Book challenges and bans are surging. Public universities are seeing political meddling in the tenure process. Advocates of these measures say, in effect, that education must emphasize only the positive aspects of American history. Nikole Hannah-Jones, the New York Times Magazine reporter who developed the 1619 Project, and Jelani Cobb, the dean of the Columbia University School of Journalism, talk with David Remnick about the changing climate for intellectual freedom. “I just think it’s rich,” Hannah-Jones says, “that the people who say they are opposing indoctrination are in fact saying that curricula must be patriotic.” She adds, “You don’t ban books, you don’t ban curriculum, you don’t ban the teaching of ideas, just to do it. You do it to control what we are able to understand and think about and imagine for our society.”

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By Emma Green

“They Don’t Want to Teach Black History”

Not far from a birthplace of the black lives matter movement, a school district convulses after black history and literature classes are canceled., frances madeson.

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This story was originally published by Capital & Main. 

The protests and student walkouts have stopped as an uneasy calm settles over St. Charles County, Missouri, after the community’s all-white school board threatened to eliminate both a Black history class and Black literature class, saying the curriculum contained elements of critical race theory.

As community outrage drew  national media attention , the board retreated and said the curriculum would be reviewed, rewritten to be “largely political neutral” and brought back in time for the next school year.

While that has tempered public indignation, for people like Miranda Bell, a Black mother of two students in the Francis Howell School District, there’s a nagging sense that the community has no sincere interest in teaching the honest history of people like her.

“Every day when they walk out the door, I don’t know if they’re safe, because I don’t know,” she said of her school-aged children. “But I do know they need to know who they are.”

The decision to drop the Black history and literature electives, which came on a 5-2 vote before Christmas, followed the board’s decision last July to allow the district’s  anti-racism resolution , adopted in August 2020, to expire and to order schools to remove framed copies of the resolution from classroom walls. 

Through the resolution the school board pledged that the district would “speak firmly against any racism, discrimination, and senseless violence against people regardless of race, ethnicity, nationality, immigration status, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or ability.”

In 2022-23, five new, far-right members of the school board were elected.

The newly constituted board promised to draft a new resolution, but—more than eight months later—that still hasn’t happened.

Some in this St. Louis suburb say they find it hard to convey how thoroughly the school board has upended the district’s hard-won advances in dignifying Black humanity. Both the resolution and the courses grew from the  community’s response to the 2020 police murder of George Floyd. Nearby Ferguson, Missouri, where 18-year-old Mike Brown was fatally shot by police in 2014, is considered the  birthplace  of the Black Lives Matter movement.

“Adopting the resolution was a proud moment,” Bell said .  “Very proud.” 

Offering Black history and literature electives for the first time was an extension of that moment, she said.

She recalled that thousands of district residents, Black and white alike,  marched  in the streets and grieved together following Floyd’s murder. But now she wonders if that sense of togetherness, and the hope it afforded Black parents, whose children make up less than 8% of the Francis Howell School District student body, has dissipated. 

“I find myself doing a lot of coping, spiritually, to survive,” she said.

Bell is not alone. Local policy advocate Heather Fleming formed the  Missouri Equity Education Partnership  (MEEP) in 2021. Her aim was to organize chapters in the state’s 554 school districts to battle those attempting to stoke the far-right  school culture wars  that have resulted in bans on critical race theory and anti-racism efforts and other policy changes across the country. 

Fleming, a Black woman whose children attend school in the Francis Howell School District, told Capital & Main that the days of paying little attention to school boards “because we just depend that folks who run for school boards want to do what’s best for kids” are absolutely over.

“They’re telling our students to just ‘shut up and dribble,’” Fleming said. “They’re telling our kids, ‘You’ll never be human enough for us to treat you like equals.’”

She thinks the board’s entire approach to Black history rings false. 

“They don’t want to teach Black history,” she said. “What they want is to change the white history of Black events.”

Randy Cook Jr., the school board’s vice president,  told the Associated Press  that the canceled courses appeared to be tilted toward activism. 

“I do not object to teaching black history and black literature; but I do object to teaching black history and black literature through a social justice framework,” Cook wrote in an email to the Associated Press. “I do not believe it is the public school’s responsibility to teach social justice and activism.”

With these two salvos, the board has opened a racialized local front in the national culture wars. It’s directed by a local  right-wing PAC  that’s funding, running and electing candidates, but it copycats down to its website template, verbiage and policy playbook those of similar efforts in other states, according to local organizers.

