Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“The Black American Dream”

In this activity, students work in small groups to explore the idea of the American Dream and what it has meant for Black Americans in the 20th century.

The term “American Dream” was created by writer James Truslow Adams in his 1931 text The Epic of America. He defined it as “a dream of a social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.”

• What does the American Dream mean to you? Discuss this question with a small group.
• With your group, choose a decade of the 20th century and research the racism and other issues that made the American Dream different or more difficult to attain for BIPOC during that decade.

Put your work together with that of other groups to make a visual timeline of how race has complicated the American Dream throughout the 20th century. Choose a spokesperson from your group to explain your decade to the class.