Are you ready for the challenge?
Since 2009, TeenSHARP has been preparing Black, Latino, and low-income students for selective colleges and to be equity-centered leaders.
As part of this process, we have provided our students with culturally relevant curricula and opportunities to learn from leaders and scholars of color.
In this Black History Challenge course, we've pulled together inspiring and informative content students, parents, and friends of TeenSHARP can use to deepen their knowledge of Black History.
And most importantly, you can use this course to take action to create a racially just and equitable society!
TeenSHARPies are learning & making
Black history
We refuse to wait for school officials to create conditions in which Black excellence is celebrated and studied. We build them ourselves.
This self-paced course features the type of content our students have had access to on their journey into top colleges. We also feature several of our students' stories throughout the course.
We invite you to take the challenge with us and engage in conversation in the comments as well!
Samiah Sudler-Brooks (TeenSHARP '22)
Samiah is a student at Howard University majoring in Political Science and minoring in International Affairs. As a Junior Fellow with the Library of Congress in 2023, she worked on a project entitled "The Journey to Our Rights: African American Activism from the 1900s-Present Day.”
Maija Ross
(TeenSHARP '13)
Maija Ross attended UMass-Amherst and led several protests and advocacy campaigns while on campus. After graduating, she worked at TeenSHARP for a few years and now is the Assistant Vice President of Global Culture and Inclusion Programs at Chubb.
Hamza Parker
(TeenSHARP '24)
Hamza Parker is a high school senior in Delaware. He was recently featured in the Soledad O'Brien Productions/CBS Reports documentary "The End of Affirmative Action."
Our Black History Challenge Curriculum
- [Video] Dr. Asa Hillard III discusses what most don't learn about African civilization (8:13)
- [Read] "The Case for Reparations" by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- [Assignment] Interview someone in your family about "The Case for Reparations"
- [Read] "A Homemade Education" by Malcolm X
- [Video] James Baldwin discusses racism
- [Read] How Carter G. Woodson turned February into Black History Month
- [Read] "I was raised by giants" by Ronald Hollis (TeenSHARP '23)
- [Read] "A Living Textbook of US History" by Samiah Sudler-Brooks (TeenSHARP '22)
- [Video] Evidence That Ancient Greece Learned From Black Egyptians by Molefi Asante
- [Video] Untold history of women-led slave revolts by Rebecca Hall
- [Video] Freedom House Ambulance: The First Responders
- [Video] What you don't know about the Black Panthers
- [Video] Meet CNN Hero, Dr. Ala Stanford (20:42)
- [Video] Meet Dr. Velma Scantlebury and Dr. Cydney Teal (25:44)
- [Read] How tens of thousands of Black U.S. doctors simply vanished by Dr. Uche' Blackstock
- [Read] How one student was determined despite her diagnosis
- [Video] The Untold Story of Black Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis
- [Video] The Overlooked Stories of America's Black Wall Streets
- [Video] "She Did That" documentary about Black women entrepreneurs
- [Video] Meet Nicaila Matthews Okome and Rachel Rodgers on Side Hustle Pro podcast
- [Read] "Black Men Pitch Too" by Diyaaldeen Whitaker (TeenSHARP '16)
- [Video] Madam C.J. Walker's Great-Great-Granddaughter Shares Little Told Story of Activism
- [Read] Florida’s governor and the College Board do not get to decide how we learn Black history
- [Video] Critical Race Theory and The Obstruction of Black Education with Dr. Ivory Toldson
- [Video] What If I Told You 'Sesame Street' Was Created For Blacks
- [Video] Author and writer, Rann Miller, talks about the importance of reading (7:02)
- [Video] "The End of Affirmative Action" Documentary featuring TeenSHARP!
- [Read] "A Quest to Reclaim Black Brilliance" by Amadou Tine (TeenSHARP '18)
- [Assignment] Support the #WeNeedBlackTeachers campaign
- [Video] The History Of Black Voter Suppression — And The Fight For The Right To Vote
- [Video] Meet Congresswoman Lisa Blunt-Rochester - the first woman and the first African-American to represent Delaware in Congress (23:33)
- [Video] Philadelphia City Councilman, Anthony Phillips, talks about politics and service (22:53)
- [Read] Explore the U.S. Elite’s Ties to Slavery
- [Read] Amanda Eric (TeenSHARP '21 / Pomona '25) Awarded Obama-Chesky Scholarship for Public Service
- [Quiz] How politically engaged are you?
- [Video] Ella Baker: The Mother of the Civil Rights Movement
- [Video] The Largest Slave Rebellion Was Hidden From U.S. History
- [Video] The story of Bayard Rustin, openly gay leader in the civil rights movement
- [Video] Black Women and the Right to Vote
- [Read] "Facing my true self" by Fatima Toure (TeenSHARP '23)
- [Video] Questlove’s ‘Summer of Soul’ tells long-forgotten story of Harlem Cultural Festival
- [Read] Issa Rae and Hollywood’s Unkept Promises
- [Video] Paul Robeson | The First Black Star
- [Assignment] Memorize and recite Langston Hughes' poem "I, Too" (1:29)
- [Video] Sheryl Lee Ralph Emmy Acceptance Speech
- [Read] "Finding my voice through music" by Seun Ogundimu (TeenSHARP '22 / Harvard '26)
- [Video] Documentary "The League" highlights the history of the Negro League
- [Video] The story behind the historic 1968 Olympic protest
- [Video] Did you know about the Black legacy in surfing?
- [Video] Did you know about the Black history in golf?
- [Video] How Black Athletes Shaped The Sport Of Hockey As We Know It
- [Read] Elite university admissions for athletes benefit white students
- [Listen] Mabel Fairbanks: The Icebreaker
- [Read] A Scholar and an Athlete by Anthony Morton (TeenSHARP '20 / Bates College '24)
- [Listen] MLK Jr. Drum Major Instinct Sermon
- [Read] Remembering Afrofuturist Octavia Butler
- [Read] Maya Angelou "Still I Rise"
- [Video] Amanda Gorman, "The Hill We Climb"
- [Video] Bryan Stevenson - We Need to Talk About an Injustice
- [Video] Isabel Wilkerson - The Great Migration and the power of a single decision
- [Video] NASA Trailblazer: Katherine Johnson
- [Video] Astronaut Ron McNair delivers commencement address at the University of South Carolina
- [Video] Dr. Marian Croak: Inventor of VOIP
- [Read] Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett helped unlock the science of the COVID vaccine
- [Read] "Black Boys Build Robots Too" by David Miller (TeenSHARP '20 / MIT '24)
- [Video] The American Diplomat: The legacies of three African-American ambassadors
- [Video] Who is Patrice Lumumba? And why did the US and Belgium plot to kill him?
- [Read] Hidden in Plain Sight: How Pan-African Group The East Shaped Brooklyn
- [Video] Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah and the dream of uniting Africa
- [Read] TeenSHARP's secret to helping Black and Latino students attend college with minimal debt
- [Read] Want to do community organizing? Here's a guide!
- [Assignment] Get involved with a Black-led nonprofit organization. Here's a directory!
- [Assignment] Invite a Black leader to speak at your school or company