Students will explore Asian American and Pacific Islander (“AAPI”) women’s poetry in order to craft and inspire their own poetry, studying central idea and six different poetic elements over the course of the unit. After analyzing and interpreting poems, students will recognize poetry as a vehicle to express untold stories about events small and large. Students will learn about the experiences of and challenges faced by AAPI women, including topics of retaining culture, climate change, and more.

2021 Social Science Standards Integrated with Ethnic Studies:
Civics and Government: 5.1, 7.5
Economics: 4.4
Historical Knowledge: 5.22
Social Science Analysis: 3.19, 4.21, 4.24, 5.26, 52.27, 6.26, 7.28, 7.29

For Asian Americans living, working, and growing up in the margins in the United States during the 1960s and 70s, participating in social activism played an important role in advancing justice for them as citizens of the United States. Asian Americans worked in partnership with other ethnic and racial groups to overcome unfair treatment. Through the examples of the United Farm Workers Movement and the student strike at San Francisco State College, and at the Peace Rally after the L.A. Civil Unrest, students will learn how Asian Americans spoke out against injustice and stood up for the better treatment of all Americans.

2021 Social Science Standards Integrated with Ethnic Studies:
Civics and Government: 3.2
Geography: 5.13
Historical Knowledge: 1.12, 5.22
Historical Thinking: 2.21
Social Science Analysis: 1.12, 3.18, 3.19, 4.21, 4.24, 5.28

Neighborhood empowerment advocate and civil rights movement veteran Robert L. Woodson has developed ten principles for personal growth and community development. He has used these principles throughout his decades of working with organizations that seek to transform low-income communities from within. In this lesson, students will learn about these principles, discuss their importance, and imagine ways to apply them in their own lives and the life of their communities.

The Woodson Center's Black History and Excellence curriculum is based on the Woodson Principles and tells the stories of Black Americans whose tenacity and resilience enabled them to overcome adversity and make invaluable contributions to our country. It also teaches character and decision-making skills that equip students to take charge of their futures. These lessons in Black American excellence are free and publicly available for all.

This curriculum unit of three lessons examines the social, political and economic conditions of the southern states in the aftermath of the Civil War and shows how these factors helped to shape the Reconstruction debate as well as the subsequent history of American race relations.

Historian and Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates provided a history of religion and the importance of the church in Black communities.

Born to poor sharecroppers in Texas, Bessie Coleman (1892-1926) was the first African American woman aviator, earning an international aviation license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. Throughout her career as a daredevil stunt pilot in thrilling airshows, she consistently defied expectations and broke through racial and gender barriers to dazzle audiences and inspire future generations of Black American pilots, aviators, and astronauts. This lesson tells the story of Coleman’s life in the wider context of the “barnstorming” early days of flight and the rising opposition to racial segregation exemplified by newspapers like the Chicago Defender.

The Woodson Center's Black History and Excellence curriculum is based on the Woodson Principles and tells the stories of Black Americans whose tenacity and resilience enabled them to overcome adversity and make invaluable contributions to our country. It also teaches character and decision-making skills that equip students to take charge of their futures. These lessons in Black American excellence are free and publicly available for all.

This lesson provides an overview of the world's first African American female pilot, who overcame multiple barriers (racial, gender-based, historical, socioeconomic) in order to become a celebrated aviator and daredevil performer who thrilled both Black and White audiences. It is suitable for a lesson in history class, and would makean enriching addition to courses dealing with technical or scientific fields connected with aviation. The Woodson Center’s K-12 black history and character curriculum is based on the Woodson Principles and tells the stories of black Americans whose tenacity and resilience enabled them to overcome adversity and make invaluable contributions to our country. It also teaches character and decision-making skills that equip students to take charge of their futures. These lessons in black American excellence are free and publicly available for all.

In this history lesson, students learn about the epic life and exemplary character of Biddy Mason, a woman who was born into slavery in the Deep South, walked to California as part of a pioneer caravan, fought for her freedom in court, and died a millionaire real-estate investor in Los Angeles. In addition to the highs and lows of Biddy’s dramatic life, this lesson asks students to study how she demonstrated the virtues of courage and charity, both in securing freedom for herself and her family and, later, using her fortune to invest in her community and provide relief to poor Californians of all races and religions.

The Woodson Center's Black History and Excellence curriculum is based on the Woodson Principles and tells the stories of Black Americans whose tenacity and resilience enabled them to overcome adversity and make invaluable contributions to our country. It also teaches character and decision-making skills that equip students to take charge of their futures. These lessons in Black American excellence are free and publicly available for all.

In this lesson students learn how Birth of a Nation reflected and influenced racial attitudes, and they analyze and evaluate the efforts of the NAACP to prohibit showing of the film.

