Theme
Education
Explore this theme across 121 historical figures, 167 heritage sites,73 lessons, 33 cultural references, and 4 journeys.
Historical Figures
Richard Allen
1959–?
Absalom Jones
1746–1818
Daniel Payne
1978–?
Henry McNeal Turner
1834–1915
Alvin Ailey
1931–1989
Judith Jamison
1943–2024
Robert Battle
–?
Katherine Dunham
1909–2006
Martin Luther King Jr.
1929–1968
James Forman
1928–2005
Julian Bond
1940–2015
Alice Walker
1944–?
Spike Lee
1957–?
August Wilson
1945–2005
Denzel Washington
1954–?
Lloyd Richards
1919–2006
Fred Shuttlesworth
1922–2011
Four Little Girls
–?
Huey P. Newton
1942–1989
Bobby Seale
1936–?
Eldridge Cleaver
1935–1998
Angela Davis
1944–?
Fred Hampton
1948–1969
Booker T. Washington
1856–1915
Creek Freedmen settlers
–?
Black Oklahoma Territory settlers
–?
Frederick Douglass
1818–1895
William Lloyd Garrison
1805–1879
Lewis Hayden
1811–1889
54th Massachusetts Regiment
1863–1865
Thurgood Marshall
1908–1993
Linda Brown
–?
Earl Warren
1891–1974
9th Cavalry Buffalo Soldiers
1866–1944
10th Cavalry Buffalo Soldiers
1866–1944
Colonel Charles Young
1864–1922
Carter G. Woodson
1875–1950
Charles H. Wright
1918–2002
Motown artists
–?
Coleman Young
1918–1997
W.E.B. Du Bois
1868–1963
William Henry Miles
1888–1975
Richard Vanderhorst
–?
Colonel Allen Allensworth
1842–1914
William Payne
1951–?
Josephine Allensworth
–?
Arthur Mitchell
1934–2018
Karel Shook
1920–1985
Virginia Johnson
1928–2007
Paul Laurence Dunbar
1872–1906
Orville Wright
1871–1948
Wilbur Wright
1867–1912
Dr. Margaret Burroughs
1915–2010
Jean Baptiste Point DuSable
1745–1818
Fisk Jubilee Singers
–?
John Hope Franklin
1915–2009
Nikki Giovanni
1943–2024
Adam K. Spence
1831–1900
Erastus Milo Cravath
1833–1900
George Washington Carver
1864–1943
O.W. Gurley
1868–1935
J.B. Stradford
–?
1921 Massacre Survivors
1921–1921
Greenwood descendants
–?
Samuel Chapman Armstrong
1839–1893
Mary Lou Holt
–?
John Brown
1800–1859
Kamala Harris
1964–?
Toni Morrison
1931–2019
Zora Neale Hurston
1891–1960
Chadwick Boseman
1976–2020
Mordecai Wyatt Johnson
1890–1976
Charles Hamilton Houston
1895–1950
Johnson Family
–?
Sundiata Keita
1217–1255
Little Rock Nine
–?
Daisy Bates
1914–1999
Ernest Green
1941–?
Orval Faubus
1910–1994
Maggie L. Walker
1867–1934
Mary McLeod Bethune
1875–1955
Medgar Evers
1925–1963
Fannie Lou Hamer
1917–1977
James Chaney
1943–1964
Andrew Goodman
1943–1964
Michael Schwerner
1939–1964
Harriet Tubman
1822–1913
Richard Henry Boyd
1843–1922
Samuel C. Tolbert Jr.
–?
Elias Camp Morris
1855–1922
Joseph H. Jackson
1884–1963
T.J. Jemison
–?
William Augustus Jones Jr.
1934–2006
Benjamin 'Pap' Singleton
1809–1900
W.R. Hill
–?
Z.T. Fletcher
1846–1927
Exoduster settlers
–?
Barack Obama
1961–?
Michelle Obama
1964–?
John Lewis
1940–2020
Harold Washington
1922–1987
Laura Towne
–?
Ellen Murray
–?
Prudence Crandall
1803–1890
Robert Smalls
1839–1915
Charlotte Forten Grimké
1837–1912
Arturo Alfonso Schomburg
1874–1938
Langston Hughes
1902–1967
James Baldwin
1924–1987
Marian Wright Edelman
1939–?
