Black Student Union Celebrates Black History Month

Although February is the shortest month, it is the most important month to students celebrating Black History Month. Black History month began, “in Chicago during the summer of 1915. An alumnus of the University of Chicago with many friends in the city, Carter G. Woodson traveled from Washington, D.C. to participate in a national celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of emancipation sponsored by the state of Illinois. Additionally Woodson had a special reason for choosing February, “Woodson chose February for reasons of tradition and reform. It is commonly said that Woodson selected February to encompass the birthdays of two great Americans who played a prominent role in shaping black history, namely Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, whose birthdays are the 12th and the 14th, respectively” To highlight Black Excellence, Sierra Vista’s Black Student Union (BSU) decorated the 200s’ hallway for Black History Month to recognize all the history and contributions of black people and to educate others who do not know much about it. When students walk through the hallways they will see quotes from Mos Def, Malcom X, Muhammad Ali, Oprah Winfrey, and Erykah Badu. Black Student Union even designed their own posters which includes; black media that features black singers and instrumentalists, black people in sports that shows ribbons of all the historical black people who made history playing in sports, and the last poster they made shows a tree with names of famous black influencers and leaders, like Dred Scott, Nat Turner, George Washington Carver, Rosa Parks, and Ahmaud Abery. 

Black Student Union has also been giving quotes on the school news from historical black people, and they also plan on having a spirit week during the last week of Black History which includes I Have A Dream Day: Pajama Day, Black Excellence Day: Represent your HBCU, Soul Train Day: Dress from your favorite decade, and My Motherland Day: Represent your culture/origin.