The School of Science and Technology Elementary School drew a full crowd Thursday evening, with students, families and legends like Aretha Franklin, Bessie Coleman and B.B. King.
At the school’s Black History Month celebration, students researched and played the roles of Black leaders from history and the current day.
Other students researched Black inventors and recreated their inventions, such as Alexander Miles, who invented automatic elevator doors, and ice cream scoop inventor Alfred Cralle.
“Today is our youth continuing the legacy of our African American history,” director of development Denise Hutchinson Bell said. “It’s wonderful that they have taken the initiative to actually research what contributions African Americans have made to society.”
Hutchinson Bell said that teachers engage students from their earliest years in the classroom through high school with lessons designed to incorporate Black history.
Dean of academics K Simon said that students worked for seven weeks to prepare for the event. This is the second year the school has held this event, though the “living history” museum was a new activity this year.
Fifth grader Victoria Paterson researched Bessie Coleman, the first Black woman to hold a pilot’s license.
“She had to earn her pilot’s license in France because they wouldn’t allow her to earn her pilot’s license here,” Paterson said.
Sixth graders Makayla Irving, Ava Aguilar and Olivia Daniel researched inventor Alfred Cralle, known for the ice cream scoop, and created their own scoop. The drafted their plans on notebook paper before testing out their scoop in a computer program and creating a replica model.
“We love ice cream,” Irving said.
Fifth grader Macanthony Dike, who researched guitarist B. B. King. The musician’s birth name was Riley B. King, Dike said, but he acquired the name B. B. from his nickname “Beale Street Blues Boy.”
Dike said he hasn’t listened to much of King’s music, but he’s planning on it. Simon suggested he consider choosing King because Dike was a member of the school’s guitar club.
“He also took part in World War II and was a licensed pilot,” Dike said. “And he won 15 Grammy awards, plus a lifetime achievement award for his contributions to music and he also received a Presidential Medal of Freedom award from George W. Bush.”
Fifth grader Avery Nuells portrayed Aretha Franklin.
“I decided to choose her because we were learning about her in social studies class,” Nuells said. “I learned her mother passed away when she was 10-years-old and that she also goes by the name ‘Queen of Soul.'”
The event included dance, music, poetry and acting performances, including a reading of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, Langston Hughes’s “Harlem” poem and a play about Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to Congress.
Sixth grader Violeta Gonzalez said participating was a fun experience.
“You get to meet new people and experience new dance moves and it’s just a really good experience,” Gonzalez said.
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