Teachers at Chapel Hill High School decorated their classroom doors during the month of February to honor the contributions and achievements of a number of important Black academics, scholars, artists, poets, writers, scientists and even superheroes.
English teacher Kimberly Jones conceptualized the project, hoping to celebrate the accomplishments of Black Americans whom students might not otherwise be aware of.
“Black history is more than, you know, trauma or Black oppression. It’s also about excellence, like joy by art,” Jones said. “I felt like the opportunity to put our beliefs into a visual display would be really cool for the students to be exposed to.”
The display Jones made for her classroom’s door featured pictures of Black female writers, including Zora Neale Hurston, Audre Lorde and Alice Walker.
Jones’s fellow English teacher Brian Wasson also used his door to pay tribute to Black authors, including Tomi Adeyemi, Lamar Giles, Kwame Mbalia and Ayana Gray.
“My main focus was for students to get a better perception and understanding of Black History Month,” Wasson said.
Other teachers in the English department who decorated their doors include Michael Irwin, who featured Chapel Hill High School alumnus and Chapel Hill poet laureate C. J. Suitt; Kim Lindekugel,who also featured prominent Black male writers such as Kwame Alexander, Ta-Nehesi Coates and Walter Dean Myers; Erica Kinney, who paid tribute to journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones; and Bradley Mitchell, who featured several notable Black science-fiction authors, such as N. K. Jemisin and Octavia E. Butler.
In the science department, teachers paid tribute the innovations and accomplishments of notable Black scientists. Chemistry teacher Laura Rogers decorated her door with Black female scientists and, every school day during February, presented a PowerPoint detailing the accomplishments and legacies of Black scientists, including Mae Carol Jemison, the first Black woman to travel into space; Jeanette Jo Epps, an aerospace engineer and NASA astronaut; and Bessie Coleman, the first African-American and Native American woman to hold a pilot’s license.
“It’s really important for not well reported African-American historians to be lifted up and mentioned,” Rogers said.
Chemistry teacher Vandita Sinha took a similar approach by featuring Black female scientists on her door. One of the women she featured was Josephine Silone Yates, who was the first Black woman to head a college science department.
Math teachers Michael Pulver and Keith Cooper both decorated their doors with Black mathematicians. Cooper’s door showcased statistician David Blackwell, who made significant contributions to the field of game theory, while Pulver’s classroom door displayed Dr. Elbert Frank Cox, the first Black person to receive a doctorate in mathematics.
Social studies teacher Anne Beichner used her door to pay tribute to Shirley Chisholm, a politician, educator and author who was the first Black woman elected to the United States Congress.
Foreign language teacher Christen Campbell decorated her door with Quebec-Haitian author Dany Laferrière and American-born French entertainer Josephine Baker.
Spanish teacher Jade Dickerson found the inspiration for his door not from a historical figure, but rather from Marvel Comics.
“I really like the movie Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. I think that it was a good movie because it showed how you can be a hero no matter what skin color you are,” Dickerson said. “There had never been an African-American Spider-Man, and I think that gives a special touch to the movie and fits perfectly for Black History Month.”
Students at the school say they appreciate the efforts teachers made to celebrate Black History Month.
“I believe everyone should acknowledge the teachers’ door decorations and people should use their free time and appreciate them,” freshman Wesley Krieg said.
“I really love the creative outlook [the teachers] took this year, and I hope this can be a yearly thing,” sophomore Franklin Johnson added.