As the curriculum was being rewritten, a community meeting was held on Feb. 5. According to  local reporting , the  Teaching Tolerance Social Justice Standards , a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center, were dropped from both courses with little impact on the literature course. But revisions to the history course changed the focus from analytical to factual and removed entire sections on “how laws and economic policies affected Black wealth,” and on “what historical and modern-day struggles exist for Black people working toward equity.” The proposed revisions led the school board’s Cook to pronounce that the history course as rewritten “has promise.”

Francis Howell School District board president Adam Bertrand did not respond to Capital & Main’s request for an update on the status of the anti-racism resolution. Superintendent Kenneth Roumpos did not respond to a request for information on whether individual teaching plans will be subject to any new levels of scrutiny.

Zebrina Looney, president of the NAACP chapter for St. Charles County, who has lived her entire 45 years in the area, told Capital & Main she worries about the divide between the Black community and the current school board. 

“We’re taking a deep downward fall. I sometimes wonder if people generally understand the severity of what is going on,” Looney said.

When the anti-racism resolution was allowed to expire, she warned that it was “only the beginning for what this new board is set out to do.” Now, even with the concessions, she doubts the board is satisfied.

“I don’t think this is the last we will see from the board in this manner,” Looney said. 

Black schoolchildren in the U.S. predominantly receive their education in public schools, where instruction dealing with racism is often under attack. In 2019  only about 6%  of Black schoolchildren in the U.S. attended private schools, where they might encounter  curricula that deal more openly  with the country’s racist past.

For Lauren Chance, an 18-year-old senior who helped lead a student walkout on Jan. 18 in protest of the curriculum cancellation, the board’s assault on Black studies prompted a new clarity on her schooling.

“I’ve had teachers who value me and care about my learning, but as a whole, I do not feel that my education has been valued,” the young Black woman told Capital & Main .  “In general, I don’t feel they’ve prepared me for what’s next.”

Chance, who took the embattled history course, thinks Black history should be required for all high school students because of the more realistic picture it provides of America’s story.

“Most students know nothing about their history,” said Chance. “We know the surface-level things and, even then, they still try to water those things down. But we do not really know our history.”

The revised Black history and Black literature curricula were formally approved by the board on March 21, but for Fleming, the policy advocate, it’s hardly cause for celebration.

“These rewritten courses have been approved by the board, but at what cost to our students, our teachers and the subject itself?” she asked. “Whitewashed history that disallows critical examination of the events, people and laws that have informed the Black experience in America does a disservice to all of our students.” 

Copyright Capital & Main

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The first class of astronauts were all test pilots: Scott Carpenter , Gordon Cooper , John Glenn , Gus Grissom , Wally Schirra , Alan Shepard , and Deke Slayton . The men, as the media reported, had similar backgrounds, education, and skills. Obvious connections also included their age and race: all were white men in their thirties. Every one of them was married, had children, and were Protestants. They even donned similar outfits that day: suits with white shirts and ties.

Throughout the sixties, NASA considered jet pilot experience an important skill for anyone in the astronaut corps. Even when NASA selected two groups of scientist-astronauts, one in 1965 and another in 1967, they too learned to fly high-speed aircraft. Those without military jet pilot experience attended a year-long course that the Air Force called Undergraduate Pilot Training, and once they completed the program, they became military-qualified jet pilots.

In the summer of 1976, NASA announced the space agency would be accepting applications for the first class of Space Shuttle astronauts, and encouraged women and minorities to apply. Almost 20 years after that first astronaut announcement, NASA included six women and four minority astronaut candidates in the 1978 class. Of the 35 selected, 15 were named pilots and 20 were mission specialists (scientists who would perform experiments in space and spacewalks). All the pilot astronauts named had similar backgrounds to the Mercury 7. Like their predecessors, they were white male test pilots with backgrounds in aviation, engineering, and science with one unique distinction: Frederick D. Gregory , an African American research test pilot from the NASA Langley Research Center in Virginia. It was not until 1990 that Eileen Collins , a graduate of U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School, became NASA’s first female pilot astronaut. Unlike the earlier scientist-astronauts, the mission specialists selected in 1978 and later classes did not have the opportunity to become military qualified jet pilots. They were required, however, to fly a certain number of hours per month in the back seat of a T-38, a jet trainer the pilot astronauts use to maintain their flight proficiency.

