Look to the Stars: Illuminating New Stories for Black History Month

Veronica Scott's Story:

I hate to admit this but when I was a young student, I was never that excited about Black History Month. I loved learning about Harriet Tub­man, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King Jr., but after a while of revisit­ing the same stories in the same way, it seemed (to my childhood self) there was nothing new to learn. Sometimes the lessons were not only stale but also steeped in trauma, surfacing harsh stereotypes and hard history without leaving much room for Black joy or innovation. Some of my friends even joked that we had been given the shortest month of the year on purpose, and in the absence of a lesson on Carter G. Woodson or Mary Church Terrell, I sort of believed them. And sure, this joke is not historically accurate, but it reveals what so many of my class­mates had internalized as students—that Black History Month was just a checkbox for some of our teachers. Award-winning author Jason Reyn­olds (Petry 2018) refers to this perception of February as the “obliga­tory academic window to learn about the historic and often overlooked contributions of African Americans” (1). 

When the time came to create my own version of a Black History Month experience, I knew that I wanted to dream up something that no student could ever mistake for an “obligatory academic window.” I wanted our Black students to feel affirmed and proud. I wanted all our students to feel invited to engage and eager to learn more. I wanted a month that our young people would look forward to year after year. But, as I started to translate my dreams to plans, I also began to recognize many of the challenges some of my own childhood teach­ers probably faced. How would I honor the honest (often brutal) past of our shared history? How would I go beyond the icons? How would I find the time to make space for something meaningful? How would I design something for both Black and non-Black students? How would I finally put an end to that tired joke? I decided that Woodson and Terrell would get an annual shout out to counter the notion that Black History Month was ever “given” to Black people and to contextualize why February was chosen (to honor the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass). And I decided that we wouldn’t limit our­selves to the same few historical figures, because though their impact on our present day can’t be overstated, there are countless leaders, movements, and innovators whose stories have yet to be brought to light. By folding new stories into the mix each year, we would keep the month feeling fresh and illustrate the vast diversity within the Black diaspora at the same time. 

I decided that we would start with a theme. Each year we could shine a light on a new area of Black history guided by a theme like “Lift Ev’ry Voice” or “Still I Rise” or “Express Yourself: Celebrating Black Writers, Artists, and Poets.” And this annual theme would bring in new spotlight stories, new ways of seeing more well-known stories, and inspire proj­ects that could engage students in a variety of content areas. While all our annual themes had something unique to offer, one that will always hold a place in my heart is the year we asked the community to “Look to the Stars” (see below). 

The theme “Look to the Stars” created a moment that was not only affirming for our Black students, but invitational for non-Black students to engage meaningfully, too. This theme inspired everyone to get excited for Black History Month! The month included read-alouds of Mae Among the Stars by Roda Ahmed (2020) and Tar Beachby Faith Ringgold (2020) with mini spotlight stories on Benjamin Banneker, Mae Jemison (of course!), and Nick Cave. A Black high school student heard about our theme and offered to share about her work with the DRONe Project (“DRONe or Descendants Recovering Our Names” is a local tech organization with the uber cool mission of empowering young women of color with drone technology to help uncover the untold lo­cal history of Black San Diegans). This student’s story became our final spotlight story. 

This theme continued to cultivate connections in our community all month. When we led students through a poetry workshop to write their own My Night Among the Stars poems, our art teacher offered her expertise to help us teach the history of flying imagery in African American folklore and storytelling and share how these flying figures symbolize a creative way of imagining and enacting freedom and resistance. Our science teacher chimed in with fun space vocabulary like “comet, cosmos, and celestial” that students could incorporate into their poems. A Black high school teacher created AI-generated images of his own favorite leaders in STEM throughout Black history to share with students. And a Black parent shared candidly that as soon as he heard this theme he felt a deep sense of gratitude, relieved that his son would learn about our history beyond the trauma. 

Students for whom the month was not a mirror but a window into an identity outside of their own were still deeply engaged in learning—ea­ger to share their poems and illustrations at our poetry cafe and to learn more about the intergalactic adventures of Mae Jemison. When we shared a spotlight story on the afrofuturistic soundsuits designed by Nick Cave, second graders were so inspired they asked if they could design their own. The teacher paused what she had planned, took out some blank sheets of paper and markers, and suddenly an entire class was drawing soundsuits inspired by Nick Cave! Even Rebecca and I got in on the fun. Throughout the month, Rebecca and I were often in our office so deep in research for spotlight stories that we often found ourselves tun­ing out the world around us, glancing up from our screens or books only occasionally to say things like, “Did you know Benjamin Banneker wrote math poems?”

As we continued to plan for more and more cultural months, we never forgot the power of the theme or the lessons learned from our year of Look to the Stars: If you narrow your focus, even just a bit, the sto­ries you share can inspire endless connections, wonder, and creativity. If you center joy and artful experi­ences, your students will be excited to engage and share their learning. If you seek out the stories that have yet to be told, your students will find something new to learn, and so, likely, will you.