Social Sciences classes get in depth look at 2023 Black History Month theme of Black Resistance: A Journey to Equality

Throughout the month of February, our Social Sciences classes have followed along with the National Museum of African American History & Culture's Black History Month theme of Black Resistance: A Journey to Equality.

Social Sciences' teachers joined the NMAAHC in sharing key stories of Black resistance organized around five weekly focus areas that demonstrate how African Americans have practiced resistance from arriving in the Americas to today. The five weekly sub-themes included activism, faith, education, press, and Black joy.

• Week 1, Feb. 1-5: A Tradition of Activism
• Week 2, Feb. 6-12: Foundations of Faith
• Week 3, Feb. 13-19: The Value of Education
• Week 4, Feb. 20-26: The Black Press
• Week 5, Feb. 27-28: Leaning into Black Joy

According to the NMAAHC, for generations, African Americans worked collectively to survive and thrive amid historical and ongoing oppression. Through education, religious institutions, businesses, the press and organizations, Black people created ways to serve and strengthen their communities while establishing safe spaces.

Black resistance not only encompasses rebellions, protests, and uprisings — but also the beauty, love, and pride of joyous everyday living. Black joy lives in those who dare to love themselves, their families and their communities. Black joy is the smiles and laughter of children, the courtships, love, marriage rituals, fellowships, foodways and family pride, the NMAAHC said on its website.

At Resurrection, the Social Sciences department hosted a voter registration campaign during the first week of February to go along with that week's theme of "A Tradition in Activism." Additionally, at the start of each week, classes were given facts about Black History Month that coincide with the weekly themes.

Ahead of the month of February, many classes were already extensively discussing topics related to Black History within the context of the classes, including, the Civil War and Reconstruction in U.S. History, the Harlem Renaissance in Modern American History, and the Civil Rights Movement.

According to Ms. Nicole Oberschmied, Social Science Curriculum Coordinator, in U.S. History, students looked at primary source accounts about individuals' actions resisting the system of slavery and the progression of the abolition movement. In Modern American History, students looked at primary sources and documentaries for the Civil Rights Movement. And finally, in AP U.S. Government, students read and analyzed Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "A Letter From Birmingham" jail.