February is Black History Month and the 2024 theme is “African Americans and the Arts.” One of the most popular Choices Teaching with the News lessons, An Interactive Timeline: Black Activism and the Long Fight for Racial Justice, utilizes an interactive, multimedia timeline to provide an overview of many individuals, organizations, and movements that have advanced the push for racial equality in the United States, from the 1950s into the twenty-first century. The timeline includes information on the Black Arts Movement; songs by James Brown, Stevie Wonder, and Tupac; the Roots TV miniseries; Spike Lee’s debut film; and the poetry of Maya Angelou, along with many other important events.

In the free lesson, students review the timeline to identify themes and patterns during different eras of activism and collaborate to consider accomplishments of civil rights activists and the enduring obstacles to racial equality. Explore this lesson, along with the materials below, as you consider ways to incorporate the contributions of Black Americans in your history classes throughout the year.

Racial Slavery in the Americas: Resistance, Freedom, and Legacies  This unit provides a wide-ranging overview of racial slavery. It examines the slave trade and life in America as well as the Black abolition movement, the legacies of slavery, and racial justice movements’ responses to these legacies.

The Civil War and the Meaning of Liberty  The readings in this unit explore antebellum American, abolitionist movements and their key actors, and legacies of the war. Lessons include Who Were the Abolitionists?; The Black National Conventions, Abolition, and the Constitution; and Letters from Black Soldiers and Their Families.

Civil Rights Now: The Freedom Movement in Mississippi This unit traces the history of the Black freedom struggle from Reconstruction through the 1960s and explores the roles of everyday people in the fight for justice and equality. Lessons cover Ida B. Wells, oral histories, nonviolence, and more.