Black History Month Podcasts

Celebrate Black History Month with this collection of brief podcast videos from 60-Second Civics.

Each episode below contains a video, quiz, and script. 60-Second Civics makes a great warmup activity for your classroom! Here is an easy and fun way to get your students started each morning:

1. Select an episode from the list below each day in February.
2. Play the video for your class by projecting it on the board.
3. Ask students to answer the Daily Civics question as a class.
4. Debrief the activity by asking students why the correct answer is true.

Come back every day for a new episode and quiz! Visit our homepage.

Despite the assurance of the Declaration of Independence that "all men are created equal," the Declaration did not recognize the freedom of enslaved people. And although the Constitution did not mention the word "slavery," it contained provisions that ensured its survival. Nevertheless, the story of the more than 400 years since slavery was first introduced into the thirteen colonies is one of expanding rights and greater equality for all Americans.

More than 10 million enslaved Africans would be forcibly transported to the New Word, and at least 250,000 would be taken to the United States. Slavery would not be confined to the South. Slavery was eventually practiced in every American colony.

When enslaved Africans were forcibly brought to America, their names were changed by slaveholders and they were often forbidden to speak their native languages. Nevertheless, these rich cultures were never entirely suppressed, and their influence can be seen in the United States today.

The South became increasingly dependent on the labor of enslaved African Americans, especially after the invention of the cotton gin in 1793. Cotton was a main cash crop. This dependence on forced labor led to the refusal of the South to abolish slavery.

The Declaration of Independence asserted that "all Men are created equal" and yet enslaved African Americans had been systematically deprived of their rights since at least 1619. Today we learn about the passages condemning slavery that were deleted from the Declaration of Independence.

Phillis Wheatley Peters was the first African American to publish a volume of poetry. She was born around 1753 and taken to the American colonies as a slave, but learned how to read and write, publishing her first poem at the age of thirteen. Her fame became international when her poems were published in London. She is remembered not only for her poetry, but also for inspiring abolitionists in America and Europe.

Enslaved African Americans faced difficult choices at the start of the Revolutionary War. The British royal governor of Virginia promised them freedom, and many joined the Loyalist cause. Up to 100,000 others fled across British lines. And yet about 5,000 served as soldiers in the Continental Army, serving valiantly. We'll learn some of their stories on today's podcast.

Many of the Framers of the Constitution were ashamed of slavery, and carefully avoided using the words "slave" or "slavery" in the document. Nevertheless, the Framers protected slavery in the Constitution in order to accommodate the Southern states, which threatened to refuse to join the Union.

The Three-Fifths Compromise counted enslaved people for purposes of representation, not to protect the interests of the enslaved people, but to advance the interests of the slaveholders. Here's how it happened: the Framers of the Constitution agreed that there should be proportional representation in the House of Representatives, but disagreed on whether to count enslaved people for purposes of representation. Southern states held many enslaved people in bondage, but Northern states held few. The two sides came to a compromise: they would count three out of every five enslaved people, hence the term "Three-Fifths Compromise." Sadly, this would remain in the Constitution until the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868.

The fugitive slave clause was another compromise the Framers of the Constitution made to ensure that the Southern states would ratif the Constitution. This clause required that enslaved people who escaped be returned to the person who claimed them. This applied even to states where slavery would be outlawed, which would later stoke the outrage of abolitionists and raise tension between the North and the South.

We hope you've enjoyed the Black History Month series from 60-Second Civics. Please check out our YouTube playlist to access 18 more episodes in this series! More will be added to this page soon.