ROCKINGHAM — Nineteen fifth-grade students of all races took turns explaining to their peers what Black History Month meant to them during LJ Bell Elementary School’s Black History Month program Friday morning with the theme “What Black History Means to Me.”
Academic Coach Tesha Isler said this was their third year hosting the program and that all the students who participated Friday morning volunteered. She congratulated them on a job well done.
“They wrote their own paragraphs and I’m proud of the kids,” said Isler. “They gave up their recess and lunch time and it means a lot.”
Black History Month is an annual celebration of achievements by African Americans and a time of recognizing the central role of blacks in U.S. History, according to History.com. The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) sponsored a national Negro History Week in 1926 and President Gerald Ford recognized Black History Month in 1976.
Before the program started, Isler told students what the month meant to her and quoted the poem “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes.
“Black History Month means sacrifice. Love. People coming together no matter their race or beliefs,” she said.
One-by-one the students would take turns at the microphone and tell their peers, teachers and family how they interpret the month.
“Celebrating black people of the past who made it possible to be free,” said one student.
“A day where many people stood up for their rights,” read another.
“Blacks and whites will make a difference together to be free at last,” said one.
Principal Yvonne Gilmer said the students have been working on the program all month. She said fourth-graders usually participate, but this year they held a wax museum in the gymnasium so they had to sit this one out.
In addition to the program in the school’s auditorium, staff and students put together a video of several students reading poems, reciting quotes, singing songs and telling their peers what Black History Month meant to them. The video can be found on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4iMcwV7Al4. It is called “Black History Program LJ Bell.”
“They are a true example of courage and leadership,” said Gilmer. “In the past we’ve helped, but this year we let them write what they wanted to say. We think it’s special.”