Even as NASA encouraged women and minorities to apply to be astronauts over the years, and more met the basic qualifications as they earned advanced degrees in engineering, medicine, and science, neither group was ever a majority of those selected as candidates. It was more than fifty years before women made up half of those selected in 2013; people of color have never been a majority of any class. Recent astronaut classes are more likely to reflect America’s diverse population, including the last group to be selected in 2021. This group, called the “Flies,” included several minority candidates and four women. (The class, which graduated in March 2024, also included two international astronauts from the United Arab Emirates, and all are now eligible for a flight assignment.) Flight experience continues to remain important, however. Of the ten Americans selected, four were test pilots. Another, Major Nichole Ayers , was a combat aviator from the United States Air Force.

Almost 64 years to the day after the Mercury 7 announcement, NASA and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) revealed the names of the four astronauts assigned to the Artemis II mission. The flight will test and prove that the Orion spacecraft’s systems—including its life support, communication, and navigation systems—function as they were designed while a crew is aboard, ahead of future crewed missions to the Moon.

As NASA Administrator Bill Nelson introduced the crew, which included a woman, a person of color, and a Canadian national, he identified them as representatives of America’s creed: “ E pluribus unum —out of many, one.” The four-member team included Commander Reid Wiseman , Pilot Victor Glover , and Mission Specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen . (Half of this crew came from the 2013 astronaut class, which was equally weighted between men and women.) Artemis II will be the first crewed mission to circle the Moon since Apollo. NASA’s Artemis Generation represents a distinct shift from the sixties—when white men from the United States of America landed on the Moon—and hopes to inspire and engage the next generation by demonstrating that space is for everyone, no matter their race or gender. This crew exemplifies the global coalition NASA has built and its commitment to include international partners as well as commercial partners in this grand adventure.

Like many who came before them, three of the four astronauts assigned to this historic mission are military-qualified jet pilots. Wiseman and Glover were both test pilots; Hansen flew as a fighter pilot for the Canadian Air Force. Test pilots regularly assess how new vehicles perform and have experience evaluating experimental aircraft. Astronauts with backgrounds as test pilots have traditionally been among those selected to fly new spacecraft for the first time. They have a strong understanding of the systems that they are monitoring, which helps them to identify and gather the type of data the space agency is seeking from this flight. The safety of future Artemis crews depends on this information.

While the Astronaut Office might look different from how it did in 1959, the decision to select test pilots for the first class of astronauts continues to influence and shape ideas about who is best suited to be an astronaut and fly in space. They are accustomed to working in a fast-paced environment and thrive under pressure. Bob Gilruth , the father of human spaceflight, called the decision to select test pilots to fly on Project Mercury in 1959, “one of the best decisions in the program. It made it quite simple and logical to delegate flight control and command functions to the pilot,” of the spacecraft. The importance of that decision continues to endure today.

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Name-Calling and Calling the Police: How N.Y.C. Parent Meetings Got Mean

In school districts across the city, families are fighting over transgender athletes and how race and discrimination are taught in the classroom.

By Troy Closson

New York City has never been immune to heated education fights, but in recent months those fights have taken on a new level of vitriol and aggression, and expanded to focus on a broader menu of divisive issues.

The battles reflect the nation’s growing political divide even in this deep blue city, as parents layer old debates — how issues of race and discrimination are taught in schools, for example — over newer ones, such as the role of transgender students in sports and how schools should address the Israel-Hamas war.

Parents have shouted over each other, called each other bigots and made formal complaints about behavior at meetings traditionally focused on issues like school improvements and student achievement . Some parents have filed police reports against each other for harassment. One woman said she was mailed a parcel with feces inside.

The battlegrounds have also multiplied, from a few notoriously quarrelsome parent councils to traditionally peaceful spots around the city.

In other districts around the country, changes in school board policy can transform what happens in classrooms. In New York City, the parent councils where many of the fights are occurring — and which represent the public school system’s 32 districts — have little power, because the mayor controls the schools.

But the new battles, about issues that don’t always break cleanly along party lines, have created a challenge for an administration trying to manage what is perhaps the nation’s most diverse school district.

The city’s schools chancellor, David C. Banks, has previously shown a willingness to listen to families’ worries over the direction of the system, including its handling of desegregation at elite schools. But the tenor of the new debates has families demanding that officials do more to intervene.

