Podcast Stories of Black History

Celebrate Black History in February and every month of the year using Listenwise’s curated collections of Black and African American stories for middle school students and high school students. Our podcast collections offer diverse voices and perspectives on a range of topics and issues. Our Civil War, Slavery & Reconstruction collections for middle school students and high school students discuss important periods in Black and American history.

We hope that teachers recognize Black History Month with students. It is a time for students to contemplate our nation’s history and develop a deeper sense of cultural consciousness.

Consider the following questions about what happens in your classroom from Learning for Justice:

• How often do your students learn about the contributions of black individuals to U.S. society?
• Are your students able to explain to someone else the contributions that black individuals have made in the United States?
• How many books or other texts by black writers do your students read during the academic year?
• How many books or other texts do your students read during the academic year that highlight black experiences?
• If your students’ readings have black characters, do these characters have positions of power?

How Podcasts Can Teach Black History In the Classroom

This month offers an opportunity to deepen cultural responsiveness in both content focus and teaching practice. We support your efforts with these lesson ideas and resources that can be used to address Black history, connect it to to current events, and highlight underrepresented groups within the curriculum throughout the year. 

Listening to audio stories featuring people’s voices can connect students to specific moments in time and promote understanding of others’ perspectives. One teacher asked students to listen to an audio story describing the desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas during the Civil Rights Movement. The teacher said:

“The violence and struggle to gain voting rights became real after listening to the emotions of the speakers and sounds from the event. It really helped students develop empathy, which is harder to do through traditional texts.”

Listenwise Podcasts for Black History Month

Black Youth In Action

• MLK’s Granddaughter Continues His Work
• 12-Year-Old College Student Loves Space
• Debate: Should 16-year-olds be allowed to vote?
• Teaching Black History as American History
• All-Black Rowing Team Wins in Life
• Diversity in Children’s Literature
• Young Inaugural Poet on her Journey
• A Teenage Executive Producer
• Teenage Olympic Speed Skater

Celebrating Individuals

Past

• Ruby Bridges – Ruby Bridges on Her Experience Desegregating a School
• Bill Russell — Remembering NBA Superstar Bill Russell
• Sidney Poitier – Sidney Poitier’s Legacy
• Colin Powell – Remembering Colin Powell
• Chinua Achebe – Achebe on Heart of Darkness
• Marian Anderson – Jim Crow in the 1930s: Marian Anderson and Our Nation’s Capital
• Muhammad Ali – Remembering Muhammad Ali
• Maya Angelou – Maya Angelou’s Life and Legacy
• James Baldwin – James Baldwin: Writings on Race, Class and Civil Rights 
• Frederick Douglass – How Photography Helped Abolition
• Ernest J. Gaines – Fighting Illiteracy with “A Lesson Before Dying”
• Lorraine Hansberry – Motivation for Writing A Raisin in the Sun
• Langston Hughes – Letters From Langston Hughes
• Zora Neale Hurston – A Guide To Florida From Zora Neale Hurston
• Katherine Johnson – Black Women Math Heroes at NASA
• John Lewis – Remembering Civil Rights Icon John Lewis
• Toussaint Louverture – Haitian Revolution for Freedom Led by Formerly Enslaved Person
• Phyllis Wheatley – A Letter from Phillis Wheatley
• Wangari Maathai – First African Woman To Win Peace Prize
• Nelson Mandela – Nelson Mandela’s Fight for Freedom in South Africa
• Piye – Nubian Pharaohs
• Jackie Robinson – Jackie Robinson and Integrating Baseball
• Harriet Tubman – Harriet Tubman’s Birthplace
• Richard Wright – Richard Wright’s Life Informed His Writing 
• Malcolm X – The Unfinished Life of Malcolm X

Present

• Joshua Bennett – A Poet Celebrates the Owed
• Kamala Harris – Kamala Harris Inspires Youth
• Kerry James Marshall – African Americans in the Art World
• Michelle Obama – Michelle Obama On Becoming
• Claudia Rankine – Hair Color and Racial Identity
• Tracy K. Smith – Connecting through Poetry
• Angie Thomas – “The Hate U Give” and the Call to Activism
• Kehinde Wiley – Rumors of War Sculpture
• Mae Jemison – Astronaut Mae Jemison

History of Resistance

Slavery, Abolition, and Reconstruction

• 1619: Anniversary of Slavery in America
• Experience the Life of an Enslaved Person
• Enslaved People and the American Revolution
• Great Negro Revolt
• Reenactment of a Slave Revolt
• Civil War’s First African American Infantry
• 40 Acres and a Mule
• Censoring Huck Finn
• New Museum Captures History of African-Americans
• Debate: Should Congress Consider Reparations for Slavery
• Debate: Should Statues of Historic Figures with Complex Legacies Be Removed

The Civil Rights Movement

• Forgotten Civil Rights Activist
• George Wallace at the School Door
• History of Sit-ins as a Protest Strategy
• Civil Resistance Movements
• Historic African-American Neighborhood Remembered
• The Sears Catalog and Jim Crow
• Integrating Central High: Little Rock Nine and the Civil Rights Movement
• Selma 50 Years Later
• MLK’s Nonviolent Resistance Used Military Strategy
• Race and Maniac Magee
• Martin Luther King: I Have A Dream
• How Martin Luther King, Jr. Channeled His Anger
• New MLK Recording Discovered
• Racial Integration at Little Rock Decades Later  

Black Lives Matter

• Superheroes Fight Racism
• Understanding Systemic Racism
• Systemic Racism Drives Protests
• Marching on Washington: Then and Now
• Comparing Black Lives Matter to Civil Rights Movement
• Protests Now and In the Past
• Protests in Baltimore
• Debate: Should Social Protest Affect Football?
• Verdict in St. Louis Ignites Protests 
• Valedictorian Speech Causes Controversy
• Black Activists Fight Racism
• Black Santas Grow in Popularity

Other Black History Resources

Lessons/Teaching Materials

• Black History Month Resource Collection – Facing History
• Race and U.S. History Classroom Materials & Lessons – Facing History and Ourselves
• Black Heritage Text Set – CommonLit 
• The History Makers – The Nation’s Largest African American Video Oral History Collection

Contemporary Literature on Antiracist Pedagogies

• Schooltalk: Rethinking What We Say About and To Students Every Day, by Mica Pollock
• Culturally Responsive Teaching and The Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students, by Zaretta Hammond
• We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom, by Bettina Love
• Rethinking Ethnic Studies, edited by R. Tolteka Cuauhtin, Miguel Zavala, Christine Sleeter, and Wayne Au
• Teaching For Diversity and Social Justice, 3rd Edition, by Maurianna Adams

Get more suggestions for powerful podcasts that illuminate people’s experiences and enrich student learning with our blog post, “3 Tips for Providing Windows, Mirrors, & Doors to Explore Identities with Podcasts.”