Also American

Curriculum unit

Black Excellence: Music, Sport & Science

A first look at Black Americans who changed music, broke barriers in sport, and made discoveries that shaped the modern world.

Unit objectives

Students describe the achievements of pioneering Black musicians, athletes, and scientists and explain why their accomplishments mattered.

  1. Lesson 1 · 1 class period

    The sound of a people

    Objectives

    Name pioneering Black musicians and the kinds of music they created.

    Materials

    Timeline entries below; the Black Music and Jazz themes.

    Meet Louis Armstrong and jazz, the rise of Motown, and the birth of hip-hop — music Black Americans gave the world.

    Teach from these moments
    1. November 1925
      Louis Armstrong reinvents jazz

      Armstrong's Hot Five recordings make the soloist the heart of jazz and reshape American music.

    2. January 12, 1959
      Motown Records is founded

      Berry Gordy launches the label that will define the "Sound of Young America."

    3. August 11, 1973
      Hip-hop is born in the Bronx

      DJ Kool Herc's back-to-school party launches a culture that will conquer the world.

    Discussion questions

    How does music carry history? Which of these sounds do you still hear today?

  2. Lesson 2 · 1 class period

    Breaking barriers in sport

    Objectives

    Describe athletes who broke racial barriers and what they faced.

    Materials

    Timeline entries below; Jesse Owens and Jackie Robinson biographies.

    Learn how Jesse Owens answered Hitler in 1936 and how Jackie Robinson integrated baseball in 1947.

    Teach from these moments
    1. August 9, 1936
      Jesse Owens wins four Olympic golds

      Owens triumphs in Berlin, puncturing Nazi myths of Aryan supremacy before the world.

    2. April 15, 1947
      Jackie Robinson integrates baseball

      Robinson breaks Major League Baseball's color line, enduring abuse to open the game.

    Discussion questions

    Why was it so hard — and so important — to be "first"? What courage did it take?

  3. Lesson 3 · 1 class period

    Discoverers and inventors

    Objectives

    Identify Black scientists and inventors and what they contributed.

    Materials

    Timeline entries below; Katherine Johnson and Charles Drew biographies.

    Discover Charles Drew's blood banks, Katherine Johnson's spaceflight math, and Mae Jemison's journey to space.

    Teach from these moments
    1. 1940
      Charles Drew pioneers blood banking

      Drew's work on blood plasma storage saves countless lives.

    2. February 20, 1962
      Katherine Johnson and the flight of Friendship 7

      NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson verifies the orbital calculations for John Glenn's spaceflight — one of the "hidden figures" of the space race.

    3. September 12, 1992
      Mae Jemison, first Black woman in space

      Jemison orbits Earth aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour.

    Discussion questions

    How can a discovery change everyday life? Why were some of these figures "hidden"?