1. Have students search through Aspire, our YouTube channel focused on Black achievement, culture, and history. Have them select a video to view and respond to in a journal entry or class presentation. Use videos from the channel for learning during this month and throughout the school year.
2. Bake sweet potato biscuits, a traditional soul food treat, with this delicious recipe.
3. Learn How the Blues Moved the Civil Rights Movement, listen to the blues, and then invite students to compose their own 12-bar blues music. Trace the history of the blues from its beginnings in the fields of the South to its global impact on today’s music. Visit the National Blues Museum to learn about B. B. King and other musicians.
4. Conduct a read-aloud of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech, then invite students to write their own speeches about what they are inspired to change in the world.
5. Play the African counting game Mancala. To make the game board, use a large egg carton (cut off the lid) and tape an extra cup (cut from another carton) to each end.
6. Learn about Jim Crow Laws and other historical events, such as the Emancipation of Slavery.
7. See James Karales’s photographs of the 1965 Selma to Montgomery civil rights marches. Meet Sister Mary Antona Ebo, a black nun who marched in Selma.
8. Watch this oral history of legendary bluesman Bobby Rush, King of the Chitlin’ Circuit during the Jim Crow laws era.
9. For older students, read and/or watch The Hate You Give. Have a discussion lead by the author’s discussion questions.
10. Share excerpts of contemporary novelist Zadie Smith’s On Beauty with students and, using the reading guide, have a discussion about her portrayal of white and black middle-class kids in America.
11. Share with students “I, Too” by poet Langston Hughes and have a discussion about the poem’s vocabulary, rhythm, and meaning.
12. Watch student-made digital stories on important African Americans. Divide students into groups to make their own digital stories about a person of their choice.
13. Teach students the songs of the civil rights movement, such as “This Little Light of Mine” and “Oh, Freedom.” Discuss how the lyrics reflect the defiant and hopeful spirit of the time.
14. Learn about civil rights icon Medgar Evers through the memories of his daughter, Rena Evers-Everette. Have students select a contemporary civil rights advocate to research and create a presentation about.
15. Teach students about director, producer, writer, and actor Spike Lee, a successful and prolific African American filmmaker.
16. Tour the Griot Museum of Black History and learn about the role St. Louis had in the Dred Scott Case. Take your study further by discovering more about freedom suits beyond the Dred Scott case.
17. Learn about Frankie Freeman, Civil Rights icon. Have your students write about we are currently in regard to race relations and racial diversity.
18. Read “A Pledge to Rescue Our Youth” by poet Maya Angelou. Then, watch a video about her inspiration for this profound piece on youth and education.
19. Learn about the history of hip-hop music, a genre that emerged in the Bronx, New York City, in 1970. Ask students to bring in examples of their favorite songs or dances to discuss.
20. Teach students about Nelson Mandela, his imprisonment, and the battle to end apartheid in South Africa.
21. Visit the Shelley House of Shelley v. Kraemer and view this video. Ask your students: Does the enforcement of a racially restrictive covenant violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment?
22. In Africa, sesame seeds bring good luck. Make a delicious batch of sesame cookies with this recipe.
23. Watch Modern American Dance Company’s Freedom, inspired by Henry Hampton’s The Eyes on the Prize civil rights media collection that is housed at the Film and Media Archive at the Washington University Libraries. Have your students choreograph their own dance.
24. Watch Christopher Paul Curtis, a winner of the Newbery Medal, give advice to young authors.
25. Learn about the scientific work of African Americans with these Black History Month resources from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
26. Read excerpts from President Barack Obama’s The Audacity of Hope (or his Audacity of Hope speech) and discuss the importance of the election of our country’s first black president.
27. Who was the first African American tennis player to win the U.S. Open? Who was the first African American woman elected to U.S. Congress? Find out about many famous firsts in black history on Biography.
28. Take an online tour and learn about St. Louis’ impactful history in the African American struggle for civil rights at The Missouri History Museum.
