On February 27th and 28th, the Black Student Union (BSU) hosted its second annual Black History Month celebration. The event was held in the library and featured a wide range of activities that highlighted prominent black figures and their achievements.
Of these activities was a station on black inventors, an escape room that required students to locate famous black people, a music identification game, and a food buffet. Although all of the activities were a big hit, the fan favorite was the black history-related Jeopardy game. This game consisted of a variety of questions under a handful of categories. These categories included geography, sports, music, and pop culture. As the point value associated with each question increased, so did its difficulty.
For a more in-depth recap of the event, we got a chance to speak with the president of the Black Student Union, senior Veronica Njuguna. Njuguna explains that the preparation for this event began in December, when she, along with other members of the BSU, brainstormed ideas for the activities. In addition to the support of her club members, Njuguna received a lot of help from the club’s advisor and ELL teacher, Ms. Conerly. In fact, Ms. Conerly was the one who supplied the vast array of food options. Not only did she make some of the dishes, like the mac and cheese and fried chicken, but she also had a friend who owned a restaurant that provided the BSU with delicious food.
Additional ideas from Ms. Conerly, such as her visions for the escape room, played a major role in the event’s success. Njuguna notes that only about 25% of the classes that came down to experience the event were actually signed up. This means that the majority of the attendees were drop-ins. Although the leaders found this overwhelming at times, it speaks to the popularity of the event.
According to Njuguna, the point of the exhibit was to increase the representation of black history throughout the school. She adds that many members of the WHS community may not know much about African American history due to the fact that they have not been exposed to it. “I think being able to come down and learn about black historical figures and their accolades helps people not have such a stereotypical view of black people,” she mentions, “our goal is to push a positive narrative that has people recognize black history as American history.”
Even though the Black History Month celebration was a huge hit, the BSU is already preparing for its next activity: a field trip to Brown University. Because WHS does not offer a course on African American history, the BSU will be attending an academic lecture for an African American studies class at Brown. In addition to listening in on the class, Njuguna hopes that the club will get to tour Brown’s African American museum exhibit.
Given their recent successes, it may seem like the BSU has been around for many years. Contrary to this belief, the BSU was only founded last year. “I wanted a sense of community and I felt like a club could establish that,” Njuguna explains. This goal is what drove Njuguna to be a co-founder of the club. She does credit her friend Yaa for getting her on board with the BSU. She mentions that both she and Yaa have black friends that they were able to reach out to. Unlike other clubs, the BSU requires a certain type of member. In order to gain participants, Njuguna handed out flyers to black students throughout the school. From here, those interested were able to join a Google Classroom group.
As president of a club, Njuguna comments that her primary role is to delegate tasks. Njuguna kicks off each club meeting with a question for the group. “Sometimes we talk about something that is currently affecting the black community, like politics,” she adds, “for example, at one of our meetings in February we talked about P. Diddy, and how this affects how White people can perceive black Hollywood.” In addition to this job, Njuguna is responsible for coming up with fun bonding activities for the team.
Regardless of one’s ethnicity, Njuguna encourages all members of the WHS community to be willing to expand their cultural knowledge. She says, “Be open to being able to learn about history from different races, and don’t have an ignorant view.”
Njuguna clarifies that by “ignorant”, she does not mean racist, but rather uneducated. “I feel like when they (WHS students and staff) are able to come down to the exhibit, they are able to learn more about things that they may have not known, and that helps people sharpen their perspectives about other races.”
For more information on the Black Student Union, feel free to contact Veronica Njuguna ([email protected]) or advisor Alkeia Conerly ([email protected]).
Student Attendee Perspective:
The event was well organized, even when there were many classes in the library at once. The Black Student Union members handled the pressure really well. The BSU kept students and staff moving through the events, while still being able to give attendees adequate information. The Jeopardy station, which was a hit among the student body, created a friendly competition that also shared a lot of important knowledge on black figures, events, and inventions.
That said, the escape room was my personal favorite. The goal of the activity was to identify which black historical figure lives in the escape room. One of the classrooms within the library was decorated with a stage, chairs, and cameras, to help lead the students to guess that the room belonged to Oprah Winfrey. The details of this station speak to the hard work that the BSU members put into making black history come to life.
