African American History

Social Studies Practices

African History and the Origins of the African Slave Trade (pre-1619): Students will analyze the economic, political, and social development of slavery in the United States.

African American Life Prior to the Civil War (1619-1860): Students will examine the varied experiences of African Americans prior to the Civil War, including the social and cultural contributions of African Americans, the beginnings of the abolition movement, and the life experiences of African Americans. Additionally, students will analyze justifications and ramifications of slavery during this era.

African Americans during the Civil War and Reconstruction (1861-1890s): Students will analyze the changing roles of African Americans during the Civil War and Reconstruction.

African American Life after Emancipation through World War I (1890s-1920s): Students will analyze the rise of Jim Crow laws, achievements of African Americans, the role African Americans played in military endeavors, and the life experiences of African Americans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

African Americans and the Harlem Renaissance (1920s-1930s): Students will analyze the cultural contributions made by African Americans during the Harlem Renaissance.

African American Life during the Great Depression and World War II (1930s-1940s): Students will analyze the contributions and experiences of African Americans during the Great Depression and World War II.

The Modern Civil Rights Movement (1950s-1960s): Students will analyze the successes and failures of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States.

African American Issues in Contemporary Times (1970s-present): Students will analyze the issues confronting African Americans during the contemporary era in the continued struggle for equality.

Collect data and information from a variety of primary and secondary sources, including:

Critically examine a primary or secondary source in order to:

Synthesize data from a variety of sources in order to:

Construct and communicate arguments by citing supporting evidence to:

Develop historical awareness by:

Develop geographic awareness by:

Explore the legacy of rich African kingdoms such as Ghana, Mali, and Songhai.

Explain the diverse political, economic, and social structures of pre-colonialized African communities.

Analyze the economic, political, and social reasons for focusing the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade on the African continent, including the role of Africans, Europeans, and their New World colonies.

Analyze the role and impact of the slave trade on West Africa and the Thirteen English colonies.

Define the African Diaspora.

Explore the conditions of the Middle Passage and how it is considered one of the largest forced migrations and examples of enslavement in human history.

Describe the experiences of free and enslaved Africans living in the Thirteen English colonies and the early United States, including their contributions to the American Revolution.

Analyze the faults in the economic, social, religious, and legal motivations for the establishment and continuation of slavery.

Identify the various ways Africans in the United States resisted enslavement (e.g., cultural, religious, and economic methods).

Examine the constitutional references to slavery, and analyze the impact the debate about slavery had in the development of nationalism and sectionalism, including the Fugitive Slave Laws.

Assess the development of the abolitionist movement and its impact on enslavement and the nation, including the efforts of:

Compare and contrast the experiences of African Americans in free states versus slave states in the pre-Civil War era.

Analyze the impact of the Supreme Court's 1857 Dred Scott v. Sanford decision and its impact on restricting rights on freed African Americans in the United States.

Explain the impact of the Underground Railroad.

Describe and analyze various experiences of enslaved persons and the disruption of the family system in the pre-Civil War era.

Describe the development of African American institutions, such as religion, education, and benevolent organizations, during the pre-Civil War era.

Identify and explain contributions to science and the arts from African Americans during the pre- Civil War era.

Describe President Abraham Lincoln's changing views on enslavement.

Describe the motivations for the Emancipation Proclamation and the lasting impacts of emancipation (i.e., Juneteenth).

Identify and explain the roles of African American soldiers, spies, and enslaved persons on the war effort in both the North and the South, including the 54th Massachusetts Regiment and the 13th U.S. Colored Troops.

Define the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments and the motivations for their creation.

Evaluate the effects of the Reconstruction Amendments, including southern resistance (e.g., black codes, disenfranchisement, the creation of the Ku Klux Klan).

Analyze the successes and failures of Reconstruction as they relate to African Americans.

Explain the economic and social impact of Jim Crow laws on African Americans.

Analyze the ramifications of segregation laws and court decisions (e.g., Plessy v. Ferguson) on American society.

Compare and contrast organized responses to Jim Crow laws, including:

Identify influential African Americans of the time period, and analyze their impact on American and Tennessee society, including:

Describe the progress of African American institutions (e.g., religion, education, and benevolent organizations) during the post-Civil War era.

Describe the economic, cultural, political, and social impact of African American migration within and from the South (e.g., Exodusters, Benjamin “Pap” Singleton, First Great Migration).

Identify the achievements of African American inventors and entrepreneurs of the post-Civil War era including:

Describe the impact of African American regiments on the western campaigns, the Spanish- American War, and World War I (e.g., buffalo soldiers, Harlem Hellfighters).

Describe the African American experience during and after World War I, including:

Identify literary contributions made by African Americans during the Harlem Renaissance (e.g., Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston).

Describe the contributions of African Americans to the performing arts during the Harlem

Describe the contributions of African Americans to the visual arts during the Harlem Renaissance, including the work of William Edmondson.

Analyze the influence of the Harlem Renaissance on American culture and subsequent assimilation and appropriation.

