Izzit's new Black History Month lesson plan - "Ida B. Wells - The Light of Truth"

I've been holding on to this one for the past week or so since I saw the release announcement from Izzit, wanting to make it a post near the start of February (for Black History Month). Izzit.com most often comes across my "radar" for their economic materials, but I know they have increasingly been working on their materials for history and civics. This general topic (Black History Month) is a good way to combine those, since they try to apply lessons and examples from history to help with current issues. I will look more generally at their other materials further below (along with the usual links) but I want to start by focusing on the new video.

If you are not already familiar with the story of Ida B. Wells, let me start with a quick preview (from the Izzit website) - the video then really goes into her story.

Links related to the Ida B. Wells lesson/resources:

General link to the Izzit site for teachers - https://www.izzit.org/index.php

Specific page for Black History resources on Izzit - https://www.izzit.org/activities_collections/collections/black_history/

Link to the "Ida B. Wells: The Light of Truth" unit resources - https://www.izzit.org/lessons/lesson.php?lesson=ida_wells#lesson1-viewing-guide

Direct link to the Ida B. Wells video on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3AYdvZf4I4

Links to other resources at Izzit and other links about Ida B. Wells:

Other Collections of lessons on the Izzit site - https://www.izzit.org/activities_collections/collections/

Other videos available on the Izzit site - https://www.izzit.org/videos/ (you can then either see a full list or have it filtered by school subject area)

Articles by economist Roland Fryer in the Wall Street Journal - https://www.wsj.com/search?query=Roland%20Fryer&mod=searchresults_viewallresults

• Fryer's most recent article - "Martin Luther King’s Game Theory: Economics explains why nonviolent resistance is an effective strategy and today’s immigration demonstrations are failing", Wall Street Journal, Jan 2026, https://www.wsj.com/opinion/martin-luther-kings-game-theory-c33a577e

"Ida B. Wells-Barnett", National Women's History Museum, 2024, https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/ida-b-wells-barnett

"Ida B. Wells", National Park Service, 2024, https://www.nps.gov/people/idabwells.htm

"Ida B. Wells - A Chicago Stories Special", WTTW-TV (PBS), May 2021, https://www.wttw.com/chicago-stories/ida-b-wells

"The Persistence of Ida B. Wells: Reform Leader and Civil Rights Activist", in History Now (Issue 54): African-American Women in Leadership, The Gilder-Lehrman Institute of American History, Summer 2019, https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/essays/persistence-ida-b-wells-reform-leader-and-civil-rights-activist

"Born a slave in Mississippi during the Civil War, Ida B. Wells was the first in her family to be formally educated. After the death of her parents, she became a teacher to support her siblings. In 1883, prior to Plessy v. Ferguson and the “separate but equal” doctrine, Ida refused to obey a train conductor’s command to move to the colored rail car and ended up dragged from the train by a group of men.

Other social injustices weighed on Ida, so she turned to the power of the pen, using journalism to expose the issues and sway public opinion. Because of her writings, she lost her job as a teacher, which only moved her more firmly into journalism as a career. As one of the first investigative journalists, Ida faced many hardships as she tried to bring the truth to light. Learn more about this inspiring woman and her crusade for equality and justice."

While some Izzit videos are simply that (a good short video without additional resources), they added a lot of support materials for this one. Let me show you the teacher resource page:

The menu on the right shows you a summary of what is available, but each item then has its' own description on the website. I'm only going to share a few highlights here - I want you to go to the site and look for yourself!

• An Educator How-To-Use Guide (rather than a formal lesson plan) listing options you can use in your classroom

• A full set of PowerPoint slides to use with the lesson in your classroom

• A viewing guide for students to use during the watching of the video (I copied a portion below)

• Two possible activities to use in the classroom after the video

• A 10-question multiple choice quiz to check for understanding after the video

Two other items I want to feature on Black History Month from the Izzit website (and will picture below):

1) Short Videos (typically 4-6 minutes) available on several Black History topics

2) A series of videos from Harvard economist Roland Fryer on current events topics (some black history-related, others for more general use). I will also include a link to some of his columns in the Wall Street Journal.