Black Power Additional Lessons
LESSON
Voices of Black Liberation
By Larry Miller
Students read a speech or popular writing by a leader of the Black liberation movement, write and give their own speech, and have a debate arguing from the perspective of that person.
LESSON
COINTELPRO: Teaching the FBI’s War on the Black Freedom Movement
By Ursula Wolfe-Rocca
Through examining FBI documents, students learn the scope of the FBI’s COINTELPRO campaign to spy on, infiltrate, discredit, and disrupt all corners of the Black Freedom Movement.
LESSON
What We Don’t Learn About the Black Panther Party — but Should
By Adam Sanchez and Jesse Hagopian
The history of the Black Panther Party (BPP) holds vital lessons for today’s movement to confront racism and police violence — yet textbooks either misrepresent or minimize the significance of the Panthers. Armed with a revolutionary socialist ideology, they fought in Black communities across the nation for giving the poor access to decent housing, healthcare, education, and much more. This mixer role play introduces students to the pivotal and largely untold history of the Black Panthers.
Lesson
A Study of Artist Aaron Douglas: Painting the Human Figure in the Tradition of Resistance
By Patty Bode
Aaron Douglas was a leader in the Harlem Renaissance school of painting, and one of the first artists to document the history of the African-American experience through visual art. Called the “Father of African-American Art,” Douglas was also a social activist. In this lesson students learn about his work and techniques, then create a painted cut-out of a civil rights marcher that will later be applied to a mural that the whole class will complete.