Both as a freshman and a sophomore in high school, I attended the Middlesex County Days of Dialogue session(s), where I and others from my school participated in student-centered forums focused on understanding theories of bias and systemic oppression. After attending these sessions freshman year, my fellow students, administrators and I developed the DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusivity) club to apply these theories to out school and community. As a sophomore, I was invited to write short 1-2 minute speeches on African American leaders throughout history that would be announced in our high school’s morning announcements for black history month. Now as a Junior, I am the Co-President of the DEI Club and we just helped run Diversity Day at MHS! Diversity Day is a cultural food celebration to encourage the appreciation of the many, diverse cultures of the world. I am also very interested in creating change that will positively impact the environment, as that is a problem that greatly affects my generation.
Some of the Short Speeches I Wrote for Black History Month 2022:
W.E.B. Dubois: W.E.B. Dubois was born February 23rd, 1868. He was the first African American to earn a doctorate at Harvard University. He was a socialist, a sociologist, a historian, a civil rights activist, an author, a writer, a founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and a leader of the Niagara movement. He opposed the Atlanta compromise and instead insisted that the Talented Tenth bring about full civil rights and increased political representation for African Americans. He wrote a collection of essays known as The Souls of Black Folk and in his Black Reconstruction in America proposed controversial alternative reasons for the failure of Reconstruction. He was the editor of the NAACP’s journal, The Crisis, and he passed away on August 27th, 1963 at the age of 95.
Medgar Evers: Medgar Evers was born July 2nd, 1925. Throughout his life, he protested racism by fighting Jim Crow Laws, investigating the Emmett Till lynching, and protesting segregation in education. He decided to become a civil rights activist after returning home from the Battle of Normandy in World War I, only to be turned away from a local Southern election at gunpoint. He served as the NAACP’s first field officer in Mississippi, leading many protests to desegregate public areas of the state. In doing his work however, he was subject to several violent attacks, and white supremacists murdered him on June 12th, 1963. His contributions to our society remain inspiring people today, as songs and a movie have been made about him and his life, and his family carried his legacy on by, like him, becoming civil rights activists.
James Baldwin: James Baldwin was an American novelist and civil rights activist born in 1924, most known for his “Notes of a Native Son”, “The Fire Next Time”, and “The Devil Find’s Work”. His novel, If Beale Street Could Talk was adapted into an award-winning film in 2018. He broke new ground in racial and social issues in his literature, and wrote many essays on the African American experience in America. As a teenager, he served as a youth minister in a Harlem Pentecostal church for 2 years. Originally taking a job in laying railroad tracks for the US Army in NJ, he and his family faced much discrimination and struggled to make ends meet; he decided to devote himself to writing a novel, and started getting his essays and short stories written by 1945, writing about his own personal background. He passed away in 1987 at the age of 64.
Ruby Bridges: Ruby Bridges is an African American civil rights activist who was born on September 8th, 1954. Bridges made history by becoming the first African American to attend the all-white William Frantz Elementary School in Louisiana only as a six year old, soon after schools were forced to desegregate. She never missed a single day of school when doing so, although she faced continuous discrimination and racial prejudice towards her. Ruby continued attending the school to create a better future for herself. She founded the Ruby Bridges Foundation in 1999 to promote tolerance and change through education.
Langston Hughes: James Mercer Langston Hughes was born February 1st, 1901, in Joplin Missouri. An American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist, Hughes was one of the earliest innovators of jazz poetry, and he was one of the main leaders of the Harlem Renaissance. He attended Lincoln University and Columbia University, and some of his most famous poems included “Harlem”, “Mother to Son”, “I, Too”, and “Montage of a Dream Deferred”. He published his first book of poetry in the 1920’s and started writing a column for The Chicago Defender on the civil rights movement. He sadly passed away on May 22nd, 1967 from complications from cancer.
Diversity Day 2023!
