Resources for Celebrating Black History All Year Round

Black History Month isn’t the only time to study and celebrate the contributions of Black Americans past and present. But February can be a great time to explore Black history and refocus an anti-racist lens on our curriculum, classrooms and communities. Here are a few resources to get started.

Start with Black History Month: Teaching the Complete History from Learning for Justice (formerly Teaching Tolerance), which advocates teaching Black liberation and civic achievement and not solely the trauma of slavery and segregation.

Honoring Black Agency and Joy, a collection from Facing History and Ourselves is a good next stop, along with this media-rich lesson and a new look at Martin Luther King Jr’s famous ‘I Have a Dream’ speech from KQED Media Literacy Innovator Bob Kelly.

Connecting Black history to the present helps put ongoing calls for racial justice in context. KQED’s Above the Noise video Is There a Right Way to Protest? explores how civil rights protests have changed–and what has stayed the same.

Deepen students’ exploration of the throughline between past and present with Civil Rights Then and Now and Black American Since MLK: And Still I Rise on PBS LearningMedia.

Along with the study of Black history and protest comes a reckoning with systemic racism in the United States and how to make change. What Does It Mean to Be Anti-Racist? from Above the Noise starts the conversation, which middle and high school students can continue on KQED Learn’s Discussion site.

Younger students can explore anti-racist practices with this video from the Arthur series on PBS: Listen, Talk, Act. Learning about white Americans who practice anti-racism can help white students see themselves in anti-racist action. Check out White Anti-Racist Biographies: Early Grades from Learning for Justice.

Make Black History Month a time to celebrate Black Americans and refocus on the values of democracy, equity and justice. If you have more Black history resources you’d like to share with the KQED education community, please tag us (@KQEDedspace) on Twitter!