Black History Month 2020 – Resources for Home Ed Families
Black History Month runs throughout October and is a great opportunity both to celebrate Black lives right now, and to find resources and information that you can use all year round.
The main BlackHistoryMonth.org.uk site has listings for in person and virtual events happening across the country. It also has articles about dozens of Great Black Britons, and historical events – it’s easy to fall down lots of really interesting rabbit trails.
There are a number of learning Resources available from The Black Curriculum – both paid for and free lesson plans tailored for KS2 and KS3 on topics including Mary Seacole, Lilian Bader, the Bristol Bus boycotts, intersectional feminism, the British Empire as experienced by African and Caribbean people.
Also when you buy the junior version of Black and British by David Olusoga (which we are currently reading, and which is fantastic), Macmillan donates 50p for every copy sold, to the Black Curriculum.
(Also the documentary series, presented by David Olusoga – Black and British: A forgotten History is back on iplayer.)
The Black Curriculum with Eunice Olumide and Malizah from the Reading is Magic Festival. (38 minute video.) “Join Eunice Olumide OBE, Scottish model, actor and writer and Malizah, a young writer, poet and creative from Rising Arts Agency in Bristol as they discuss the stories and histories that are missing from the curriculum and how we can improve access to Black History in UK schools.”
Black History Month 2020: What is it? from Newsround (BBC) has a good mix of people and stories from British Black history, and the context for current events like the Black Lives Matter protests this summer, and the long term work of dismantling racism within our culture. (You don’t need a tv licence to view the videos available as part of the article.)
Newsround also has a good article and video on How slavery shaped our cities, which shows the link between prosperity in a number of cities in the UK, and the work of enslaved African people in the US. If you want a good starting place for talking about why various statues have been torn down, particularly in the UK, this is a good resource to use.
If you have a twinkl account then they have a Black history month resource pack including work including a time line, and information about Black historical figures like Rosa Parks, Nelson Mandela, Barack Obama and Martin Luther King.
The National Portrait Gallery has a virtual tour where Alayo Akinkugbe (@ablackhistoryofart) explores key figures from the gallery’s collection including paintings of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Zadie Smith and a photo of Sarah Forbes Bonetta.
(This post is a live document and will be updated as and when I find new things to add to it. Updated 21/10/2020)
How are you celebrating Black History Month this year?