Black history needs to be more than just a minor focus in one month of the academic year. Instead, it should be a driving force in the U.S. history curriculum. We believe that students should have opportunities to explore racial discrimination that African Americans have faced, as well as how they used their agency to overcome these obstacles. A systematic and holistic approach to U.S. history that embraces African Americans’ experiences offers students the opportunity to see that the pursuit of equity and justice has been an ongoing struggle. 

In contemporary U.S. society, there are those that would deny the role that race has played in our country’s history. These people want to limit diverse groups’ voices and perspectives from being included in the U.S. history curriculum. This vocal minority has passed laws on the state level to limit the teaching of topics that they deem divisive, such as race. Our project at the I3 Academy is designed to showcase how social studies teachers can intentionally embrace discussions of race.

In our year-long project at the I3 Academy, we are working with a sixth grade U.S. history teacher, Mrs. Katie Rowland Ellis, to thematically teach civil rights issues from Reconstruction through the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. The I3 Academy is a free public charter school in Birmingham, Alabama. We choose this school for our project for two significant reasons. First, the sixth-grade class is 93% African American, so our project is culturally relevant to the students. Second, the I3 Academy places an emphasis on designing learning activities that allow students to be change agents. Our year-long project allows students to see how African Americans have been agents of change throughout U.S. history.

In each unit of the sixth grade U.S. history curriculum, we embed an instructional sequence centered on a civil rights activist or group that challenged racial discrimination African Americans faced. Each topic is explored using a trade book and related primary sources. In every instructional sequence, students are required to answer analysis prompts designed to help them connect the challenges faced by African Americans, and the strategies used by civil rights activists throughout the century after the U.S. Civil War.

One of the main goals of our year-long project is to introduce students to African Americans who are not usually included in the U.S. history curriculum. We wanted to go beyond focusing on Dr. King and Rosa Parks to show that lesser-known individuals also played instrumental roles in overcoming racial discrimination. For example, during the Progressive era, we explored how Ida B. Wells advocated for public policies to end lynchings. Other individuals studied in our year-long project were Congressman Robert Smalls during the Reconstruction unit, the Harlem Hellfighters and Horace Pippin during the World War I unit, and Florence Mills during the Harlem Renaissance unit. These individuals overcame racial discrimination in many facets of U.S. society, including art, music, journalism, and the military. 

Mrs. Katie Rowland Ellis argues that it is important for her students to see African Americans that were change agents in the U.S. history curriculum. “I think it is important for my students to see powerful historical figures that changed the world. Students can see themselves in such historical figures. This helps us look at different perspectives about issues and events in U.S. history.” This adds relevancy and causes a genuine interest by students to want to learn about U.S. history. By highlighting lesser-known individuals, who challenged racial discrimination in varied fields, students see that people other than presidents can help to change their world. It is our hope that students see the agency that all democratic citizens possess to enact change, including themselves.