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Activities

Hear Our Voices...
as we contribute to all areas of American life

For many years the contributions of African Americans were ignored in history books. As students enjoyed hobbies and special interests, they were more often than not unaware of the roles blacks played in those fields. The information simply wasn't available; the names were invisible.

Do you know how African Americans have contributed to your area of interest? Choose a subject that interests you and create a timeline that shows contributions African Americans made to that field. Include dates, names of people, and brief descriptions of these contributions. Listed to the right are some career fields from which you might choose, with a few examples of people in those fields.

Once you've chosen your area of interest, explore this Web site to find people related to that field. Explore the articles in the subject browse to select your area of interest. Take notes! For further study in your chosen subject, browse the bibliography.


TEACHER GUIDE

Activity:
Choose a subject that interests you and create a timeline that shows contributions African Americans have made to that field. Include dates, names of people, and brief descriptions of these contributions. Listed to the right are some career fields from which you might choose, with a few examples of people in those fields.

Objectives:
Students will be able to find and organize information about African Americans to show the significant contributions they have made to American life. Students will be able to devise a timeline with brief written descriptions about those contributors they have selected.

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

  • This activity provides a great opportunity for collaboration. It could be an especially worthwhile contribution to Black History Month (February), because it covers a wide range of subjects. If you have several classes, each one could be assigned a particular field of interest around which to do research and construct a timeline.
  • When possible, provide supplies like long butcher paper or computer banner paper for the timelines. Students with artistic abilities could be responsible for the design and illustrations on the timeline, while other students could team with them to provide the written descriptions. Collaboration is the key to the success of this assignment.
  • Assist students in narrowing broad topic fields to avoid frustration in research. This caution may be especially pertinent when working with academically challenged students or those who have difficulty with research. Encourage students to cross-check various contributors; for example, an artist might also be considered a feminist or have achieved success in some additional area. When students choose subjects, such as women’s issues, remind them that these subjects may result in a shorter timeline, but involve more research.

ASSESSMENT/EVALUATION

A completed timeline will:

  • use careful organization and be neat and appealing in design
  • serve as a teaching tool
  • use written descriptions of African American contributions as well as illustrations, drawings, excerpts, quotations, and other features to enhance the educational impact of the timeline

TEACHING TIPS

  • Review the timeline in The Britannica Guide to Black History for ideas on organization and design. Students may need to create longer entries than those depicted to better explain the information they are presenting.
  • Suggest that students write brief rationales to explain their interest in a chosen subject. These rationales could be used to help in the evaluation of individual effort on the timeline project.
  • As an extra part of the activity, students could choose one African American they included in their timeline and compose a haiku, ode, or other brief tribute poem to attach to the timeline or to read in class after the timeline is displayed. Students who are less inclined to compose poetry could deliver a one-minute speech of praise or tribute to their African American candidate.
  • To make the timelines more decorative and visually appealing, suggest attaching photos, illustrations, drawings, frames, bits of poetry, artwork, quotations, song lyrics, fiction titles, sports statistics, or other add-ons to the timelines. Create class booklets of smaller foldout versions of the timelines, or display the larger versions in the library or on hall bulletin boards in the school to celebrate Black History Month or to tie in to the national African American Read-in.

RESOURCES

Numerous books on individuals included in this activity can be found in school and public libraries. It would be impossible to list them all. Check for biographies and autobiographies; anthologies of poetry, fiction, and plays; and surveys of a particular area, such as visual arts, dance, jazz and other music, and sports.

African Americans: Voices of Triumph. Vol. 3 Creative Fire, Time-Life Books, 1994. Volume three of a three-volume set on African Americans, it covers contributions to filmmaking, music, literature, and the visual arts. Extensive bibliography, photos, illustrations, and reproductions.

Lee, George, Interesting Athletes: Black American Sports Heroes, Ballantine Books, 1993 (pbk.). A compilation of the greatest African American sports heroes. Mini-biographies of Jesse Owens, Roy Campanella, Sugar Ray Robinson, Rafer Johnson, and others. 150 drawings.

Powell, Richard J., Black Art and Culture in the 20th Century, Thames & Hudson, 1997 (also in pbk.). A new study of 20th century black art, concentrating on the artwork itself. Includes the works of hundreds of artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Elizabeth Catlett, Jacob Lawrence, and Spike Lee. There are 160 biographies of key artists.

Seymour, Gene, Jazz: The Great American Art (The African American Experience), Franklin Watts, Inc., 1995, 1996 (pbk.). A history of jazz from its roots to contemporary times, discussing major performers. Young-adult school edition.

Worley, Demetrice A., and Jesse Perry (eds.), African American Literature: An Anthology, National Textbook Co., 1998.