For Love of LIberty - The Story of America's Black Patriots

Introduced by Colin Powell, hosted on-camera by Halle Berry and narrated by Avery Brooks, For Love of Liberty uses letters, diaries, speeches, journalistic accounts, historical text and military records to document and acknowledge the sacrifices and accomplishments of African-American service men and women.

The story spans the Revolution to today and examines why, despite enormous injustice, these heroic men and women fought so valiantly for freedoms they themselves did not enjoy.

The project's goal is to raise public consciousness and shed light on an extraordinary and relatively unexplored aspect of our nation's history. The central theme of the initiative, the price of liberty, is relevant to all Americans.

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Here are the links to For Love of Liberty web site:

http://www.forloveofliberty.net - Watch videos, read stories/bios, and check out an awesome timeline of US Wars

http://forloveofliberty.com - This site is all about the documentary. See images from the film, meet the cast and purchase the video.

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Here are facilitators guide for both High School and College...

http://ushistorysite.com/documents/FLOL_HS_Guide.pdf

http://ushistorysite.com/documents/FLOL_College_Guide.pdf

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After September 30, 2010, the site will no longer be active due to funding issues by the Army. In an effort to distribute the materials before the site goes away... please send this to friends, colleagues and veterans. Below are the links to download the documentary. (Or you can buy it...)

For Love of Liberty Documentary Links:

Chapter 1: Introduction - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=8MH2M6FT

Chapter 2: The Revolution - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=DCBNTI26

Chapter 3: The Civil War - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=91G9WPUR

Chapter 4: WWI - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=XNCBIKH9

Chapter 5: WWII - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=SJKIMAZG

Chapter 6: The Korean War - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=65YPE8LZ

Chapter 7: The Vietnam War - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=G9YJT4V2

Chapter 8: The Middle East - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=LM5DB80G

Chapter 9: Conclusion - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=BQ98URBM

Play All: - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=S6EG13VM

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Links to History: Black History Month Lesson Plans and Resources

Here are some links to resources to help in planning for Black History Month.

At Thinkfinity.org you'll find lots of free educational resources for standards-based K-12 lesson plans, educational games, music clips and videos – all relating to Black History Month and available for downloading.

Thinkfinity.org, is the educational website of the Verizon Foundation, and the the Black History Month related free lesson plans, teacher resources and student activities on the site are great for your classrooms.

The American Federation of Teachers website, also has some decent resources: http://aft.org/teachers/black-history.htm

The AFT has identified a variety of resources to help educators celebrate Black History Month in their classrooms. This site highlights key historical events, influential figures and the continuing contributions African-Americans are making to our nation and the world.

It's also got some facts and figures which could make for good class discussion.

For example:

1.1 million is the number of blacks with advanced degrees, which is nearly twice the number from 1995.

You could ask your class to consider the reasons for such a huge increase.

And as always, the USHistorySite.com has plenty of pages with links to lesson plans on a variety of appropriate topics. Here are a few:

Martin Luther King Lesson Plans

Slavery Lesson Plans

Underground Railroad Lessons and Resources

Lessons on Reconstruction and the Antebellum South

If you've got some of your own, please share them below.

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This History of Black History Month

Have you ever heard of Dr. Carter G. Woodson? No? Me neither. But maybe we should have.

Dr. Carter G. Woodson, was born to parents who were both former slaves. As a child he spent his days working in the coal mines of Kentucky. He enrolled to go to high school at age twenty and graduated two years later, and continued his schooling finally earning a Ph.D from Harvard.

While studying at Harvard, Dr. Woodson noticed that the history books he was learning from lacked or ignored the contributions of the black-american population. And when blacks were mentioned, it was in ways that reflected their inferior social standing.

This upset Woodson to the point where he was motived to challenge himself to write more black Americans into the history books. In 1915, Woodson established the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (now called the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History). A year later he founded the Journal of Negro history, which quickly became a well respected publication. 1926 brought the launch of Negro History Week, which aimed to bring the contributions of blacks throughout history to national attention.

Since 1926, America has recognized black history first as "Negro History Week" and later as "Black History Month"

Why February?

Woodson strategically chose the second week in February to commermorate Negro History Week because the birthdays of two men who greatly influenced the advancement of the black American population; Frederick Douglass (February 14) and Abraham Lincoln (February 12).

Because he was born a slave, thus not knowing the date of his real birthday, Douglass adopted February 14 as his birthday. He chose this date because his mother used to call him "Little Valentine".

The transition to Black History Month is only natural considering all of the significant events in African-American history that have occurred in February.

February 23, 1868: W.E.B DuBois, civil rights leader and co-founder of the NAACP, was born.

February 3, 1870: The 15th Amendment was passed, granting blacks the right to vote.

February 25, 1870: Hiram R. Revels, becomes the first black U.S. senator.

February 12, 1909: The NAACP was founded.

February 1, 1960: The famous "sit-in" at the Greensboro, N.C., segregated Woolworth's lunch counter (pictured)

February 21, 1965: Malcolm X was shot and died.

February 4, 2007 - Tony Dungy, coach of the Indianapolic Colts becomes the first African-American head coach to win the Super Bowl. His counterpart, Lovie Smith of the Chicago Bears was also African-American. They were the first African-American coaches in history to coach in the big game.

So whether you believe Black History Month is for good for the advancement of the awareness of black american accomplishments, or whether you believe giving the study of black history it's own month is defacto segregation. One thing is undoubtedly true. Dr. Carter G. Woodson accomplished his goal of writing more black Americans into the history books.

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