Large Print Black History Month Word Search

The names are the heart of this edition: Dr. King and Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth, George Washington Carver, and two great athletes, Jesse Owens and Jackie Robinson. Many older adults remember the news of Jackie Robinson’s first seasons or the Montgomery bus boycott, so the puzzle opens real conversation at a senior center or library program in February.

This edition hides the first 12 of the theme’s 20 words in an 11×11 grid, never backwards. How our large print puzzles work.

All 20 words in this theme: February, Freedom, History, King, Parks, Tubman, Douglass, Truth, Carver, Owens, Robinson, Justice, Woodson, Angelou, Hughes, Johnson, Marshall, Equality, Civil Rights, Courage.

• Black History Month has been officially recognized by every U.S. president since 1976.
• February was chosen because it holds the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.
• Katherine Johnson’s calculations helped send John Glenn into orbit around Earth in 1962.

• Which of these names did you learn about in school, and which did you learn about later in life?
• Do you remember where you were when you heard Dr. King speak, or heard about the March on Washington?
• Which of these people would you most like to have met?
• Do you have a favorite poem by Langston Hughes or Maya Angelou?
• Who is someone in your own family or town whose story deserves to be remembered?

Activity tip: After the puzzle, read aloud a short passage, such as a few lines from a Langston Hughes poem or from Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, and invite people to share what it brings to mind.