The Center for Brooklyn History has educational resources for students and educators looking to center the stories of Black Brooklynites throughout history. Check out our digitized resources and start exploring!
Black Brooklyn: Primary Source Packet
From the 19th century community of Weeksville to the West Indian Day Parade, students can trace the history of Black Brooklynites using primary sources from our archive. Our primary source packets include fascinating primary sources and document-based questions so students can actively engage with them here.
Brooklyn Resists
Brooklyn Resists tells the stories of Black Brooklynites and how they have responded to systemic racial injustice, risen up against those systems, and how the protest movement of the present ties to the generations of activists and leaders who came before. The Brooklyn Resists website features digital exhibitions, photographs, public programs, and educational resources coming soon. Explore it here.
Civil Rights in Brooklyn: Primary Source Packet
Meet Brooklyn CORE and other activists fighting racism in Brooklyn. Our primary source packets include fascinating primary sources and document-based questions so students can actively engage with them. Find it here.
Community Organizing in Brooklyn: Primary Source Packet
Brooklyn has a long history of community members getting together to advance their collective interest against a power held outside the community. Our primary source packets include fascinating primary sources and document-based questions so students can actively engage with them. Find it here.
Gentrification in Bed-Stuy: Primary Source Packet
How can we understand the process of gentrification? By examining a single neighborhood – Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn - we can learn about factors that make a place vulnerable for gentrification. Our primary source packets include fascinating primary sources and document-based questions so students can actively engage with them. Find it here.
In Pursuit of Freedom
A comprehensive website of educator resources centered on the development of the abolition movement in Brooklyn from the end of the American Revolution to the early days of Reconstruction. The site features lesson plans, games, walking tours, and more. Find it here.
Mapping Freedom and Enslavement
Using primary sources, Mapping Freedom and Slavery helps students study the history of slavery and abolition in Brooklyn and to learn about Black-led institutions and organizations of the late-18th and early-19th century. Find it here.
Voices of Mixed Heritage: Crossing Borders, Bridging Generations
Voices of Mixed Heritage: Crossing Borders, Bridging Generations invites students and educators to engage with the topic of mixed heritage and identity in the United States from the mid-19th century to the present. Students will investigate the voices and representation of those who identify as mixed-heritage individuals through oral histories, archival primary sources, popular culture references, and contextualizing secondary sources. These resources will allow students to unpack complex political concepts such as race, racism, identity, equity, and self-determination. Access the curriculum here.
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Weeksville: Primary Source Packet
Learn about Weeksville's history as a haven for free African Americans before the Civil War and meet some incredible people who lived there. Our primary source packets include fascinating primary sources and document-based questions so students can actively engage with them here.