Students at Ketcham Elementary School in Southeast were recently queried on what Black History Month and freedom, justice and equality means to them:
Robert Rhodes, 5th grade, age 10 – “I learned about Harriet Tubman, that my school is great. Our teachers have also taught us a lot about Black people and [our culture]. We’re now working on music and dances and will go on stage later to show what we learned.”
Clifton Covington, 5th grade, age 11 – “I learned about a lot of famous Black people who protested so that Black people everywhere could have equal rights, which means fairness for all people.”
Tye’zaeha Garvin-Bailey, 5th grade, age 11 – “Blacks were slaves and the slave owners kept them and beat them, and when Abraham Lincoln made the Emancipation Proclamation, they were freed. Some of the freed people fought for the Union. I also learned that equality is when all are the same — no matter if you’re homeless or rich. We’re all equal because a lot of people do the same things like working and going to church. Justice is being treated right.”
Marvell Chambers, 5th grade, age 10 – “I learned that Harriet Tubman and Martin Luther King Jr. were powerful people. When Harriett Tubman escaped from being a slave, she went back to help her family and other slaves to freedom.”
Antoinette Poindexter, 5th grade, age 11 – “Freedom, to me, means being able to have the same rights as other people, and equality means no one else gets to be treated any differently than anyone else.”
Leah Shuler, 2nd grade, age 8 – “Black history is when we talk about the Black people who have helped stop slavery and segregation.”
Cameron Gardner, 4th grade, age 10 – “Black history is about people who have stood up for the rights of Black people and who have helped others to be free and not let others take control of people who are free.”