Analyze the impact of the Great Depression and New Deal on the lives of African Americans, including:

Describe highlights of African American culture of the 1930s and 1940s (e.g., Satchel Page and Negro league baseball, Cab Calloway, Hattie McDaniel, Jessie Owens, and Mississippi Delta blues musicians).

Identify the contributions of African Americans who served in the military, and compare their experiences to other Americans who served in World War II.

Describe the experience of African Americans at home during and after World War II, such as unequal access to the G.I. Bill of Rights and VA Loans.

Explain how World War II laid the groundwork for the modern Civil Rights Movement , including

Describe the impact of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, and evaluate resistance to the decision and the reactions that followed (e.g., Scarboro 85, Clinton 12, Little Rock 9).

Analyze the impact of the death of Emmett Till as a catalyst in the Civil Rights Movement.

Summarize the Civil Rights Movement in Tennessee, including the Nashville sit-ins, Tent Cities of Haywood and Fayette counties, and the activities of Diane Nash, Jim Lawson, and John Lewis.

Identify various organizations and their roles in the Civil Rights Movement (e.g., Black Panthers, SCLC, Nation of Islam, Highlander Folk School, SNCC).

Identify key events of the Civil Rights Movement, including:

Identify legal victories of the Civil Rights Movement (e.g., Civil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, 24th Amendment, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas).

Discuss the impact of the Vietnam War on the Civil Rights Movement, including responses to the draft, disproportionate representation of minority groups, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s response to the war.

Compare and contrast the various strategies of the Black Liberation Movement (e.g., Black Panther Party, Angela Davis, Fred Hampton).

Describe the cultural contributions of African Americans and companies throughout the Civil Rights Movement, including:

Identify and analyze changes in voting rights, such as the Shelby County v. Holder decision and voter identification laws.

Identify and evaluate major contemporary economic, social, and political reforms, and the impact they have on African American lives.

Analyze major contemporary issues affecting African Americans, including:

Analyze the impact of migration on the lives of African Americans in the contemporary United States, including the return to the South.

Identify and evaluate the diffusion and appropriation of African American culture within American popular culture.

Identify the major contributions of contemporary African Americans in America.

Printed materials

Graphic representations

Field observations/Landscape analysis

Artifacts

Media and technology sources

Oral History

Extract, summarize, and paraphrase significant ideas and relevant information

Discern differences between evidence and assertion

Recognize the significance of author’s purpose, point of view, and bias

Draw logical inferences and conclusions

Assess the strengths and limitations of arguments

Establish accuracy and validity by comparing sources to each other

Recognize disparities among multiple accounts

Frame appropriate questions for further investigation

Demonstrate and defend an understanding of ideas

Compare and contrast viewpoints

Illustrate cause and effect

Predict likely outcomes

Devise new outcomes or solutions

Engage in appropriate civic discourse

Recognizing how and why historical accounts change over time

Perceiving and presenting past events and issues as they might have been experienced by the people of the time, with historical empathy vs. present- mindedness

Evaluating how unique circumstances of time and place create context and contribute to action and reaction

Identifying patterns of continuity and change over time, making connections to the present

Analyzing and determining the use of diverse types of maps based on the origin, authority, structure, context, and validity

Using the geographic perspective to analyze relationships, patterns, and diffusion across space at multiple scales

Analyzing locations, conditions, and connections of places and using maps to investigate spatial associations among phenomena

Examining how geographers use regions and how perceptions of regions are fluid across time and space

Analyzing interaction between humans and the physical environment

The American Colonial Society

Frederick Douglass

William Lloyd Garrison

Sojourner Truth

Harriet Tubman

Anti-lynching crusade

Atlanta Compromise

Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters

Farmers’ Alliance

NAACP

Niagara Movement

Urban League

Booker T. Washington

Ida B. Wells-Barnett

James Napier

Randolph Miller

Robert R. Church

Samuel McElwee

W.E.B. DuBois

Garrett Morgan

George Washington Carver

Lewis Latimer

Madam C.J. Walker

Robert R. Church

Black Wall Street

Economic opportunities

Resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan

Rosewood Massacre

Second Great Migration

Tulsa Massacre

Renaissance, including:

DeFord Bailey

Duke Ellington

Fisk Jubilee Singers

W.C. Handy

James Weldon Johnson

John Work III

Billie Holliday

Bessie Smith

Higher unemployment rate

Housing discrimination

Lack of access to New Deal benefits

Redlining

Congress of Racial Equity (CORE)

Columbia Race Riots

President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 8802

President Harry S. Truman’s integration of the military

Church bombings

Freedom Riders

Freedom Summer

March on Washington

Montgomery Bus Boycott

Selma

Muhammed Ali

James Brown

Dorothy Dandridge

Sidney Portier

Jackie Robinson

STAX records

Access to health care

Affirmative Action

AIDS

Educational achievement gap

Mass incarceration

Poverty

“War on drugs”

Wealth gap