Esther A. H. Hopkins
1926–2021
John D. Rockefeller
1839–1937
Sophia Packard
1824–1891
Harriet Giles
1828–1909
Stacey Abrams
1973–?
Henry Adams
1838–1918
Robert Russa Moton
1867–1940
John Cummings
1943–2017
Dr. Ibrahima Seck
–?
Enslaved people of Whitney Plantation
–?
Enslaved African Americans
–?
Heritage Sites
African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church — National Headquarters
Philadelphia, PA
Alabama A&M University
Normal, AL
Alabama State University
Montgomery, AL
Albany State University
Albany, GA
Alcorn State University
Lorman, MS
Allen University
Columbia, SC
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
New York, NY
American Baptist College
Nashville, TN
Arkansas Baptist College
Little Rock, AR
Atlanta University Center Historic District
Atlanta, GA
August Wilson House (August Wilson Center)
Pittsburgh, PA
Barber-Scotia College
Concord, NC
Benedict College
Columbia, SC
Bennett College
Greensboro, NC
Bethune-Cookman University
Daytona Beach, FL
Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
Birmingham, AL
Bishop State Community College
Mobile, AL
Black Panther Party National Headquarters Site
Oakland, CA
Bluefield State University
Bluefield, WV
Boley Historic District
Boley, OK
Booker T. Washington National Monument
Hardy, VA
Boston African American National Historic Site
Boston, MA
Bowie State University
Bowie, MD
Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park
Topeka, KS
Buffalo Soldiers National Museum
Houston, TX
Carter G. Woodson Home National Historic Site
Washington, DC
Central State University
Wilberforce, OH
Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History
Detroit, MI
Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument
Wilberforce, OH
Cheyney University of Pennsylvania
Cheyney, PA
Christian Methodist Episcopal (CME) Church — National Headquarters
Memphis, TN
Claflin University
Orangeburg, SC
Clark Atlanta University
Atlanta, GA
Clinton College
Rock Hill, SC
Coahoma Community College
Clarksdale, MS
Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park
Earlimart, CA
Coppin State University
Baltimore, MD
Dance Theater of Harlem
New York, NY
Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park
Dayton, OH
Delaware State University
Dover, DE
Denmark Technical College
Denmark, SC
Dillard University
New Orleans, LA
DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center
Chicago, IL
Edward Waters University
Jacksonville, FL
Elizabeth City State University
Elizabeth City, NC
Fayetteville State University
Fayetteville, NC
Fisk University / Jubilee Hall
Nashville, TN
Florida A&M University
Tallahassee, FL
Florida Memorial University
Miami Gardens, FL
Fort Valley State University
Fort Valley, GA
Frederick Douglass National Historic Site
Washington, DC
Gadsden State Community College
Gadsden, AL
George Washington Carver National Monument
Diamond, MO
Grambling State University
Grambling, LA
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Gatlinburg, TN
Greenwood Cultural Center
Tulsa, OK
Greenwood Cultural Center
Tulsa, OK
H. Councill Trenholm State Community College
Montgomery, AL
Hampton University
Hampton, VA
Hampton University
Hampton, VA
Harpers Ferry National Historical Park
Harpers Ferry, WV
Harris-Stowe State University
St. Louis, MO
Hinds Community College
Raymond, MS
Hockessin Colored School #107
Hockessin, DE
Howard University
Washington, DC
Howard University Historic District
Washington, DC
Huston-Tillotson University
Austin, TX
Interdenominational Theological Center
Atlanta, GA
Iziko Museums of South Africa
Cape Town, South Africa
J.F. Drake State Community and Technical College
Huntsville, AL
Jackson State University
Jackson, MS
Jarvis Christian University
Hawkins, TX
Johnson C. Smith University
Charlotte, NC
Johnson House Historic Site
Philadelphia, PA
Kentucky State University
Frankfort, KY
Knoxville College
Knoxville, TN
Kurukan Fuga site (Kangaba)
Kangaba, N/A
Lane College
Jackson, TN
Langston University
Langston, OK
Lawson State Community College
Birmingham, AL
LeMoyne-Owen College
Memphis, TN
Lincoln University of Missouri
Jefferson City, MO
Lincoln University of Pennsylvania
Lincoln University, PA
Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site
Little Rock, AR
Livingstone College
Salisbury, NC
Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site
Richmond, VA
Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site
Washington, DC
Meharry Medical College
Nashville, TN
Mezquita-Catedral de Córdoba (Great Mosque of Córdoba)
Córdoba, Spain
Miles College
Fairfield, AL
Mississippi Civil Rights Museum
Jackson, MS
Mississippi Valley State University
Itta Bena, MS
Monrovia, Liberia
Monrovia,
Morehouse College
Atlanta, GA
Morehouse School of Medicine
Atlanta, GA
Morgan State University
Baltimore, MD
Morris Brown College
Atlanta, GA
Morris College
Sumter, SC
Mother Bethel AME Church
Philadelphia, PA
Museum of Black Civilizations
Dakar, Unknown
Museum of West African Art (MOWAA)
Benin City, Unknown
National Baptist Convention of America (NBCA) — Headquarters at Simmons College
Louisville, KY
National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. (NBC) — Baptist World Center
Nashville, TN
National Museum of African Art
Washington, District of Columbia
National Museum of Colombia
Bogotá, Bogotá D.C.
