It’s Black History Month, time to celebrate African American History the best way we can! The question is how? How do people celebrate Black History month? Who really knows what they’re talking about when it come to Black History? Are our schools celebrating it?

Our schools in Manassas do their utmost when showing why Black History is so significant. “We do trivia facts here at Osbourn, Trivia allows education on it but deeper than just the surface-level stuff. Everybody knows who Martian Luther King Jr is, everyone knows who Rosa Parks is, but the trivia asks questions we didn’t know were related to Black History, letting people who are interested in researching on their own,” said AP Mattea Johnson. “My old school had this thing called Black expo. One thing I really liked was the hair fashion show, it informed people on why we have certain hairstyles, went through the history of Black music, and the African American student union had very good dances,” said AP Mattea Johnson

Our current-day representation of Black History matters as well. The month itself isn’t just about education, it’s about awareness. A teacher at our own school, Dr. Wallace, as well as others do what they can to bring awareness to the importance of the month and the history as a whole. “I think there’s such a small amount of us, it gets pushed to the side unknowingly. Dr Wallace sent us a Google Form and will showcase us throughout the month. The effort is being made and I think it’s a wonderful start,” said orchestra teacher Latoya Lamons.

One of Dr. Wallace’s students shows her appreciation for the class, and seems to really be getting a lot for her time in the class. “Today people are out putting up posters. We created the poster in class as a project for Black History Month. I’ve learned more here than I learned in my history classes. The most impactful part of the class is the movies, the movies we see are crazy. The killing and slaves dying in the boats- it’s very eye-opening if you didn’t previously know that happened back then,” said freshman Arrmonie Harris.

Dr. Wallace has also collaborated with other staff when it comes to showing off the fruits of our history. “Dr. Wallace and I talked about having a showcase where students could show their talents and maybe show a movie after school.” Dr. Wallace has put a lot of work into the education of Black History within this school. It took her 15 years to get to a point where she’s able to teach Black History, in her very own African American History class. She wrote her own curriculum for it, if she wanted to she could provide it to other teachers. She’s done a great deal in her time here, which goes to show how much one person can do.

There are a lot of things in history we aren’t fully educated about. What part of history do you feel should have light shed on it for an entire month? Tell us in the comments!