Welcome to the Amistad Digital Resource for Teaching African American History.

A number of state legislatures across the country have recently passed educational mandates requiring the integration of African-American history into the social studies curriculum in K-12 public schools, to provide a more inclusive and accurate record of American history. This legislation is expanding state by state, and teachers will increasingly need resources to help them understand and teach a new American history curriculum that more fully integrates the history of the freedom struggle.

The Amistad Digital Resource provides a much-needed solution to help teachers fulfill this new curricular requirement. It is designed not as a classroom text, but as a unique multimedia resource for secondary school teachers to enhance their knowledge and ability in teaching African-American history. When completed, it will include hundreds of rare and iconic photographs, audio recordings, news clips, and excerpts of oral history interviews with a descriptive narrative text explaining significant themes and key events in African-American history, from slavery to the twenty-first century.

The narrative reflects a pedagogical framework that is simple but powerful: it considers human agency as the motivating force of the freedom struggle. Although the narrative is event driven in order to fit easily into classroom curriculum, it always emphasizes the role of the individual, male or female, black or white, layperson or clergy, young or old. The premise of this project is that African American history is American history, and we hope that this project will help teachers in presenting a more inclusive representation of our past as a nation.

System Requirements

Display : 1024 × 768 pixel resolution or higher recommended.

Network Connection: The recommended connection is broadband connection.

Browsers: Best viewed in Firefox 3.0 or later; Safari 3.0 or later; Internet Explorer 7 or later; Mozilla.

Javascript: Please make sure it is enabled.

Plug-ins: Flash 9 required, Adobe Acrobat Reader required.
Download Flash Player | Adobe Acrobat Reader

If you have further questions about Amistad, please send an e-mail to ccnmtl@columbia.edu .