Create a curated library of books related to Black History Month using Epic! for adult learners to read. Then have students reflect on what they read,

In his book, Reclaiming the Black Past, author and professor Pero Dagbovie explains how black history is taught in schools and used in popular culture including movies like Green Book. He discussed criticism of the way history is shown and the points of views that are highlighted.

Using a variety of primary sources, Dr. Yohuru Williams explores the history of the struggle for racial equality in the United States—from the Civil Rights era through the contemporary Black Lives Matter movement—with an exploration of key episodes and moments in U.S. history.

Interdisciplinary survey of people of African descent that draws on the overlapping approaches of history, literature, anthropology, legal studies, media studies, performance, linguistics, and creative writing. This course connects the experiences of African-Americans and of other American minorities, focusing on social, political, and cultural histories, and on linguistic patterns.

This collection uses primary sources to explore the Black Power Movement. Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.

Having experienced the profound racial disparities in the rural South firsthand, writer and education reformer Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) dreamed of a school-building project for Black communities that could help begin to lift them out of poverty. In this history lesson, students examine Washington’s collaboration with philanthropist Julius Rosenwald (1862-1932), and learn how Washington’s hopeful dream slowly became the reality of nearly 5,000 new schools. Built in large part by the communities they served, Rosenwald schools were a ray of hope in the face of poverty and racial discrimination.

The Woodson Center's Black History and Excellence curriculum is based on the Woodson Principles and tells the stories of Black Americans whose tenacity and resilience enabled them to overcome adversity and make invaluable contributions to our country. It also teaches character and decision-making skills that equip students to take charge of their futures. These lessons in Black American excellence are free and publicly available for all.

Having experienced the profound racial disparities in the rural South firsthand, writer and education reformer Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) dreamed of a school-building project for Black communities that could help begin to lift them out of poverty. In this history lesson, students examine Washington’s collaboration with philanthropist Julius Rosenwald (1862-1932), and learn how Washington’s hopeful dream slowly became the reality of nearly 5,000 new schools. Built in large part by the communities they served, Rosenwald schools were a ray of hope in the face of poverty and racial discrimination.The Woodson Center's Black History and Excellence curriculum is based on the Woodson Principles and tells the stories of Black Americans whose tenacity and resilience enabled them to overcome adversity and make invaluable contributions to our country. It also teaches character and decision-making skills that equip students to take charge of their futures. These lessons in Black American excellence are free and publicly available for all.

The boycott is one of the most powerful, time-tested tactics that social movements have at their disposal. History offers many examples of people joining together to exercise their power as consumers in support of movements for social justice, civil rights, and workers' rights. By calling for people to not spend their money on a target good or service, boycotts can aid these movements by drawing on a wider base of supporters who would otherwise be unable to participate.

This lesson examines the historical development of the boycott as a tactic - with examples of its use by both progressives and conservatives - and looks at some recent boycotts that are related to hot-button political issues.

Neighborhood empowerment advocate and civil rights movement veteran Robert L. Woodson has developed ten principles for personal growth and community development. He has used these principles throughout his decades of working with organizations that seek to transform low-income communities from within. In this lesson, students will learn about these principles, discuss their importance, and imagine ways to apply them in their own lives and the life of their communities.  The Woodson Center's Black History and Excellence curriculum is based on the Woodson Principles and tells the stories of Black Americans whose tenacity and resilience enabled them to overcome adversity and make invaluable contributions to our country. It also teaches character and decision-making skills that equip students to take charge of their futures. These lessons in Black American excellence are free and publicly available for all.

This lesson plan helps students understand the context of the 1992 L.A. civil unrest (L.A. riots). Korean Americans in solidarity with Black Americans and others, formed coalitions to call for racial justice, community healing and rebuilding. Various police reforms, community programs and rebuilding efforts came about after. It covers the importance of building community consciousness and coalitions to fight systemic racism. By using the transcripts from the segment this lesson plan will ask the students to analyze the movement by using guiding questions to identify the issue, research the problem, respond to the problem and reflect on why learning about this topic is important to their lives and current social movements.

2021 Social Science Standards Integrated with Ethnic Studies:
Civics and Government: 7.5, HS.2
Economics: 7.8
Geography: HS.42, HS.51
Historical Knowledge: 8.22, 8.25, HS.60, HS.61, HS.64, HS.65
Historical Thinking: 7.25, 7.30, 8.31, HS.67, HS.69
Social Science Analysis: 8.36, HS.72, HS.73, HS.74, HS.77, HS.78

As an assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, Burke Marshall played a key role in the federal government's efforts to desegregate the South. Representing the presidential administrations of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, Marshall mediated conflicts between civil rights protesters and southern white officials. In this interview, Marshall recalls the 1961 Freedom Rides and the 1962 desegregation of the University of Mississippi.