Your Curriculum Downloads
The Woodson Center’s K-12 black history and character curriculum is based on the Woodson Principles and tells the stories of black Americans.
Inspire your students with stories of Black Excellence
The Woodson Center’s Black History Month curriculum is designed to educate K-9 students of black Americans whose tenacity and resilience enabled them to overcome adversity and make invaluable contributions to our country. It also teaches character and decision-making skills that equip students to take charge of their futures. These lessons in black American excellence are free and publicly available for all.
BLACK HISTORY: Robert Smalls (1839-1915)
Robert Smalls was an American politician, entrepreneur and Navy pilot who exhibited courage and undeterred conviction in his fight for freedom, respect, and legal rights for former slaves. As a slave in the Gullah community of South Carolina, he risked his life to give the Union Navy an edge during the Civil War by commandeering a Confederate gunship and escaping to freedom with his family in 1862. His wartime celebrity began a life of public service and statesmanship. Smalls’ political and business career revealed his determination to right past wrongs. During the Reconstruction Era, his integrity and non-discriminatory perspective helped both Black and white citizens transition into a new and just society. Throughout his life, Smalls demonstrated “radical grace,” showing mercy to his former oppressors, trying earnestly to rebuild a South Carolina devastated by four years of war, and never compromising on the values for which he risked his life both during and after the war.
BLACK HISTORY: Crispus Attucks, Part 1 (1723-1770)
On March 5, 1770, five men were shot dead by British soldiers on King Street in Boston. This event became known as the Boston Massacre, and helped kindle the fire of the American revolution. The first man to fall in this event was Crispus Attucks, a sailor and escaped slave of mixed African and American Indian ancestry. Patriot activists held up Attucks as a martyr for the cause of liberty, and generations of Americans followed suit; almost a century later, abolitionists made Attucks into a symbol of Black civic identity. But who was he, really? This lesson, the first of two on Crispus Attucks, tries to establish the facts about his life from the scant remaining evidence.
BLACK HISTORY: Crispus Attucks, Part 2 (1851-2020)
On March 6, 1857, the Supreme Court of the United States issued its infamous Dred Scott decision, which fundamentally denied the legitimacy of Black American citizenship. The coincidence of the date, one day after the anniversary of the Boston Massacre, caught the attention of William Cooper Nell, a free man of color, historian, and influential abolitionist. On March 5, 1858, antislavery activists celebrated Crispus Attucks Day at Faneuil Hall, where Attucks’s body had awaited burial in 1770. Such efforts to commemorate Attucks helped shape the field of African American history. This lesson examines the ways historians, civil rights activists, and cultural institutions renewed the memory of an otherwise enigmatic figure.
BLACK HISTORY: Biddy Mason (1818-1891)
In this history lesson, students learn about the epic life and exemplary character of Biddy Mason, a woman who was born into slavery in the Deep South, walked to California as part of a pioneer caravan, fought for her freedom in court, and died a millionaire real-estate investor in Los Angeles. In addition to the highs and lows of Biddy’s dramatic life, this lesson asks students to study how she demonstrated the virtues of courage and charity, both in securing freedom for herself and her family and, later, using her fortune to invest in her community and provide relief to poor Californians of all races and religions.
CONTEMPORARY SCHOLARS: Thomas Sowell
(1930-present)
Economist, cultural historian, social theorist, and unwavering critic of misguided social policy and self-important intellectuals, Thomas Sowell is celebrated as one of America’s greatest writers for his insistence on telling unpopular truths. He’s the author of over 50 books, countless essays and articles, and 19 scholarly papers in economics. But his ideas have also been shaped by his own life story, one that took him from rural North Carolina to the streets of Harlem, from the Marine Corps to the halls of academe, and from Marxism to classical liberalism. It’s a journey that might surprise Sowell’s critics – and that students of all ages will find compelling, empowering, and a wonderful introduction to a brilliant mind. Made possible in part by the generosity of the Arthur N. Rupe Foundation.
BLACK HISTORY: Mary Cardwell Dawson (1894-1962)
Mary Cardwell Dawson was among the first Black women impresarios in American history, radically raising the profile of Black artists and performers and laying the foundation for integrated opera. Dawson insisted that the culture of European opera belonged to everyone, not just the White composers, performers, and audiences who dominated the genre. In this lesson, discover Dawson's uplifting story and share her passion for the arts with your students.
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