"Amistad," the story of a group of Mende people illegally brought to the United States from West Africa in 1839, was taught to a group of 90 eighth grade students. To learn about the "Amistad," these eighth graders visited a replica of the ship, read a nonfiction account of the Amistad story, and viewed the Steven Spielberg…

Discusses Black Americans' concern about what to call themselves and examines attempts to develop an Afrocentric point of view. Questions an automatic identification between African-Americans and Africa, citing political, historical, and socioeconomic factors that qualify assumptions of cultural continuity, and calls for continued assessment and…

Reports on a review of nine elementary social studies textbooks for their treatment of African-American history and culture. Finds that the West African origins and culture of African Americans is largely ignored. Determines that textbooks present a biased and incomplete picture of slavery in early U.S. history. (CFR)

Presents a teaching unit on the global impact of the abolition of slavery in the Western Hemisphere. Asserts that abolition of slavery brought economic disruption to many African states and parts of the Western Hemisphere. Provides a chronologically based map, five student handouts, and questions for each handout. (CFR)

This textbook for elementary school children is a history of African Americans from 800 A.D. to 1992 in 24 chapters. Each chapter closes with a review that lists vocabulary words to learn, and offers thinking and writing questions. Some chapters also contain activity sheets. Chapter topics include African origins, black explorers and settlers in…