Black History Month was established to honor the accomplishments of African Americans throughout U.S. history. On Friday, February 1, Upper and Middle school students came together for the annual Black History Month Assembly. The assembly paid tribute to Black History Month with student performances including singing, dancing, acting, and poetry. Nolan Baynes (IV), one of the presidents of the Black Student Union, noted that, \u201cWith this assembly, we wanted to display the gravity of Black History in a new and creative way to grab the attention of our peers.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Pingry Buttondowns and Balladeers opened the assembly with the song \u201cLift Every Voice and Sing\u201d by J. Rosamond Johnson and James Weldon Johnson. The Buttondowns and Balladeers were followed by a group of middle schoolers who reenacted pivotal moments that took place during the Civil Rights Act, such as the first student sit-in in Greensboro, North Carolina, Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s \u201cI Have a Dream\u201d speech during the March on Washington, and Rosa Parks\u2019 refusal to stand for a white passenger on a Montgomery bus. These middle schoolers \u201ctime traveled\u201d using a time capsule full of mementos alluding to historical events to illustrate the hardships and progress that occurred during the Civil Rights Movement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Members of the Black Student Union, including Kamal Brown (VI), Solape Fakorede (VI), Rashida Mohammed (VI), Nia Phillips (VI), and Veronica Williams (VI) performed \u201cI, Too\u201d by Langston Hughes. The poem describes how Hughes is able to identify as an American, even though he is the \u201cdarker brother.\u201d Williams said, \u201cReciting Langston Hughes\u2019 \u201cI, Too\u201d made me feel proud as I was able to stand strong in my own skin.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Da Boyz, from North Star Academy Clinton Hill Middle School in Newark, NJ, performed an award-winning step routine. Stepping, a type of dance that uses movement, words, and sounds to communicate, is a tradition in African and black communities that originated in the 1900s. Angelina Mayers (VI) felt that \u201cThe Black Student Union did a great job with the poem, \u201cI, Too,\u201d as did the step group from North Star. It was so riveting! I was excited and empowered to celebrate Black History Month.\u201d The assembly ended with the Balladeers singing \u201cImagine\u201d by John Lennon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Phillips, one of the presidents of BSU, said that \u201cThe Black History Month Assembly was a chance for not only the Black Student Union, but also the middle school to pay homage to the African Americans in history who have done so much for the progress of society.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Armani Davidson ’19 Black History Month was established to honor the accomplishments of African Americans throughout U.S. history. On Friday, February 1, Upper and Middle school students came together for the annual Black History Month Assembly. The assembly paid tribute to Black History Month with student performances including singing, dancing, acting, and poetry. Nolan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":1834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[10],"class_list":["post-1848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-school-news","tag-school-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1848"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1849,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1848\/revisions\/1849"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}