Across the Jamesville-DeWitt Central School District, notable Black Americans are being highlighted in classrooms and during school-wide events or activities as part of Black History Month, which is celebrated nationally throughout February.
Throughout the month at J-D Middle School, videos about an event or profiling an individual, including Black authors, poets, scientists and reformers, are being shown during lunchtime and three school-wide virtual field trips have been scheduled:
- The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum: A privately-funded museum dedicated to preserving the history of Negro league baseball in America. Because Black people were not being accepted into the major and minor baseball leagues due to racism in the United States, they formed their own teams. The event featured a chat with Major League Baseball players David Price, Tim Anderson, Cole Tucker, CC Sabathia and Amir Garrett.
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The GRAMMY Museum: Students will learn about music of the Civil Rights Movement.
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The Friends of Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site: Students will learn about the first African American military aviators in the United States Armed Forces and the struggles they faced as they dealt with discrimination, segregation and Jim Crow laws while completing their duty as military pilots.
At J-D High School, students from Club Umoja are putting together a Black History Month virtual celebration that will take place Feb. 26. They invited students to submit video clips of themselves singing, dancing or reading about the African American culture.
At Moses DeWitt and Jamesville elementary schools students are learning about notable Black Americans in their classrooms, such as Jamesville’s HERO of the Month, Ruby Bridges, who was the first African-American child to desegregate an all-white school in Louisiana in 1960. Students are learning about her through read-alouds, videos and discussions.
Tecumseh Elementary School is planning a virtual assembly on Feb. 26 marking Black History Month and kicked the month off with second-grade student Josie Nhyira-Dankwa Addai reading over the morning announcements a poem she wrote and dedicated to Vice President Kamala Harris.
Alone We’re Breakable, but Together We Stand
By Josie Nhyira-Dankwa Addai
In Dedication to Vice President Harris
Together we stand and no one can break us.
We fight for human rights and justice.
Together we stand.
It starts with one, then more come.
We can make a change if we stick together.
Together we stand.
One step at a time, change is coming.
We are different in many ways but we need each other.
Together we stand.
We are strong.
We are going to make things right.
We are going to make things better.
Together we stand. Together we stand!