National Museum of Ghana
Accra, Unknown
National Museums of Kenya
Nairobi, Kenya
New River Gorge National Park and Preserve
Fayetteville, WV
Nicodemus National Historic Site
Nicodemus, KS
Norfolk State University
Norfolk, VA
North Carolina A&T State University
Greensboro, NC
North Carolina Central University
Durham, NC
Oakwood University
Huntsville, AL
Obama Presidential Center
Chicago, Illinois
Paine College
Augusta, GA
Paul Quinn College
Dallas, TX
Penn Center
St. Helena Island, SC
Philander Smith University
Little Rock, AR
Prairie View A&M University
Prairie View, TX
Prudence Crandall Museum
Canterbury, Connecticut
Présence Africaine
Paris, Unknown
Reconstruction Era National Historical Park
Beaufort, SC
Rust College
Holly Springs, MS
Saint Augustine's University
Raleigh, NC
Sankore Mosque and Manuscript Libraries
Timbuktu, N/A
Santo Stefano degli Abissini
Vatican City, Vatican City
Savannah State University
Savannah, GA
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
New York, NY
Selma University
Selma, AL
Shaw University
Raleigh, NC
Shelton State Community College
Tuscaloosa, AL
Shorter College
North Little Rock, AR
Simmons College of Kentucky
Louisville, KY
Sojourner-Douglass College
Baltimore, MD
South Carolina State University
Orangeburg, SC
Southern University Law Center
Baton Rouge, LA
Southern University and A&M College
Baton Rouge, LA
Southern University at New Orleans
New Orleans, LA
Southern University at Shreveport
Shreveport, LA
Southwestern Christian College
Terrell, TX
Spelman College
Atlanta, GA
St. Philip's College
San Antonio, TX
Stillman College
Tuscaloosa, AL
Sumner County, Kansas — Exoduster Settlement Sites
Wellington, KS
Talladega College
Talladega, AL
Tennessee State University
Nashville, TN
Texas College
Tyler, TX
Texas Southern University
Houston, TX
Tougaloo College
Tougaloo, MS
Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site
Tuskegee, AL
Tuskegee University
Tuskegee, AL
University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff
Pine Bluff, AR
University of Maryland Eastern Shore
Princess Anne, MD
University of the District of Columbia
Washington, DC
University of the Virgin Islands
Charlotte Amalie, VI
Virginia State University
Petersburg, VA
Virginia Union University
Richmond, VA
Virginia University of Lynchburg
Lynchburg, VA
Voorhees University
Denmark, SC
West Virginia State University
Institute, WV
Whitney Plantation
Wallace, LA
Wilberforce University
Wilberforce, OH
Wiley College
Marshall, TX
Winston-Salem State University
Winston-Salem, NC
Xavier University of Louisiana
New Orleans, LA
Yorkshire Museum (Ivory Bangle Lady)
York, United Kingdom
Zera Yacob's cave (site contested — needs verification)
Enfraz region (approximate), N/A
Curriculum Lessons
How Do We Know What We Know? An Introduction to the Curriculum's Questions
Unit 1
Ifa: An Oral Encyclopedia of Yoruba Thought
Unit 1
The Kouroukan Fouga: Africa's Constitutional Charter
Unit 1
Women, Power & Leadership
Unit 1
Lalibela, Great Zimbabwe & Al-Qarawiyyeen
Unit 1
Presence, Then Silence: What Happened to Renaissance Europe's African Communities
Unit 2
The Experimental Body: Medical Exploitation Under Slavery
Unit 2
Castas vs. the One-Drop Rule: Two Systems, Two Logics
Unit 2
John Blanke: The Only Portrait We Have
Unit 3
AAVE: A Rule-Governed Language, Not 'Broken English'
Unit 3
The Belgian Congo: Paternalism as Policy, Education as Weapon
Unit 3
British Indirect Rule: Governing Through Chiefs, Real and Invented
Unit 3
The Engineered Divide: Colorism & the Plantation Hierarchy
