UltraViolet’s Black History Month Curriculum
With countless books, documentaries, online archives and even college syllabi available online, learning on the internet can be as overwhelming as it is exciting. Sometimes it helps to have a roadmap, which is why we created a curriculum for this year’s Black History Month.
This curriculum is not meant to be comprehensive—even a lifetime’s worth of Black History Months wouldn’t allow enough time to cover Black America’s rich and layered history. What this curriculum will do, is offer a daily “assignment,” which asks you to read, watch, or explore one thing from the internet’s treasure trove of free resources. All “assignments” are accessible to anyone with internet access, and most can be completed in twenty minutes or less.
Whether you take on one assignment a day, or a few at once, let us know what you’re learning by tweeting us at @UltraViolet. Happy Black History Month!
February 1
Add three books from Zora’s 100 Books by Black Women Authors to your reading list or library queue. (Extra Credit: Count how many of these books you were assigned to read in high school.)
February 2
Watch Kimberlé Crenshaw’s TED Talk: “The Urgency of Intersectionality”
February 3
Analyze your privilege by reading Peggy McIntosh’s essay, White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, and ask yourself the questions at the end of the essay.
February 4
Watch this 9-minute Vox documentary about black women and the history of medicine.
February 5
Read “5 Phrases Your Black Friend Wishes You’d Stop Saying”
“If you want to be supportive and encouraging, try supporting your friend’s right to be a whole Black woman instead of a ‘strong’ one.”
February 6
Listen to Another Round’s “How To Be A Better Ally: An Open Letter To White Folks.”
February 7
#FollowFriday: Infuse your Instagram feed with more black queer perspectives. Here are five accounts to start with: Boi Society, BLK MKT Vintage, Ericka Hart, Indya Moore, and Gem.
February 8
Watch the progression of the transatlantic slave trade in this two-minute infographic.
February 9
View a 3D rendering of a slave ship from 1784. (Extra Credit: Spend more time on SlaveVoyages.org)
February 10
Look at Underground Railroad routes that enslaved Black people traversed to escape from slavery.
February 11
Watch a reading of Sojourner Truth’s 1851 speech “Ain’t I A Woman?”. (Extra Credit: Read context about her speech.)
February 12
Listen to this podcast about how American capitalism was built on the enslavement of millions of Black people. (Extra credit: Read the entire 1619 Project.)
February 13
Listen to this 1941 audio interview with Aunt Harriet Smith, who recalls life during slavery. (Transcript available here.)
February 14
#FollowFriday: Learn more about Black history and culture by following more museums on Instagram. Here are five to start with: the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Schomburg Center, the National Civil Rights Museum, the Studio Museum, and the Baltimore Museum of Art.
February 15
Learn about the destruction of Black Wall Street in this 9-minute Vox documentary.
“Somebody must show that the Afro-American race is more sinned against than sinning, and it seems to have fallen upon me to do so.” — Ida B. Wells
February 16
Read this corrective obituary of anti-lynching activist and journalist Ida B. Wells, published by The New York Times almost 90 years after her death.
February 17
Watch this 20-minute documentary about what racist memorabilia teaches us about the Black experience in Jim Crow America.
February 18
Watch street scenes from Harlem in 1939.
February 19
View painter, Jacob Lawrence’s series depicting the 20th-century migration of 6 million Black people out of the South.
February 20
View this gallery of mid-century portraits of Black life, shot by Black photographers.
February 21
#FollowFriday: Follow more historians on Twitter. Here are five scholars to get you started: Annette Gordon-Reed, Professor Manisha Sinha, Ashley D. Farmer, Jessica Marie Johnson, and Dr. Kidada E. Williams.
February 22
This weekend, watch the first episode of the documentary Eyes on the Prize: Awakenings (1954–1956.) You can stream it for free by creating a free account on FacingHistory.org or by using your library card at Kanopy.com)
February 23
Watch Aretha Franklin perform “Respect,” then read the story of how a 24-year old Franklin re-interpreted an Otis Redding song into a black power anthem.
February 24
Read the letter James Baldwin wrote to his nephew in 1962.
February 25
Watch Nina Simone perform “Mississippi Goddamn and read about the historical events that inspired her to write the protest song.
February 26
Listen to this NPR story about Americans with both Black and indigenous heritage.
February 27
Watch 100 years of black hairstyles in 3.5 minutes.
February 28
First, watch dancers boogie down the Soul Train in this clip, then read about Soul Train’s radical history.
February 29
Read The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House, by Audre Lorde.
