Created by Carter G Woodson in 1926, Black History Month has been a continuous event throughout decades as we spend February, reminiscing and commentating the struggles and accomplishments of African Americans in history. Although at the time it was only celebrated during the second week of February,referred to as Negro History Week, the cause evolved over time to what is is today. By 1976, it was officially rebranded as Black History Month and has continued to be an inspirational and uplifting time of the year.
On February 5th, 2024, the Black Student Union (BSU) hosted its kickoff event for this year’s Black History Month, centered around the theme of African Americans and the Arts. Black Student Union is a Francis Lewis club that focuses on exposing people to African American culture. To build on this year’s theme, the BSU invited Director Malcolm D. Lee to speak to a group of students about his life experiences as an African American director who directed Space Jam: A New Legacy. To continue in the spirit of this month, Actor Siddiq Saunderson was also invited to host an actor’s workshop later, that same day.
“I think that it’s important that you hear from different voices so for me it’s always a pleasure to lend my time and my experience to high school students,” Director Malcolm D. Lee said.
BSU advisor and English teacher Ms. Huggins and many others have noticed how the representation of students is barely noticeable at Francis Lewis High School.
“It’s interesting because we were having a conversation the other day in my office with the girls from the Black Student Union,” Ms. Huggins said. “They were talking about how we have so few, black students in the school and the representation is minimal. They were talking about how they could actually identify almost every black student in each class, 9, 10, 11, and 12. They really just wanted to show, and wanted to see themselves in the arts and see themselves in what we were doing.”
BSU Vice President Emerald Boako explains the purpose of the club at Francis Lewis by mentioning howBlack history isn’t a very broad subject that is taught within schools. To represent the black students and individuals, BSU is a club that helps clear the image of black individuals and their history.
“So this club, as I said before, teaches everyone about black history.” Boako said. “We talk about various topics, like things in the past. In one of our last meetings, we talked about Martin Luther King Jr. and current things like the Oscars and different black nominees, or the lack of black nominees. So it just helps to support the community by allowing everyone to have a more diverse mindset.”
Having these speakers come to Francis Lewis makes a great impact on the students, especially representing the African American students that are underrepresented at Francis Lewis. Through his speech, he inspired others and showed them that even African Americans could rise up and turn their dreams into reality.
“Like, I feel like I saw a piece of myself in him, him constantly saying, don’t give up, be persevering, be patient.” BSU member, Chance Longmore said. “Because personally, I’m very like, if it doesn’t come now, what if it never comes at all? So I’ll take a piece of that with me.”
Saunderson always knew what he wanted to do with his career and how he wanted to work on achieving his goals.
“I always kind of knew what I wanted, which was I wanted to move to LA to book a TV show,” Saunderson said. “That was always in my mind. I wanted to do film and television. And I was just like, This is what I’m going to do. But as far as having a set plan, no, I’ve started rooming, I started living with people who I went to college with, who I wasn’t really friends with during college, but they were just they had an open room. And, you know, I kind of hustled my way, that New York kind of hustle mentality that we have naturally, I feel like is what allowed me to get to LA and really start just making moves and stuff for myself. But I didn’t really have a plan, I think double just the bigger picture plan to make it you know, and get work was the plan.”
Working in any type of industry there are always struggles that you are going to face, just how Lee has struggled with directing. Lee has imputed his opinion and explained what his day to day work life looks like in the directing industry.
“You know you have to balance that with how much time it’s going to light the set, how much rehearsal time the actors need,” Lee said. “You have a plan of what you want to do that day, how many shots, how many setups we want to get. To cover a scene, you have to decide like we got that take, let’s move on to the next thing or, we want to go again. So its a number of decisions that need to be made, and the clock is always ticking, the clock is not always your friend, cause anything can go wrong, anything can derail you.”
Everyone, including Sanderson all struggle with trying to achieve a goal or a dream that they have. Sometimes all we need is some advice from others, even if we don’t know them personally it is helpful.
“I would say you have to believe you have to, like believe that it’s possible,” Sanderson said. “And you have to, like, really, really believe, you know, like, you can’t be wishy-washy about it, you have to know what it is that you want. And you have to know and trust and believe that even if it doesn’t happen, again, in the timing that you think is supposed to happen, that it will happen eventually, if you just do the work. Because work is undeniable.”
Longmore expresses his opinion on the importance of Black History Month in today’s education system. He explains how in modern day society, recognizing this month is very important to learn about the history and past of colored people.
“History is very important and in today’s day people of color are constantly facing challenges and with books being picked out because of certain words or certain ideologies, I feel like it’s very important to keep educating the upcoming generations on what came before them,” Longmore concluded.
