Genre: Soul

Student Edition:
Black Radio and the Civil Rights Movement

Grades: High
Subjects: Civics, Social Studies/History

lesson:
Black Radio and the Civil Rights Movement

Grades: High
Subjects: Civics, Social Studies/History

How did Black radio empower Black Americans, aid the Civil Rights Movement, and influence U.S. society?

Student Edition:
Music of the Civil Rights Movement

Grades: High
Subjects: Civics, General Music, Social Studies/History

lesson:
Music of the Civil Rights Movement

Grades: High
Subjects: Civics, General Music, Social Studies/History

How did music advance the goals and inform the tactics of the Civil Rights Movement?

Trace It Back:
Gil Scott-Heron

Trace It Back:
Aretha Franklin

lesson:
Identifying and Resisting Jim Crow with Words and Songs

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: Civics, ELA, Social Studies/History

How have works of literature and music by Black Americans shared an empowering theme of identifying and resisting Jim Crow?

Trace It Back:
Whitney Houston

Student Edition:
A Veteran’s Soundtrack to the Vietnam War

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High
Subjects: Social Studies/History

lesson:
A Veteran’s Soundtrack to the Vietnam War

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High
Subjects: Social Studies/History

How did popular music amplify the voices and experiences of Americans serving in the United States Armed Forces during the Vietnam War?

Student Edition:
“Lean on Me”: Expressing Gratitude and Care with Music

Grades: All Ages
Subjects: ELA, General Music, Social Emotional Learning

How does Bill Withers’ “Lean on Me” express gratitude and the importance of mutual care?

lesson:
Singer-Songwriters and the Environmental Movement (Elementary Version)

Grades: Elementary 4-6
Subjects: Art/Design, Science, Social Studies/History

How did the singer-songwriters of the 1960s and 70s address the concerns of the environmental movement?

Trace It Back:
Mavis Staples

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High, Middle

lesson:
Musical Reactions to the Vietnam War

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: Social Studies/History

How were American’s divisive opinions over the Vietnam War articulated by musicians in the 1960s and early 1970s?

lesson:
The Civil Rights Movement: A Document-Based Question

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High
Subjects: Civics, Social Studies/History

In what ways did the Civil Rights Movement mark a turning point in United States history?

lesson:
Producing the Sounds of a Changing South

Grades: High
Subjects: General Music, Social Studies/History

How did the recordings Sam Phillips produced at Sun Records, including Elvis Presley’s early work, reflect trends of urbanization and integration in the 1950s American South?

lesson:
Assembling Hits at Motown

Grades: High
Subjects: Social Studies/History

How did Motown Records in Detroit operate during the 1960s?

lesson:
Singer-Songwriters and the Environmental Movement

Grades: High
Subjects: ELA, Social Studies/History

How did the singer-songwriters of the 1960s and 70s address the concerns of the environmental movement?

lesson:
Dan Penn

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: General Music

How did black artists and white songwriters and musicians interact in the Soul era, and what contributed to that interaction?

lesson:
Gospel Music and the Birth of Soul

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: General Music, Social Studies/History

How did Gospel influence American popular music?

lesson:
Music and Political Movements

Grades: High
Subjects: Civics, ELA, Social Studies/History

How did Sixties Soul help give voice to the Civil Rights movement?

lesson:
The Memphis Sound and Racial Integration

Grades: High
Subjects: ELA, Social Studies/History

How has Memphis music culture provided one example of art’s capacity to challenge the racial boundaries that have so often structured American life?

lesson:
Soul Music and the New Femininity

Grades: High
Subjects: ELA, General Music, Social Studies/History

How did Aretha Franklin represent a new female voice in 1960s popular music?

lesson:
The Rise of Black Pride

Grades: High
Subjects: ELA, Social Studies/History

How did Social Soul reflect a new vision of African-American identity in the late 1960s and early 1970s?

lesson:
Seventies Soul: The Soundtrack of Turbulent Times

Grades: High
Subjects: General Music, Social Studies/History

How did changes in the Soul music of the early 1970s reflect broader shifts in American society during that time?