Unit 3
The Political Convention & Public Voice (1820–1840)
Unit 4
The Debate That Shaped a Century: Douglass, Washington, Du Bois & the Question of Black Freedom
Unit 4
Black Reconstruction: The Congressmen, the Legislation, and the Collapse
Unit 4
The Architecture of Community — Churches & Aid Societies (1840–1860)
Unit 4
Reconstruction, Jim Crow & the Founding of HBCUs
Unit 4.5
Serving and Sacrificing: Black Military Service from Reconstruction to World War II
Unit 4.5
Black Women's Leadership & the Civil Rights Movement
Unit 4.5
The Black Church: Institution, Liberation & the HBCU Pipeline
Unit 4.5
Black Feminist Political Thought: Wells, Hamer, and Baker as Theorists
Unit 4.5
HBCU to Independence: The African Leaders of Lincoln University
Unit 4.5
The Three Pillars: Black Church, HBCUs, and the Divine Nine
Unit 4.5
Naming the Myth: The Pushback Against Racial Democracy
Unit 5
Third World Marxism & Black Radical Thought: Rodney, Fanon, and C.L.R. James
Unit 5
The Myth of Racial Democracy: Freyre, Vasconcelos, and the 'Cosmic Race'
Unit 5
Eleven Million People, Relocated: Villagization's Documented Cost
Unit 5
1937: A Documented Sterilization Program With a Specific, Small Number
Unit 5
Hans Massaquoi: A Child Who Wanted to Join the Hitler Youth
Unit 5
Ghana: The Model Nkrumah Built and Then Offered to Everyone Else
Unit 5
NIL, Ownership, and the Economics of Black Athletic Labor
Unit 5.5
African Americans as Americans: 400 Years of Presence, Contribution, and Cultural Innovation
Unit 6
Matonge: A Neighborhood Built in Three Waves
Unit 6
The Civil Rights Movement: From Brown to Selma (1954–1965)
Unit 6
Vietnam: Black Service, Black Resistance
Unit 6
The Brown Middle Class: Colorism's Ladder After Emancipation
Unit 6
From Plantation to Algorithm: The Digital Life of Colorism
Unit 6
Dance as Liberation: Alvin Ailey & Dance Theater of Harlem
Unit 6.5
Health Equity and the Present Moment: When the Body Is Still the Battlefield
Unit 7
'Commit Suicide as a Class': Cabral's Answer to Fanon's Warning, and Its Tragic Failure
Unit 7
Reform or Abolition: The Carceral State and the Movement for Black Lives
Unit 7
Black Political Representation: From Reconstruction to the Senate Floor
Unit 7
Reconstruction: America's First Multiracial Democracy
Unit 7
From Civil Rights to Black Lives Matter
Unit 7
Louise Bennett and the Fight for Patois as Literature
Unit 7
December 2022: One of the Last Apologies in Europe
Unit 7.5
Liberia and Sierra Leone: Africa as Destination
Unit 7.5
Modern African Immigration: The Newest Diaspora
Unit 7.5
Resistance as Migration, Then and Now: The Diaspora's Unfinished Work
Unit 7.5
Aime Cesaire: Coining a Word, Naming Haiti as Its Origin
Unit 8
Redlining and the GI Bill: How Federal Policy Built the Racial Wealth Gap
Unit 8
Baseball's Two Americas: Cuba and the Dominican Republic
Unit 8
Reparations: The Argument, the History, and the Debate
Unit 8
The Racial Wealth Gap Today: What the Numbers Mean
Unit 8
Mutual Aid and Cooperative Economics: The Tradition That Survived Everything
Unit 8
The Universities: Georgetown's 272, and the Limits of Apology
Unit 8.5
Innovation Against the Odds: Scientists, Inventors and Engineers
Unit 9
1962: Two Independences in the Same Month
Unit 9
Ideas That Changed the World: The Black Intellectual Tradition
Unit 10
The Black Church: Faith, Community and Freedom
Unit 10
A Census That Became a Weapon
Unit 10
The Hamitic Hypothesis: How Colonial Race Science Manufactured a Genocide's Categories
Unit 10
La Sentencia: Statelessness and the Fight for Recognition
