Education World
Black History 101

DIRECTIONS: Read each clue. Each clue tells about a famous black American on the list below. Use the list to connect to a short biography of each person. On the line next to each clue, write the name of the person that the clue tells about.

  1. _____________________ This person started a school in Alabama where black children could learn skills such as shoemaking and farming.

  2. _____________________ This person started a newspaper called "The North Star."

  3. _____________________ This person refused to give up a seat on the bus. That led to a 382-day bus boycott by black people in Montgomery, Alabama.

  4. _____________________ When this person was just a few weeks old, he and his mother were kidnapped. His mother was sold into slavery.

  5. _____________________ Because this person led so many slaves to freedom, he or she was sometimes called by the nickname Moses.

  6. _____________________ This person was a doctor who spent two years working with poor people in Africa before she went on to become famous.

  7. _____________________ One of 13 children, this person's birthname was Isabella Baumfree.

  8. _____________________ The president named this person to be the first black to hold a seat on the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land.

  9. _____________________ In 1962, this person became the first black player inducted in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

  10. _____________________ This person's performance at the 1936 Summer Olympic Games made him famous.

Jackie Robinson http://www.jackierobinson.org/aboutjackie/index03.htm
Mae Jemison http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/women/TODTWD/jemison.bio.html
Harriet Tubman http://www.enchantedlearning.com/history/us/aframer/tubman/
Sojourner Truth http://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/trut-soj.htm
Booker T. Washington http://infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0851531.html
Rosa Parks http://parks.sandi.net/Pages/parks.html
Jesse Owens http://www.jesseowens.com/jobio2.html
Thurgood Marshall http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0831961.html
George Washington Carver http://www.kulturezone.com/kidz/abc/gwcarver.html
Frederick Douglass http://www.kulturezone.com/kidz/abc/frederick.html

© 2005 by Education World. Permission is granted to teachers to reproduce this skill page for classroom use.