28 No-Prep Ideas for Your Teens to Honor Black History Month
Honor (v) — regard with great respect
As I was researching ideas for this list, I was struck by how many ideas focused on slavery & civil rights. It doesn’t need to be said that these are absolutely topics we should know — but there’s so much more to learn!
I wanted to find resources that honored and celebrated interesting people & stories.
Traditionally, Black History Month activities have focused on the history of the United States. However, many argue that the story of Black History Month is a much more global story. So, I stuck a few ideas to learn about Africa in this list, too.
(Several years ago, we did a fascinating year-long study on the history of Africa. If you’ve not done a concentrated study of Africa in your homeschool, you really should! It doesn’t have to be a year-long one, but I’m confident your current history program is lacking — they nearly all are.)
Before you continue scrolling…
- I’ve (mostly!) kept this no-prep ideas list to items that only need 10-20 minutes. Why? Because I know that it can feel nearly impossible to add one.more.thing to the homeschooled days of our teens. But 10-20 minutes? That doesn’t feel so hard — do it over breakfast or lunch, together in the car on the way to activities, etc.
Pick & choose from this list. Better yet, give it to your teens and let their interests guide the way. - I’ve included additional Black History Month activities here and there in case you want to dig deeper. While it’s easy to focus on the rest of our teens’ to-do lists, it’s important to let them explore what interests them, too, even if it means setting aside other work.
- Download this list (with links) and email it to your teen, so they have easy access.
28 Ways to Celebrate Black History Month
1. Meet Ruby Bridges: Leading the Way
When Ruby Bridges, then six years old, walked into William Frantz Elementary School, flanked by federal marshals, she was the only black student in the school and the only student in her first-grade class. She couldn’t play on the playground or enjoy lunch in the lunchroom, and she couldn’t even go to the bathroom without a federal marshal protecting her.
More shows on Disney+
- The Help
- Queen of Katwe
- Cool Runnings
- Summer of Soul
- Aftershock
- Black Travel Across America
2. Walk through the Gardens at the African Artists’ Foundation
African Artists’ Foundation is an art space in Lagos, Nigeria. And through the magic of technology, you can explore The Gardens section of their museum from the comfort of your couch.
Explore the rest of their online collection.
3. Meet Ola Mae Spinks: Organizer of the Slave Narratives
One of the lesser-known WPA projects in the 1930s was the Slave Narratives project. Ola Mae Spinks helped organize more than 2,000 interviews with formerly enslaved individuals. Learn more about this project and explore the stories.
4. Watch Great Migrations: A People on the Move
The great Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is out with another show, this one about the mass migrations of African Americans in the 20th century. (The four episodes will come out throughout February.) Watch it here.
More PBS shows to explore:
- American Coup: Wilmington 1898
- Making Black America
- Black Histories of the Northern Plains
5. Meet Charles Richard Drew
Charles Richard Drew’s medical research came at a crucial point in history: World War II. His ideas to create a blood bank and storage of blood plasma were pivotal for wounded soldiers. Learn about the father of the blood bank.
6. Explore the art at the DuSable Black History Museum
Named after Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, the first permanent non-Native settler of what later became Chicago, the DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center is the oldest such museum in the US.
Use Google’s Arts & Culture to explore the museum’s art.
7. Meet Lonnie Johnson: The Super Soaker
Do you know who invented the Super Soaker water gun (and the Nerf gun!)? While it wasn’t what he meant to invent, it was a happy accident.
Grab this list as a free download for easy access.
8. Learn about the Woolworth’s Sit-Ins
The Greensboro Four — university black students from the local North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University — decided to stage a sit-in at the local Woolworth lunch counter to challenge their segregation policy.
Learn about why they chose Woolworths & the lasting effects of this boycott.
9. Meet the Black Manhattan Project Scientists
If you’ve learned anything about the people behind the Manhattan Project, you know names like Oppenheimer, Fuchs, Einstein, and Szilard. And you’ve probably never heard of Wilkins, Gardner-Chavis, or the Knox brothers. But you should know their stories — and now you will.
10. Follow the Drinking Gourd
How did enslaved people travel the Underground Railroad to the north? They followed the drinking gourd.
- Watch to Follow the Drinking Gourd (by Reading Rainbow)
- Learn what the lyrics mean line-by-line
- Dig deeper with this lesson that includes astronomy
11. Meet Alexander Miles: Hold the door!
Alexander Miles invented & holds the patent for those automatically closing doors we now have on elevators.
12. Learn about the national parks named after African Americans
A dozen sites in the National Parks System are named after African Americans. Read about those 12 sites and why they’re part of our system.