As the fighting continues, Mr. Banks suggested last week that city education leaders would soon have more to say about “the nonsense we’ve seen.”

“It is the thing that in this role as chancellor I find most disappointing,” he said. “Adults behaving badly.”

Perhaps nowhere are tensions more evident than in District 2, a sprawling and diverse section of the system weaving through the heart of Manhattan — from the West Village and Hell’s Kitchen to the Upper East Side.

The district’s parent meetings have always been contentious, but families there had mainly sparred over efforts to loosen admissions at selective schools . Recently, though, they have argued over books with more diverse story lines and whether to disavow the right-wing advocacy group Moms for Liberty, among other issues.

And last month, parents there passed a proposal asking the city’s Department of Education to review its gender guidelines, which currently allow students to participate on sports teams based on their gender identities, regardless of the sex they were assigned at birth.

The effort was led in part by Maud Maron, one especially vocal parent leader whose rhetoric has come under fire from school officials. At a remarkably tense March meeting, held in person and online, she and other parents said that the current policies presented “challenges to youth athletes and coaches,” and that they failed to consider the “well-being of girls.”

During the meeting, parents attending remotely argued over whether their children would be unsafe if transgender girls joined girls’ teams. Several elected officials called the discussion “disgraceful.” Mr. Banks later asked, “Won’t you just leave the kids alone?”

The proposal, a nonbinding recommendation to officials, ultimately passed in an 8-3 vote. In a post on X , Moms for Liberty called the vote “a huge step for NYC!” This year the organization held its first major local event , which some District 2 parent leaders attended as panelists, and the group now has a small chapter in Queens.

It is unclear how much the parent council represents broader views within District 2. The council’s members recently won their spots with several hundred votes, and the district has some 20,000 eligible parent voters.

Still, Mark Levine, the Manhattan borough president and a progressive Democrat, said “the MAGA movement has come to Manhattan.”

Other neighborhoods are also becoming battlefronts.

In District 14, which includes Williamsburg, Brooklyn, some parent leaders have vocally called for a cease-fire in Gaza, and say they have faced threats for their stances. At the same time, other parents filed a federal lawsuit last week over the council’s policies, arguing that those who “dissent from official orthodoxy” face unfair scrutiny from school officials.

Even students have joined the battles. At one of the city’s most elite high schools, Stuyvesant High School, teenagers launched a campaign to expel Ms. Maron from their school leadership team for “deeply hurtful” rhetoric toward minority groups on social media.

The safety of the “most vulnerable students is at stake,” they wrote.

Ms. Maron said in a statement that she has several concerns with the system’s gender guidelines, including that they “impinge on the rights of female students.” She called it “immoral” to tell children they need “interventions to fix their bodies.”

The conflicts are arising after some parents formally organized in recent years over their anger at a proposal to overhaul admissions at the city’s specialized high schools. When moderate or conservative parents feel like their concerns are not being heard in more progressive places, experts said, the messages of a group like Moms for Liberty can resonate.

Rebecca Jacobsen, an education policy professor at Michigan State University, said that the increasingly charged environments could reflect a lasting change. “It is not going back to the way it was,” she said, referring to the national landscape.

Others who study political fights in education pointed to school closures during the coronavirus pandemic. “They galvanized a certain kind of conservatism in New York City which we hadn’t seen in a while,” said Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, an associate professor of history at the New School.

Now, she added, “it’s taken hold in other issues.”

In recent months, Mr. Banks, the schools chancellor, has begun to criticize parents for their behavior more often.

But the fighting has prompted questions over how far officials should go. The president of the city’s teachers’ union, Michael Mulgrew, wants them to do more. He said in a recent letter that some parent leaders had used their platforms to “denigrate and endanger students,” raising concerns that children could suffer.

Still, Kenita Lloyd, a top school official overseeing family engagement, said at a press briefing last week that it could set a “dangerous precedent” to “summarily remove” elected parent leaders.

But some parents remain disappointed. “The adults in the room at the Department of Education really need to step in,” said Gavin Healy, a parent leader in District 2.

In New York, several recent chancellors have encouraged schools to expand the type of teaching — on issues like identity and discrimination — that some other cities have restricted. That too appears to be drawing fresh dissent in at least one neighborhood.

