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African American History in Indiana Lessons

Steel mill smokestacks at dawn over a Gary, Indiana neighborhood.

This page collects lessons on Black Hoosier history for elementary classrooms. Students read about the Underground Railroad, Indiana's exclusion laws, the Great Migration to Gary's steel mills, Madam C.J. Walker's business, and Black resistance to the Ku Klux Klan.

Each lesson is a true-story reading with a notes template, and most include a primary-source lab or a judgment lab where students weigh evidence and decisions. Student work and lab files are free with a school email, ready to print or assign.

  1. Library unit · 4th grade

    The Coffins and the Underground Railroad in Indiana

    Levi and Catharine Coffin help people escape slavery as Hoosiers slowly turn against it before the Civil War.

    primary-source labjudgment lab

  2. Library unit · 4th grade

    Madam C.J. Walker Builds an Empire in Indianapolis

    Sarah Breedlove rises from poverty to build a hair-care empire and community landmark in Indianapolis.

    primary-source lab

  3. Library unit · 4th grade

    Indiana's 1851 Constitution Shapes Hoosier Government

    Indiana's 1851 constitution sets up government but also bans Black migration and enforces 'black laws' until 1881.

  4. Library unit · 4th grade

    The Great Migration to the Calumet Region

    Black families leave the Jim Crow South for Gary's steel mills, facing hardship while building lasting communities.

    primary-source lab

  5. Member-made · 7th grade

    The Ku Klux Klan in Indiana

    The Klan dominates 1920s Indiana politics until its leader's crimes and Black Hoosier resistance bring its collapse.

    primary-source labjudgment lab

Every lesson comes with a notes template, student work and labs; student files are free with a school email.All topics