Fifth grade students at Oasis Elementary School honored Black History Month with their Wax Museum, an annual event where students give presentations to other classes on influential Black people throughout history.
Some of the featured historic figures included Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and Jane Bolin as well as more modern figures like Michelle Obama and Denzel Washington. Students chose a person at-random to study and were tasked with learning about their early lives, their professional lives and their impact on society.
“My project is on Gwendolyn Brooks, the first African American person to win the Pulitzer Prize,” said one student Justyce Asuega. “People would make fun of her because of her skin so she spent a lot of time reading and writing and she did amazing things with it.”
Another student, Charley Shay, studied Thurgood Marshall, the first African American Supreme Court Justice.
“His parents wanted him to be a dentist like his brother but when he got older in high school he joined the debate team and found out that he was really good at arguing,” she said. “So he decided to go to law school and did some really important cases like Brown vs the Board of Education.”
Alaya Hasley learned all about Fredrick Douglas and said that he was very inspirational.
“He spoke for women’s right to vote and also against slavery,” she said. “And he keeps inspiring people now.”
To learn more about Black History Month and influential Black people throughout history visit https://www.blackhistorymonth.gov/.
