Each February, we celebrate the essential contributions of the African diaspora to our shared American experience during Black History Month.
Pop Culture Classroom has created free original comics and shareable graphics to inspire. You’ll also find recommended reading from other sources and other kinds of pop culture that students — and adults — will love.
- Discussion Topics
- Black History Comics
- Selected Readings from Others
- Shareable History Graphics
- Teaching Resources from Others
Discussion Topics from Pop Culture Classroom
Understanding the context of history and current events is an essential skill in today’s media-saturated world. This list of discussion prompts and resources from the Pop Culture Classroom Blog can help engage student engagement and critical thinking.
- Black Lives Matter
- Teaching History: Congressman John Lewis and March
- Losing a Public Hero – On the Death of Black Panther’s Chadwick Boseman
Black History Comics
Comic books can make complex social and historical subjects more accessible and engaging for students with a variety of reading-comprehension levels.
Download Pop Culture Classroom’s 2021 African American History Educational Comic Collection. The collection includes nine unique and compelling comics that highlight important people, places, and events in the history of the U.S. — and our home state of Colorado.
Locations:
United States
- Colorful History #55 – Following the Underground Railroad to freedom
- Colorful History #59: Juneteenth – The Reason Why We Sing
Colorado
- Colorful History Issue #5 – Elizabeth Ensley
- Colorful History Issue #10 – Clara Brown
- Colorful History Issue #11 – Barney Ford
- Colorful History Issue #12 – Hattie McDaniel
- Colorful History Issue #37 – Nat Love
- Colorful History Issue #38 – Dr. Justina Ford
- Colorful History Issue #45 – Lincoln Hills: The Escape from Racism?
Selected Readings from Others
March
By John Lewis (Author), Andrew Aydin (Author), Nate Powell (Illustrator, Artist)
Publisher: IDW Publishing
The Silence of Our Friends
By Mark Long and Jim Demonakos; illustrated by Nate Powell
Publisher: First Second
Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet
by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Writer), Brian Stelfreeze (Artist), Chris Sprouse (Artist)
Publisher: Marvel
Ironheart Vol.1: Those With Courage
By Eve L. Ewing (Goodreads Author), Kevin Libranda (Visual Art), Luciano Vecchio (Illustrations), G. Geoffo (Illustrations)
Publisher: Marvel
I Am Alfonso Jones
By Tony Medina; Illustrated by Stacey Robinson, John Jennings
Publisher: Tu Books
Showtime at the Apollo: The Epic Tale of Harlem’s Legendary Theater
By Ted Fox; Illustrator James Otis Smith
Publisher: Abrams
Encyclopedia of Black Comics
By Sheena C. Howard (Author), Christopher Priest (Author, Afterword), Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (Foreword)
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
African-American Classics
By Langston Hughes (Author), Zora Neale Hurston (Author), W.E.B. Du Bois (Author), Jean Toomer (Author), Paul Laurence Dunbar (Author), Alice Dunbar Nelson (Author), Charles W. Chesnutt (Author), Claude McKay (Author), Florence Lewis Bentley (Author), Frances E.W. Harper (Author), Tom Pomplun (Editor), Lance Tooks (Editor), Kyle Baker (Artist), Afua Richardson (Artist), Trevor Von Eeden (Artist), Jeremy Love (Artist), Randy DuBurke (Artist), Stan Shaw (Artist), Milton Knight (Artist), Arie Monroe (Artist), Jim Webb (Artist), Shepherd Hendrix (Artist)
Publisher: Eureka Productions
Shareable Black History Month Graphics
Teaching Resources from Others
- Resources from the National Gallery of Art, the U.S. Library of Congress, the Smithsonian, National Archives, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, National Park Service, and the National Endowment for the Humanities
- Virtual Exhibitions at the National Museum of African American History
- Lesson Plan: Discuss 22-year-old Amanda Gorman’s inaugural poem “The Hill We Climb”