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Category: African American History

One woman watches as another examines with a magnifying glass an ornate, decorative image on a printed page

Primary Sources for Musical Learning: Supporting and Critiquing America during WWII: Primary Sources from the Fort Valley Music Festivals

Posted by: Danna Bell

The multidimensional nature of music allows artists to explore and communicate complex perspectives. Through exploring the Fort Valley recordings, students can discern how performers connect musical elements and cultural referents to create strong, nuanced messages.

One woman watches as another examines with a magnifying glass an ornate, decorative image on a printed page

Primary Sources for Musical Learning: Analyzing the Musical Perspectives of Marian Anderson and Harry T. Burleigh in Deep River

Posted by: Danna Bell

On Easter Sunday 1939, one of America’s greatest voices sang on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. She donned a fur coat against the fifty-degree bluster to perform outdoors. Despite the direct intervention of the First Lady, performance venues across Washington, D.C., had refused to open their stage doors to the world renowned African American contralto, Marian Anderson.

One woman watches as another examines with a magnifying glass an ornate, decorative image on a printed page

Expanding Student Understanding of Slavery in America by Exploring an Arabic Muslim Slave Narrative

Posted by: Cheryl Lederle

In the January-February 2019 issue of Social Education, the journal of the National Council for the Social Studies, our “Sources and Strategies” article discusses the Life of Omar ibn Said, the only known extant narrative written in Arabic by an enslaved person in the United States. Analyzing this unique manuscript provides students with an opportunity to expand their understanding of some of the people who were brought to the United States from Africa to be enslaved. How educated were they? What did they believe?