Celebrating Black History Month

Black History Month is a fun time at GLAD House, where we add one more layer of learning to their normal schedule.

Every day when the kids arrive at GLAD House, Ms. Leanece has new facts on the whiteboard. The game is simple: learn a fact, get your snack! Over the course of the month, the kids have learned facts about so many historical figures from Benjamin Banneker to President Barack Obama, even to Gerald Lawson!

The kids have gotten so excited to learn the facts, and to show off how much they remember. Wouldn’t you know, kids are little sponges for knowledge!

Part of the game is a trivia match. Every week, more historical figures were added to the mix. Do you recognize these famous people?

Jaxon in particular is a historian in the making. Today, on the last day of Black History Month, he ran to get me from my office so that he could display all he’d learned. I followed his eagerly bouncing form back to the snack room, where Ms. Leanece pointed to each name in a long list in turn.

“Who was Frederick McKinley Jones?” she asked.

“He was an inventor, like the refrigerator!”

“Who was Madam C.J. Walker?”

“She was the first black millionaire!”

“Who is Lupita Nyong'o?”

“She played in the Black Panther movie.”

“So if she played in a movie, what is she called? The word starts with an 'A'...?”

“Oh yeah! An actress!"

Bravo, Jaxon! (By the way, he's 6!)