Unit 10
Writing Recognition Into Law: Colombia and Chile
Unit 10
Calypso: Three Centuries of Singing the News
Unit 11
Counted or Erased? The U.S. Census and the Fight for Afro-Latino Visibility
Unit 11
Between Two Movements: Organizations Bridging Black and Latino America
Unit 11
CARICOM: Regional Cooperation Rebuilt From the Federation's Ashes
Unit 12
The Youngest Continent, and Its Oldest Leaders
Unit 12
The Ten-Point Plan: A Region Presents Its Case
Unit 12
Skin Bleaching Across the Continent: A Contemporary Legacy of Colonial Race Hierarchy
Unit 12
The Data Behind the Displacement: Measuring the Racial Wealth Gap Today
Unit 12
Cultural References
1619
Nikole Hannah-Jones · Literature · 2019
African American Life at the 1900 Paris Exposition
W. E. B. Du Bois and Thomas J. Calloway / 1900 Paris Exposition photographs · Photography · 1900
Becoming
Michelle Obama · Literature · 2018
Between the World and Me
Ta-Nehisi Coates · Literature · 2015
Black Business in Chicago, 1899
African American Photographs Assembled for the 1900 Paris Exposition · Photography · 1899
Black Education and Institution-Building, 1900
W. E. B. Du Bois and Thomas J. Calloway / 1900 Paris Exposition photographs · Photography · 1900
Finding Your Roots
Henry Louis Gates Jr. · Series · 2012
Frederick Douglass, 1870s Portrait
Unknown photographer · Photography · 1870
Hidden Figures
Theodore Melfi · Film · 2016
Homecoming: A Film by Beyoncé
Beyoncé Knowles-Carter · Documentary · 2019
I Am Not Your Negro
Raoul Peck · Documentary · 2016
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Maya Angelou · Literature · 1969
Insecure
Issa Rae · Series · 2016
Invisible Man
Ralph Ellison · Literature · 1952
Kindergarten at Haines Normal and Industrial Institute
African American Photographs Assembled for the 1900 Paris Exposition · Photography · 1899
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass · Literature · 1845
Native Son
Richard Wright · Literature · 1940
Reconstruction: America After the Civil War
Henry Louis Gates Jr. · Documentary · 2019
Seeing White
Scene on Radio / John Biewen · Podcast · 2017
Strange Days in America
Code Switch / NPR · Podcast · 2016
Suddenly It's Spring
Alma Thomas · Visual Art · 1970
The 1619 Project Podcast
Nikole Hannah-Jones / The New York Times · Podcast · 2019
The Fire Next Time
James Baldwin · Literature · 1963
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
Andy Borowitz / Susan Borowitz · Series · 1990
The Hate U Give
Angie Thomas · Literature · 2017
The Mis-Education of Lauryn Hill
Lauryn Hill · Music · 1998
The Souls of Black Folk
W.E.B. Du Bois · Literature · 1903
The Trees, Early Afternoon, France
William A. Harper · Visual Art · 1905
The Young Sabot Maker
Henry Ossawa Tanner · Visual Art · 1895
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Zora Neale Hurston · Literature · 1937
To Be Young, Gifted and Black
Nina Simone · Music · 1969
Women Sorting Tobacco in Richmond, Virginia
African American Photographs Assembled for the 1900 Paris Exposition · Photography · 1899
Woodworking Workshop at Claflin University
African American Photographs Assembled for the 1900 Paris Exposition · Photography · 1899
Discovery Journeys
Reconstruction & Democracy
The First American Democracy — and Who Destroyed It
HBCU Legacy Trail
Citadels of Black Intellectual Life
Pan-African World
Garvey to Nkrumah — The Global Movement That Linked African Americans to African Independence
Art as Resistance
From the Harlem Renaissance to Hollywood — Culture as Liberation