Living Black History Museum Held at Whiteville Elementary School {with video}
Inventors, entertainers, community leaders, and athletes are just some of the people who visitors met when they attended the annual Whiteville Elementary School (WES) Living Black History Museum that was held on Tuesday, February 27, 2024. The museum was a walk-through display featuring people and moments of Black History, American history that has brought all of us to where we are today.
This is the second year the living history display has been held and it included students from all grade levels at the school. WES nurse Katrina Boyle again coordinated the exhibit. She made an effort to ensure the displays were new and different from what museum goers saw last year. Realizing there is so much history, each year Ms. Boyle wants the students to learn a different part. What the children learned is the information they shared with the people who visited each living history exhibit in the museum.
“You can tell they’re learning when they can teach someone else what they know,” said Ms. Boyle.
Again, this year there was not a shy student who presented at the Living Black History Museum. From the moment someone walked to a display, the children were eager to share what they learned about an event or person they represented.
The third class of Ms. Jennifer Hertweck was the first experience visitors had upon entering the museum. The students’ presentation was of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous March on Washington “I Have a Dream” speech.
Before peacefully taking their seats to hear Dr. King Jr. speak, the students carried protest signs through the exhibit area so their voices could be heard by the masses.
Ms. Hertweck has taught at WES for nine years. She enjoyed putting together the exhibit with her students and shared what she enjoyed teaching them through the experience.
“We are all the same no matter what our skin color is, to love one another, and just spread kindness around the world. I truly believe kindness will change the world,” said Ms. Hertweck.
Patti Saulter’s first grade class introduced us to a number of athletes some that included Simone Biles, Jackie Robinson, the Williams Sisters, and Kenny Washington.
Martha Beard, who has taught at WES for 31 years, with a retirement in 2011, and a return not long after had her second grade class teach visitors about a number inventors.
“I enjoyed seeing the lights come on, helping the children and just seeing the progress they have made,” said Ms. Beard who shared being around the children keeps her going.
Fifth grade teacher Jackie Rhodes’ class exhibit included Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony winners with entertainers like Viola Davis, Jennifer Hudson, James Earl Jones, and Harry Belafonte.
Other displays included recognition of radio pioneers with Johnny and Opal Shaw of WOJG noting their radio station being the only black-owned, 6-Kilowatt radio station in the State of Tennessee.
Mrs. Shontel Gonzales’ (A.K.A. Ms. G to her students.) class took visitors on a journey through the Underground Railroad to freedom and shared about Freedom Quilts.
Mrs. Estes kindergarten class shared about pinnacle moments in the Civil Rights Movement.
There were two sessions of the Living Black History Museum, one in the morning and another one in the evening, that allowed the community as well as parents and family members to visit the museum.
“I hope that every person who visited the museum left here learning something they didn’t know before,” said Ms. Boyle.
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