Minecraft recently released its latest free learning experience in time for Black History Month.

Part of Minecraft Education, the program, titled “Lessons in Good Trouble,” is now available for download on the Minecraft Marketplace. The latest release reportedly updates the learning experience with “new and improved teaching materials.”

Featuring civil rights icons such as John Lewis and Nelson Mandela, the DLC world is designed for students ages eight to 14 and is intended to help youth learn about global civil rights movements. The experience simultaneously teaches students on how to protest in order to address global issues. 

The DLC world opens up with a Black Lives Matter protest and ends with a return to the Black Lives Matter Plaza. The program moves towards focusing on Malala Yousafzai in Pakistan, where she fought for girls’ education, before moving to Nelson Mandela’s fight against apartheid in South Africa. The DLC world continues to explore the 1960s civil rights movement alongside Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, colonial India alongside Mahatma Gandhi, and Victorian-era London alongside Emmeline Pankhurst, who fought for women’s voting rights.

Originally launched in 2020 at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests, “Lessons in Good Trouble” was built alongside the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Tolerance initiative. 

“It’s a crucial moment in the ongoing movement for social justice. More and more, calls for fair and equal participation in society are ringing out around the world,” said Minecraft in a blog post released upon the experience’s initial release. “To help educators explore these important ideas with students, we’re introducing a new set of resources designed to help your learners join the conversation around social justice.”

Since its release in 2020, “Lessons in Good Trouble” has reached over 10 million downloads. Last year, the DLC was released alongside several other programs as part of Black History Month celebrations. 

Along with “Lessons in Good Trouble,” Xbox released “South of Midnight,” a third-person action-adventure game set in the Deep South. Modeled after Southern Gothic tales, the video game combined myth and folklore through the story of Hazel, a woman with ancient weaving ability.

The company continued to make available a number of video games featuring Black stories and protagonists, including “Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn,” “Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition – The African Royals,” “Tell Me Why” and “Baldur’s Gate 3.”

In order to highlight up-and-coming Black video game developers, Xbox also shone a light on companies and nonprofits such as JumpButton Studio, Gameheads and Cxmmunity throughout the month.

Veronika Lleshi is an aspiring journalist. She currently writes for Hunter College's school newspaper, Hunter News Now. In her free time, she enjoys reading, writing and making music. Lleshi is an Athena scholar who enjoys getting involved in her community.

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