It’s finally February, which means it is Black History Month. This year in 2020, the month goes from day one to day twenty nine, and is used as an annual celebration to recognize and honor the achievements made by African Americans. It is also a time to show appreciation to the role of blacks in U.S. History.
Last year, a student who graduated last year from Malden High, Cedrina Missamou, took initiative and created the Black Culture Club. However, she graduated and passed down the role to sophomore, Christelle Jean who is also class secretary for the class of 22. Jean and sophomore, Micaela Henry work together to run the club.
This year, in honor of Black History Month, Jean came up with the idea to do a door decorating contest. While going through social media Jean mentions that she was “reading about this teacher who had her door decorated and all her students went.” The pictures were trending online and that is when Jean came to the conclusion that the Black Culture Club should do something like that because “it would be really fun for the students, but also incorporative of the teachers as well.”
This is definitely something that will be enjoyable to do but more than that, Jean hopes that it “forces people to look beyond the few people that [they] repetitively learned about for Black History Month because although [they] are the monumental people of our history, [Jean] wants people to go past that.”
There are thousands of Black Americans and African Americans that we have never even heard of but they have had such a huge impact on the history of the U.S. so they deserve that recognition. There is so much more we can do to “learn about the contributions that Black Americans made to American society and beyond.” Black people have created a huge difference in the world we live in today. They impacted the world and that is often neglected. Therefore, “[Jean] feels like right now is the perfect time to get people to truly understand that.”
For the competition itself, a teacher will first tell their homeroom, classes, or other students they know or have to form a team. Each team will include two to five people and those students will receive supplies. The students will get to decorate the door of the teacher that they choose with the supplies they have been given.
Students still have the opportunity to sign up if they want, the more the better. The doors will be up the whole month. Starting February 10th, there will be judges walking around, looking at the projects being done, and making sure that the students are following the rubric that was sent out. On the 27th of February, Jean shared that they will decide “which team filled all the requirements, went above and beyond, had a lot of creativity, originality, and overall, the most effort put into the door.”
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