Originally a week-long event, recognition of black history was extended to a full month (February) on the fiftieth anniversary of its celebration. As Black History Month is upon us, WHHS students have been preparing. SENIOR Jonathan Brown, President of the WHHS Black Culture Club, has plans for this upcoming month.
The current plans for Black History Month include decorating separate wings of the school as different decades, according to Brown. He said club members came to school during the cold days that school was closed.
“We came in on that Wednesday and Thursday we had off school and just started getting to work,” he said. Club members worked on the posters that are now hanging in the hallways.
Brown also has plans for improving on last year’s Black History Month activities at WHHS. “I want this year’s focus to be on diversity, to show unity in the school, because we’re all coming from different places,” he said. Brown drew inspiration from the rhetoric of late civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
Students and staff alike also show their recognition of Black History Month. Danny Sorrells, a security guard at WHHS, said, “[Black History Month] is about celebrating all the black people that’ve done something special.
Another student, Saron Henock, ‘24, said, “It’s about celebrating black people, and celebrating the changes they’ve made for the world.”
Brown added on to this idea. “Black History Month, to me, is powerful…It’s empowering to learn about your culture…even when it’s not talked about in school,” Brown said.
Brown hopes that through the activities Black Culture Club is holding, they can raise awareness of black history in the student body. And according to him, WHHS can come together through its diversity and recognition of all the different people at this school.