black history month project

as we all know feb is black history month.....in our family, being that half of us are white and half of us are black, that always brings up a ton questions and long talks.....one of the best things that my kids and stephen and i have all come to agree on, is that black history is a good thing to learn and to understand, but that black people are no different than any other race, that we were all created equal and that all heritage months should be taken away, or at least until (as my son said) "they find a way to give white people a month too since we are the only ones that dont have a month"......i am very proud of my children for the thoughts that they have and their ability to express them in ways that are respectful.....im also very proud of them for being able to look past a persons skin color to see who they really are inside......

anyways onto the subject at hand......jeremiah was given a project to do for black history month.....they were supposed to use the library, internet and books/mags. to come up with a paper and display......the paper could be on any one person that the student wanted to use and the display had to be at least a poster board, creatively done to represent the person that they chose......

in talking to jeremiah, we found out that almost all the kids in his class were going to be using martin luther king jr, harriett tubman, george washington carver, or booker t washington.......i told him that i felt that he should find someone else to do his project on......he could not think of anyone else to use....which is truly a shame because there are sooooo many more great black people that helped to make the world what it is today, but yet all that is taught in our schools are the ones listed above.......after being frustrated at this, i asked him if he knew who the tuskegee airmen were......of course he didnt, shocker there......so guess what, they are who he then did his project on......

i took him over to tuskegee university while we were still in alabama so that he could learn first hand for himself who they were and what they were about...... after a few hours there, we found out that the first black pilots in all of the military do not have an actual museum of there own.....the first one, which wasnt much better than the make shift trailor being used at present, was burned to the ground.......we gathered as much information and took as many pictures that we could.....we also were given the chance to see and touch the original one and only plane that was used to train every single one of the airmen....i also had jeremiah spend some time on the internet to find out some more stuff that he could use for his project........

we worked on his paper and his display which consisted of two poster boards(with props on the back so they would stand up), a map of alabama with tuskegee highlighted for it all to sit on, several different pamphlets that we got at the airmen site and a book......he was nervous about taking it to school because we had not followed the "rules" and had used more than one person for the project......i told him not to worry, that if he got in trouble or got a bad grade i would go and talk to the teacher........however, i am very happy to report that he got the highest grade and his project is on display for the whole school to see.....

it is honestly sad that in honoring black history, especially being that it is the month that is the most promoted throughout the media, movies, tv programs, schools and the like, that our children dont get the opportunity to learn about some of the other great black people that have changed the world too......

i have included a few pics that we took....