The news site Gothamist reported last month that books on topics like Native American history and the Black Panther superhero were found in the trash at a Staten Island elementary school. Some were labeled with notes, including “Not approved. Discusses dad being transgender. Teenage girls having a crush on another girl in class.”

At the recent unveiling of new lessons on the African diaspora, Mr. Banks said that the teaching of Black history was “under attack all across America.” He said that students would be exposed to diverse stories “whether folks like it or not.”

As the State Legislature considers whether to renew mayoral control of the city’s public schools, the abstract parent fights could have more resonance. Some want state lawmakers to give elected school boards power to make real policy.

Brad Hoylman-Sigal, a Democratic state senator who represents much of Manhattan’s West Side, said “we need to be mindful of how” both school boards and parent councils “can be hijacked.”

Still, experts note that voter turnout — which sits at around 2 percent in parent council elections — would likely rise if the stakes were higher.

Whatever lawmakers decide, John Rogers, a U.C.L.A. professor who has studied education fights, said national political conflict over school issues was likely to grow in the lead-up to the presidential election.

“I think it’s only going to be heightened in the months to come,” he said.

Troy Closson reports on K-12 schools in New York City for The Times. More about Troy Closson

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Beyoncé’s country album drowns out the Black music history it claims to celebrate

For all her declarations of being authentically country, Cowboy Carter arrives on the back of booming business for the genre and is all about the star, not the roots music supposedly at the project’s heart

O n the first track of Beyoncé ’s new album, she seems to state the impetus behind the project: “They used to say I spoke too country / Then the rejection came, said I wasn’t country ’nough.” That rejection was an unnamed experience in which she has said she “did not feel welcomed”, assumed to be her performance of her song Daddy Lessons with the Chicks at the 2016 Country Music awards. It prompted a racist backlash from parts of the country establishment, as well as outrage at Beyoncé giving a platform to the Chicks, who had been in exile from the industry since singer Natalie Maines criticised George W Bush’s handling of the Iraq war in 2002.

Cowboy Carter is Beyoncé’s 27-track response. On the album’s cover, she is on a horse, holding an American flag, draped in US flag apparel, with her long blond tresses flowing and a cowboy hat atop her head. In the few details she has shared about the album, she said she “did a deeper dive into the history of country music and studied our rich musical archive”. As she became the first Black female artist to have a US country No 1 and top the Billboard Hot 100 with a country song and debate over her place in the genre reigned, no greater a country luminary than Dolly Parton lent her support. Later it was revealed that she and outlaw legend Willie Nelson were to feature on the album, cementing its country bona fides.

I’m an internationally touring acoustic guitarist from Virginia who has studied American vernacular music. The promise of Beyoncé’s country album was exciting to me, as were the personnel on its two lead singles: the musician-scholar Rhiannon Giddens playing banjo and viola on Texas Hold ’Em and pedal steel player Robert Randolph – of the Sacred Steel tradition, the southern Black Pentecostal church music dating back to the 1930s – appears on 16 Carriages. These are Black country and folk artists who work within Black traditional lineages that deserve to be highlighted and celebrated for their specificity. However, on hearing Cowboy Carter this weekend, I felt as though little work had been done to utilise the breadth of knowledge of Beyoncé’s collaborators or the Black country/traditional music community at large. Beyoncé settled for using Giddens’ banjo and Randolph’s pedal steel as props to back up the overall production on the record, instead of boosting these traditions to the forefront on an album with an artificial sheen. Moreover, it felt in greater conversation with an exclusionary mainstream – and like a capitalist gesture to insert itself into that world.

Ahead of release, Beyoncé stated that Cowboy Carter was “a ‘Beyoncé’ album, not a country album”, and she sings that she wants genre to become meaningless. She even uses an interlude by Linda Martell, the first Black female solo artist to play the Grand Ole Opry, to restate this. “Genres are a funny little concept aren’t they? Yes they are,” Martell says on the song Spaghettii. “In theory they have a simple definition that’s easy to understand. But in practice, well, some may feel confined.” As Giddens put it in a recent article for the Guardian: “Tradition is shaped according to the inner logic of specific communities through long processes of creative engagement … Genre, on the other hand, is a product of capitalism, and people with access to power create it, control it and maintain it in order to commoditise art.” Despite Cowboy Carter’s use of funk, psychedelia and even Jersey club, Beyoncé’s flagrant leaning on country aesthetics to establish this album as being markedly different from her previous records suggests an artist conforming to the standards of the latter category in order to cash in on the growing popularity of country music.