13. Meet Paul Revere Williams: LA’s Architect
Paul Revere Williams, an LA-based architect in the mid-1900s, helped shape Hollywood & Los Angeles with his work on more than 2000 buildings, including the iconic passenger terminal at LA’s airport (the Theme Building).
Watch a biography about him or read this article.
14. Learn about the Buffalo Soldiers
First authorized in 1866, the (nicknamed) Buffalo Soldiers were all-black units of soldiers. Their units supported Westward Expansion & fought in several wars.
15. Meet Maggie Walker: A Financial Leader
Born at the end of the Civil War, Maggie Walker went on to start an insurance company for women, be the first black woman to charter a bank and become a bank president.
16. Travel the Civil Rights Trail
Dozens of sites across 15 states are collectively known as the Civil Rights Trail — each one tells an integral part of the larger story. Travel the trail from home.
17. Meet Victor Hugo Green: Safe Travels
The interstate system & post-World War II boom led many Americans to hit the roads. But it wasn’t so simple for Black Americans, thanks to Jim Crow laws, Sundown towns, etc. Victor Hugo Green tried to make it safer by creating a travel guide of safe places to buy gas, get food, and stay overnight. Learn about Green, his travel guide & some of these historic locations.
- Look at the 1937 edition
- Going Places: Victor Hugo Green & His Glorious Book
- Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America (& the YA adaptation)
- Watch Driving While Black on PBS
18. Walk the Black Heritage Trail
In the mid-1800s, part of Boston’s famed Beacon Hill was home to a thriving Black Community. While you may not be able to travel to Boston to walk this in person, the National Park System offers a virtual walk with photos & audio presentation.
Grab this list as a free download for easy access.
19. Meet the West Area Computers: How NASA Went to Space
You may know them as human computers or hidden figures, but their area was officially known as West Area Computers. They are the black women hired to do the complex math that helped send our early astronauts into space. (A more detailed reading is here.)
20. Tour the American Jazz Museum
You may wonder why the American Jazz Museum is in Missouri. Isn’t Harlem synonymous with jazz music? It caught me by surprise when we did a mini-unit on jazz music several years ago. Indeed, it has a rich history dating back to the 1920s as the Midwest “alternative” to Harlem.
With the magic of Google’s Arts & Culture, you can explore the museum’s collections & walk around it.
KEEP LEArning:
- A photo collection of the early days of jazz music
- Learn why Copenhagen became a major city of jazz music
- Learn how jazz music made its way to Indonesia
21. Meet Arturo Alfonso Schomburg: Historian, Writer & Archivist
Arturo Schomburg’s name is synonymous with the Harlem Renaissance. Not only was he a writer & intellectualist in an area that was flourishing with others like himself, but he also recognized the need to record & archive the history and achievements of the Black community. His legacy lasts at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
22. Learn about Medieval West Africa
You’ve likely never considered what life was like in Medieval Africa, let alone Medieval West Africa. Get an introduction to the life & culture of it here.
23. Meet Clementine Hunter: Cook Turned Primitive Artist
Born into a sharecropping family on a plantation, Clementine Hunter became a beloved primitive artist. Learn her story & meet her work.
KEEP LEArning:
- Meet more African-American artists
- Look at pieces from the National Gallery of Art
- Artists from Africa You Should Know
- Clementine Hunter: Art Rocks (13 min)
24. Breaking Barriers in the Olympics
Jesse Owens is the first name that comes to most of our minds when we think about racial barriers & the Olympics. Some other athletes you should know include Wilma Rudolph, Tommie Smith & John Carlos, and George Poage.
25. Meet Mary McLeod Bethune: Educator & Activist
Born as one of 17 children, Bethune would go on to open a boarding school, start a college, lead several organizations for civil rights movement, and serve on the founding council for the United Nations. Take a virtual tour of her home & learn about her work.
Grab this list as a free download for easy access.
26. Drop Me Off in Harlem: The Harlem Renaissance
After you learn how & why the Harlem Renaissance happened, learn about some of the famous locations.
KEEP LEArning:
- Music & Films of the Harlem Renaissance (5 min)
- Literary Icons from the Renaissance (14 min)
- The Theater & the Renaissance (12 min)
- Politics & the Renaissance (13 min)
27. Meet Garrett Morgan: Red, Yellow, GO!
Garrett Morgan invented something most of us use every single day. Learn about Morgan & one of his inventions.
28. Explore the Diversity of Africa
Did you know there are 54 countries in Modern Africa? We so often think of Africa — with the exception of a couple of countries — as being one large homogenous place. Pick one of the countries to learn about from the fabulous Geography Now channel.
Don’t Miss These
When you buy through links on my site, I may earn an affiliate commission. My goal is to keep this site 100% reader-supported and free of ads or sponsorships. Your purchases help me make this possible. Thank you! Read more here.