I often get asked about resources for K-12 teachers. Many of these would be useful to parents who want to expose their kids to history. So here is a, by no means exhaustive, list of resources for teaching African American history and American history. Many of these links include primary sources, lesson plans, best practices as well as history lecture series, classes, and workshops.
- National Parks Service (History of Parks & Historic Sites)
- Smithsonian Open Access
- Smithsonian National Museum of American History General Resources for Teachers and African American History
- Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
- Library of Congress Resources for Educators
- National Archives and Records Administration Resources for Educators and DocsTeach: Bring History to Life w/Primary Sources
- Zinn Education Project’s Teach Reconstruction
- Zinn Education Project’s Teach the Black Freedom Struggle
- Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
- Facing History, Facing Ourselves Resource Library
- American Civil War Museum Educator Resources
- 1619 Project Education
- #CharlestonSyllabus–documents, op-eds, and scholarly sources that contextualize the 2015 massacre at Emanuel AME
- Learning for Justice
- Equal Justice Initiative and Legacy Museum
- The Black Past with Primary Documents and Historic Speeches
- Not Event Past Resources including on Black History and Resources for Teaching Civil Rights
Resources Recommended/Curated by Professional History Associations and Organizations
- American Historical Association Resources for Teaching History and Classroom Materials for Teaching History, including African American History
- Association for the Study of African American Life and History
- Organization of American Historians Resources
Want to connect with amazing women historians who study history across time and space and who are committed to working with non-academics?
Check out the Women Also Know History database which is searchable by topic.
Shows
- Seizing Freedom–History Docudrama following African Americans through the Civil War and Reconstruction
- PBS Black Culture Connection
- Henry Louis Gates’s PBS series, Reconstruction: America after the Civil War
- Henry Louis Gates’s PBS series, The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross
- Slate Academy on Reconstruction with Jamelle Bouie and Rebecca Onion
- Slate Academy on The History of American Slavery with Jamelle Bouie and Rebecca Onion
- The Reckoning: Facing the Legacy of Slavery in America
- Scene on Radio’s The Land That Has Never Been Yet–covers American democracy from its origins to the present
- Ben Franklin’s World: Early American History
- Teaching Hard History–includes seasons devoted to slavery, Reconstruction, and Civil Rights
- Teaching While White–includes resources and a podcast
- Points South: Oxford American
- Bitter Southerner
- RetroReport In the Classroom–short, free videos and resources for teaching
Civil War and Reconstruction
- Library of Congress, African American Soldiers during the Civil War
- Library of Congress, The Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861-1877
- National Parks Service’s African American Attitudes Towards the Civil War
- National Historic Landmarks Theme Study, The Era of Reconstruction, 1861-1900
- National Archives, Civil War and Reconstruction, 1850-1877
- National Archives, Black Soldiers in the U.S. Military
- Zinn Ed Project, National Report on the Teaching of Reconstruction
Select Digital Projects
- Pulitzer Center’s 1619 Project Resources
- History Matters w/ hundreds of documents or primary sources
- Colored Conventions Project inc K-12 Teacher Resource Guide
- Freedom on the Move: Database of Self-Liberating People
- Last See: Finding Family After Slavery [Information Wanted Ads in Newspapers helping African Americans find their Kin after the Civil War]
- Freedmen’s Bureau Online
- The Freedmen and Southern Society Project’s Documentary History of Emancipation
- Enslaved: Peoples of the Historical Slave Trade
Professional Development for Educators
- National Endowment for the Humanities, Summer Institute and Workshops for Teachers
Kidada E. Williams 