Billboard reported that country music consumption was up 20.3% year-on-year in the first half of 2023, thanks to the success of records by Wallen, Luke Combs, Zach Bryan and Bailey Zimmerman. Later that year came controversial country No 1 singles from Jason Aldean and Oliver Anthony. In their wake, major artists are muscling in: Post Malone has teased the release of a forthcoming country album; Lana Del Rey has also announced a country record, Lasso, for release this summer. Cowboy Carter hardly seems different from those attempts to capitalise on the genre’s prominence.

What other reason is there to include guest spots from Post Malone and Miley Cyrus – both white artists who piggybacked on hip-hop aesthetics to gain success and relevance before later criticising the genre? It seems incongruous given Beyoncé’s laudable work to give Black artistry its due, as does the news that Post Malone is set to collaborate with country star Morgan Wallen, who was caught on video in 2021 using a racial slur and briefly penalised by the industry – only to return to the top of the charts and break records when his 2023 album One Thing at a Time became the longest-running US No 1 country album. The swift recovery of his career demonstrates the double standards for white male artists, and then everyone else, within the country music industry. And Beyoncé singing a dreadful duet with Post Malone about Levi’s jeans is not tradition; it’s an advertisement that exploits a certain aesthetic, much like her Black Panther-esque uniform at the 2016 Super Bowl.

Her attempts at country-style storytelling also miss the mark. 16 Carriages immediately reminded me of Merle Travis’s hit Sixteen Tons. They’re both autobiographical testimonies to hardship and sacrifice. Singing about his family’s life in the Kentucky coal mines, Merle sings, “I loaded 16 tons / What do you get? / Another day older and deeper in debt.” On 16 Carriages, Beyoncé sings about her young touring life with Destiny’s Child “on the back of the bus” in “a bunk with the band”. As hard as I know bus life can be, Beyoncé’s hardships are a Hollywood version of the working person’s reality.

“I ain’t seen the sunshine since I don’t know when / I’m stuck in Folsom prison and time keeps dragging on,” Johnny Cash croons in Folsom Prison Blues. “AOTY, I ain’t win,” Beyoncé laments in Sweet Honey Buckiin’, referring to the fact that she has never won the Grammy for album of the year despite being the awards’ most-garlanded musician. The difference in lyricism displays the changing ethos in country music, from authentically magnifying the underclass experience to a shortcut to perceived authenticity. Beyoncé’s larger-than-life persona feels at odds with the tradition itself. Take her rewrite of Parton’s Jolene. In the original, Parton is vulnerable and powerless in the face of a woman who she thinks capable of luring her man away. Beyoncé turns the song into a fiery warning shot, stripping out the tension that has made the original endure for more than 50 years in favour of a pop-starry statement of dominance.

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Even as an album fusing genres, Cowboy Carter lacks the execution of a record such as Ray Charles’s Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music. Modern Sounds reworks country standards into pop, jazz, and R&B song forms by fusing the older traditions of country western music with the more modern popular music at that time. Perhaps if Cowboy Carter had featured more working-class Black country artists, or leaned on the scholarship of the likes of Dom Flemons, formerly of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, or collectives such as Black Opry, which represents Black artists, fans and industry workers, or the now-defunct Black Country Music Association of the 1990s, it might have been as thrilling as Modern Sounds.

As has been the case since her 2013 self-titled album, Beyoncé has remained secretive about how the album was made – making it hard to see anything, or any culture, other than Beyoncé herself as the central figure of Cowboy Carter. It’s unfortunate: the album would have benefited from de-centring its superstar and letting the experts she trusted to join her in creating the album to shine brighter. As it stands, it feels as though Beyoncé has put the Carter before the horse.

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Astrophysics > Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

Title: new ideas on the formation and astrophysical detection of primordial black holes.

Abstract: Recently, a number of novel scenarios for primordial black hole (PBH) formation have been discovered. Some of them require very minimal new physics, some others require no new ingredients besides those already present in commonly considered models, such as supersymmetry. At the same time, new strategies have emerged for detection of PBHs. For example, an observation of an orphan kilonova unaccompanied by the gravitational waves signal of merging neutron stars, but associated with a fast radio burst, could be a smoking gun of PBH dark matter. We review some new ideas for PBH formation and detection.

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