Senior Katie Huynh carefully cuts out images and shapes for one of the black history bulletins, including monumental characters from the 1970s-1980s. FHC strives to celebrate everyone, and with February being Black History Month, our school has been celebrating for the past few years. Huynh is co-president of the diversity club, which makes sure the events are perfectly planned for February.
“We planned a school-wide trivia, which will be fun and competitive, where you can learn all sorts of information. Recently, we wrapped up the decades boards, where we did research on boards in the library, and you can come and decorate [them],” Huynh said.
Our school has many different events to commemorate the holiday. While the library staff supports most of the activities, the cake goes to the diversity club for most of the planning. The club has arranged a touch trunk, daily trivia, crafts during seminar, step performances and even a field trip to the Missouri History Museum. Cassi Flores, the librarian who helps with all of the events, believes her job as a librarian requires her to be good at research, so she felt having other students learn by doing research was beneficial.
“We do have a majority of white students at our school, so we wanted to make sure that the black students at our school could feel represented in the library,” Flores said.
This month, the worldwide theme is ‘a century of black history commemorations.’ The theme was decided by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), which sets the theme every year. They decided to honor the century-long effort to study and celebrate the contributions of African American influences with this theme. In our library, multiple bulletin boards display the different decades of Black history. Each board contains photos and infographics on different famous and historical Black figures from that decade. Huynh included athletes, politicians, singers, and activists, but also memorable books, movies, art and monuments. This reminds everyone of the hundred years of work people have put into making their culture more prominent. Learning about the different icons can inspire, but it can also inform students about the major changes they have made over the years.
Teens for Change, Epsilon Beta, Spanish Honor Society, MAC Scholars, French Honor Society, German Honor Society and Diversity club have all worked hard for months with the library in an effort to plan the field trip on Feb. 17. Students will be invited to the Missouri History Museum to indulge in the exhibits, which cover various aspects of Black History. The clubs are specifically focused on the Mill Creek Exhibit.
Mill Creek was a cultural hearth for Black life in Missouri. It was well known due to its bright community, which included many entertainment venues. The exhibit features newspapers, offices of famous Black activists and materials from the musical Ragtime. Students will receive a guided tour, a map of the museum and 10 percent off the museum gift shop and restaurant.
Caitlin Crain, sponsor of the diversity club, believes Black History should not only be celebrated for one month. Due to the vast amount of education available about Black History, she believes we should always be reminiscing on it.
“Black History should not be limited to a month. There is far too much to celebrate and learn about! This year, the theme is 100 years of Black History, since Negro History Week began in 1926. 100 years barely scratches the surface of Black History. We have to commit to learning and listening to Black voices as we move forward. According to a Kenyan Proverb, ‘Until lions have historians, hunters will be heroes.’ We have to be committed to knowing the whole story,” Crain said.
