Every year, Albany Leadership celebrates Black History Month with the intention of highlighting monumental figures across history. We value and honor the phrase ‘To understand our future, we must know the past’ and over the past few weeks’ teachers, administrative staff, and students have worked together to create a series of videos highlighting monumental figures who help us to continue to honor this phrase.
We have showcased student artwork, student voices, and student thoughts through this series and for that we are proud. In our first week, students compiled their research to discuss some legendary leaders in Black History between the 19th and 20th centuries. These leaders laid the foundation for the pathway to freedom. In our second week, students and teachers worked together to highlight 19th-century artists, contemporary athletic figures, and current political leaders who were the firsts in their fields, and who broke barriers to showcase their talents, strengths, and intellect. In our third week, we highlighted Black American films and invited students, families, and our social community to engage with us for a discussion on the films and their significance. Now, in our final week, we are excited to celebrate our students, our ethnic backgrounds, and our community as we challenge our students, teachers, and administrative staff to think about where we are now and how we can make our tomorrow a better and safer place.
Every year, Albany Leadership staff and students gather together in solidarity, celebrate our cultural and ethnic heritages and take a collective stand to work together in doing our part to make the world a safer, stronger, and more equitable place for us all. This charge does not end on Feb 28, as educators we will continue to take on this charge and continue to create safe and equitable spaces for our students to learn and grow on their journey to academic success.
