The Black Experience in America
Course Description
Students examine the Black Experience in America through a socio-historical lens. Students explore continuity and change in the development of black identity. The course is designed for students to analyze diverse perspectives in an ever-changing world, including the conflict and cooperation that is caused by our interactions with each other. Students find historical and contemporary evidence in order to have meaningful and reflective dialogue on the impact of race and intersectionality on one’s identity.
Grade Level(s): 11th-12th grades
Related Priority Standards (State &/or National): Missouri Learning Standards (6-12)
Essential Questions
- How does conflict cause change?
- What are the purposes and/or consequences of creating and/or maintaining a dystopian society?
- What are the benefits and consequences of questioning/challenging social order?
- How has African American visibility impacted African American privilege & identity over time?
- How have essential liberties driven societal change or conflict over time?
- Why do people continue to pursue the concept of a utopian society?
Enduring Understandings/Big Ideas
- Students will analyze how conflict has motivated and stimulated change throughout American history (i.e. - the fight for economic, social, and political equality).
- Students will explain the motivation for social and political reforms and their impact on the ability of individuals and groups to realize the promise of American ideals.
- Students will evaluate the extent to which major legislation, Constitutional amendments, and court decisions expanded equal rights as well as the sacrifices and choices made in an attempt to realize those gains.
- Students will examine the origins and impact of social structures and stratification on societies.
- Students will assess the response of individuals, groups, and the government to societal challenges to understand how systems change and evolve over time.
- Students will analyze literature that reflects upon the triumphs of Black American excellence through the modern era.
- Students will explore the factors that create an imbalance of power and equality, thus creating a continued pursuit of the concept of a utopian society.
- Students will assess the value of and need for civil rights.
Course-Level Scope & Sequence (Units &/or Skills)
Unit 1: Migration and the Beginnings of the African-American Identify
Students will:
- Explain the various causes of the Black American Diaspora across the United States of America
- Display an understanding of the Black American experiences faced in both the north and the south of the United States
- Describe the viewpoint of the powers that be in the old Jim Crow South
- Compare Black American experiences in both the northern and the southern U.S. in accordance with the viewpoint of the powers of the old Jim Crow South.
- Explain connections between historical context and peoples’ perspectives at the time in United States’ history
- Explain the various causes of the Black American Diaspora across the United States
- Evaluate the causes and consequences of demographic shifts & internal migrations
- Explain how the expansion of industrialization, transportation, and technological developments influenced different regions and the relationship between those regions
Key questions to be explored include:
- What are the factors that create an imbalance of power within a culture?
- What are the benefits and consequences of questioning/challenging social order?
- How have political and economic decisions over time influenced the cultural, economic, and environmental characteristics of various places and regions?
- What does it mean to be invisible?
- Why do some individuals stand against prejudice and oppression while others participate in it?
Unit 2: Socio-Economic Contributions to the Development of the African-American Identity
Students will:
- Explain how Black Americans were able to open up early doors of opportunity in social and economic spheres
- Describe how the Civil Rights movement was and has presently been effective in gaining equality for Black Americans
- Explain why “civil rights” has been a legal and social struggle for Black American citizens.
- Explain how Black Americans were able to open up early doors of opportunity in social and economic spheres
- Describe how the Civil Rights movement was and continues to be an effective agent in gaining civic and social equality for Black Americans
- Analyze the developing interconnectedness among people, big businesses, labor unions, and governments to determine their effect on individuals, society, and public policy
- Explain how & why the Civil Rights movement has caused legal and social struggle for Black American citizens
Key questions to be explored include:
- What motivates people to migrate?
- How does conflict lead to change?
- How does disruption impact the lives of people/society?
- What are the purposes and/or consequences of creating and/or maintaining a dystopian society?
- How does the environment (physical and cultural) shape individual and group identity?
- How does the presence of diversity within the population influence political developments?
Unit 3: Political and Legal Contributions to African-American Identity
Students will:
- Understand how Black Americans gained political empowerment within the Black community on a micro level as well as at a macro level in these United States
- Gain knowledge of Black American leaders and the strides that have been made to reach the opportunities afforded to Black Americans today
- Gain an understanding of why “political power” is not considered by many Black Americans to be synonymous with “Black”
- Gain knowledge of the perpetual fight of Black Americans for civil rights to gain equal opportunity
- Describe and evaluate the extent to which Supreme Court cases and legislation served to expand equal rights
- Recognize the perpetual fight of Black Americans for civil rights to gain equal opportunity
- Parse the cause/effect relationship between the influence of different Black American leaders and the civic, social, and political strides that have been gained for Black Americans
Key questions to be explored include:
- How do people form and shape their identities?
- How have essential liberties driven societal change or conflict over time?
- How do individual freedoms interact with the restrictive powers of government?
- When does the government have the right to restrict the freedoms of people?
- How have and how do utopian societies develop in America?
- What were the political & cultural consequences resulting from the conflict between the Civil Rights movement and the government?
- What role or purpose does religion/spirituality serve in a culture?
- How did Civil Rights and the involvement of the government result in political and cultural responses?
- How are liberty & equality impacted when people are denied rights enjoyed by others?
Unit 4: Movements Leading to Continuity and Change in the African-American Identity
Students will:
- Summarize the causes and effects of the Third Great Migration of the New Era within the Black community
- Explain how the past has affected the Black community in American society today
- Explain the significant elements of the Black American culture that have influenced American culture in the past and present
- Understand the causes of the Third Great Migration of the New Era within the Black community
- Explain how the past has affected the Black community in American society today
- Explain the significant elements of the Black American culture that have influenced American culture in the past and present
- Evaluate social reforms to determine their impact on the ability of individuals and groups to realize the promise of American ideals
- Analyze the origins, goals, and key events of the continuing U.S. movement to realize equal rights for women, African Americans, and other minorities
- Explain how the past has affected the Black community today
Key questions to be explored include:
- How does conflict lead to change?
- What is community? What are an individual’s responsibilities to the community as well as the community’s responsibility to the individual?
- Why do people continue to pursue the concept of a utopian society?
- What are the ideas (Freedom, responsibility, justice, community, etc.) that should be honored in a utopian society?
Course Resources & Materials
- Gale: US History in Context Database
- ABC-CLIO American Mosaic: African American Experience Research Database. Developed with the guidance of African American librarians and subject specialists, The African American Experience is the widest ranging and easiest-to-use online database collection on African American history and culture.
- Race and Racism in the United States: An Encyclopedia of the American Mosaic. Charles A. Gallagher and Cameron D. Lippard, eds. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood, 2014. 1771 pp. 4 vols. How is race defined and perceived in America today, and how do these definitions and perceptions compare to attitudes 100 years ago… or 200 years ago? This four-volume set addresses many topics related to race in the United States.
- Black History Milestones: Timeline - HISTORY (Black American 1619 Arrival)
- The Great Migration
- After nearly 100 years, Great Migration begins reversal
- The Great Migration - HISTORY
- Guest Speakers Amy Hunter, Clifton Berry
- The Migration Series | Jacob Lawrence: The Migration Series
- Lorraine Hansberry Play turned into a Film: A Raisin in the Sun
- Potential Field Trip-Social Contributions to the nation’s Military: https://mcwm.org/
- Potential Field Trip-Brown v Board of Education and its impact on the reversal of separate but equal constitutionally implemented in the Plessy v Ferguson case: https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/
- Potential field trip-Continued progression of the arts in American Society: https://theblackrep.org/
- Ebony and Essence magazine subscriptions
Date Last Revised/Approved: May 2019