Black History Month Webquest

Follow the links to gather information.

Black History Month Webquest

Let’s Explore African American History

Your task is to follow each page of the webquest and complete the assignment. You will use the websites provided to help you with your search.

Answer the following questions using the websites below. Write your answers on your own paper.

Slavery

1. Who is Dred Scott? Why is he important?

http://library.wustl.edu/vlib/dredscott/

2. Visit the following webpage and read the auction ad carefully. Describe what the ad is selling. Describe how you feel about what you are seeing.

http://people.uvawise.edu/runaways/girl.html

3. What is the Underground Railroad?
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USASunderground.htm

Choose one of the people who worked for the Underground Railroad, describe two important parts of their life AND why YOU think that they joined the Underground Railroad.

• William Still
• Gerrit Smith
• Salmon Chase
• David Ruggle
• Thomas Garrett
• William Purvis
• Jane Grey Swisshelm
• William Wells Brown
• Frederick Douglass
• Henry David Thoreau
• Lucretia Mott
• Charles Langston
• Levi Coffin
• Susan B. Anthony

African Americans in the Military

4. African Americans in the military are often overlooked. However, they were an essential part of many wars for American. Name at least three facts about the different groups.

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmmilitary1.html

Would you have joined the military if you were an African American during the time of unequal civil rights? Why or why not?

Civil Rights Heroes

5. Learn more about individuals who decided to fight for their equal rights. Choose ten people from the list and describe each person and what they did to fight for equal civil rights.

http://library.thinkquest.org/J0112391/civil_rights_leaders.htm

• Mary McLeod Bethune
• John Brown
• Linda Brown
• Ruby Bridges
• Frederick Douglass
• Medgar Evers
• Marcus Garvey
• Jesse Jackson
• John F. Kennedy
• Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Abraham Lincoln
• Rosa Parks
• Homer Plessy
• Dred Scott
• Sojourner Truth
• Nat Turner
• Harriet Tubman
• Malcolm X

Confession

6. Go to the following website and read the section about TEEN LIFE in Chicago and TEEN LIFE in Mississippi where Emmett Till was murdered.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/till/sfeature/sf_segregation.html#

In a paragraph explain the differences between the two parts of the United States for teens at this time.

7. The men could not be retried because of double jeopardy: Define double jeopardy using the following site:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_jeopardy

Do you think this law is good or bad? Think about other cases as well.

African American scientists and inventors

8. Choose two African American scientists and inventors and write down their accomplishments.

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmscientists1.html

Sports

9. There have been struggles for blacks in sports history, but here you can learn about the firsts.

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmfirsts.html

Choose ten African American sports stars and list who they are and what they accomplished.

Pictures in black and white

10. Go to this website of pictures and search through a few.

http://www.kodak.com/US/en/corp/features/moore/mooreIndex.shtml

Write a short newspaper article about one of the pictures that strikes you the most.

For example:
Klan Leader With No Shame Klan leader James Jones drives with his Klan uniform in his car in open and plain sight. In today’s world things have changed greatly and the sight of this man and this uniform puts many people on edge.