Black history coms alive through Williamson Elementary's Living History Museum

Youngstown Williamson Elementary School fifth-graders Jose Santiago, Brazon Crump, Eon Franklin and Antoine Sharpe sat in the school cafeteria covered in spaghetti noodles, chopped lettuce and shredded carrots.

The four boys were portraying the Greensboro Four on Wednesday for the school’s Living History Museum.

“They didn’t fight back with their hands,” Antoine, 11, said. “They fought back with their words.”

Fighting with your words is more powerful, Brazon, 11, explained. Fighting with your hands just leads to more violence, he said.

The museum, which was part of Williamson’s Black History Month observance, involved fifth- and sixth-graders researching a prominent black American from history, creating a poster chronicling the subject’s life and dressing as the subject to present their findings.

Family members and the school’s kindergartners through fourth-graders walk through the cafeteria museum to learn about the students’ research.

In 1960 in Greensboro, N.C., four Agricultural and Technical College freshmen sat at a “whites only” lunch counter, were refused service and stayed until the business closed.

Other customers pelted them with food.

The four students’ protest worked, Eon, 10, said, because black and white people now eat together in restaurants.

Kelli Moreno, a fifth-grade social studies teacher, said she selected Jose, Brazon, Eon and Antoine to pursue the Greensboro Four because they represent a dramatic event she believes the four boys would do a good job conveying the events.

Principal Renee Forester said the project helps students hone their public speaking skills.

Students stood still and silent, their heads bowed until a museum visitor pressed a button sticker on their hand. Then they came to life.

Read more about this innovative program in Thursday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.