For our art activity in 2021, I prepared a list of important people from Black history. Each student took a turn picking a name from the list. I asked them to choose a name they didn’t recognize. I displayed that person’s picture, gave a brief description of who the person was, and the entire class took seven minutes to draw that person. We shared our drawings. Then another student picked another person for us to discover, and we continued the cycle.
Left: Christine Castro Hughes, illustration of Marsha P. Johnson. Right: Skyler H., illustration of Frederick Douglass.Lauren Levy, illustration of Zora Neale Hurston and Frederick Douglass.Nate P., illustration of Muhammad Ali.Liv P., illustration of Bessie Coleman.
Racism was such a problem at my last school that, when I raised the subject, it literally fell to me to fix it. My headmaster said the issue was “too big to address” before changing his mind and assigning the task to me. I read books, I attended lectures and workshops, I joined online groups, I led classroom discussions, I gave a presentation to the entire staff, and I led small workshops whenever asked.
When the Black Lives Matter protests impacted our community, I was uncommonly prepared. Via Zoom, I taught staff how to broach those conversations with students. I’m not an expert. I still feel painfully ignorant. But I’m learning! I have witnessed the benefits of addressing racism head-on.
I don’t want to miss, or worse, dodge those conversations ever again. So, I embrace the opportunity that Black History Month presents. My students study Black artists throughout the year; but Black History Month offers us a reason to dig deeper.
Learning History through Drawing
For our art activity in 2021, I prepared a list of important people from Black history. Each student took a turn picking a name from the list. I asked them to choose a name they didn’t recognize. I displayed that person’s picture, gave a brief description of who the person was, and the entire class took seven minutes to draw that person. We shared our drawings. Then another student picked another person for us to discover, and we continued the cycle.
This was an opportunity for me to learn along with my students. For example, I didn’t know who Ella Baker was. So, when a student picked her name from our list, I did an online search. Our class researched the activist together. One student was already familiar with Baker, and she incorporated a favorite quote from this activist into her art.
Virtual Collaboration
When I taught this activity online, whole families participated, including my own parents and children. The conversations were fantastic! Interactions between youth and adults offered a wealth of experience and perspectives. After drawing Muhammad Ali, one father recommended the film One Night in Miami to the adults in attendance. When Harriet Tubman came up, we enjoyed the fact that the freedom fighter may soon grace our country’s $20 bill. “It’s all about the Tubmans,” my wife laughed.
Honoring Real History
The name Emmett Till caused a hush. My eleven-year-old son didn’t recognize the name. I brought up a cherubic picture of Till. I explained honestly but briefly that “Emmett Till was a fourteen-year-old who was murdered based on one white woman’s accusation that he had flirted with her. That injustice helped spark the Civil Rights Movement.” The mood was somber while we drew.
After class, I discussed the quiet with my parents. They helped me think through my feelings. They suggested that I edit my list to omit stories that might offend people. I understand their reasoning, especially since my online art school depends entirely on whether my students want to return to their classes or not. “On the other hand,” I explained to my parents, “Your grandson picked Emmett Till’s name because he didn’t know it.” That hush we felt is proof that this project is effective. That it may, in fact, be necessary. If we’re going to honor Black history, if we’re going to teach real history, we can’t skip over the painful parts.
I was grateful to see that every student returned to class the following week, and then some!
Rama Hughes is the founder and teacher of the Art School of the Future and a contributing editor for SchoolArts. Rama@ArtSchoolOfTheFuture.com
Art teachers offer studio lessons that utilize unexpected mark-making materials. Young students draw large-scale insects with sidewalk chalk, elementary students and adults collaborate in a virtual drawing activity to celebrate Black historical figures, middle-school students discover upcycled Haitian metal art and create ink-embellished designs on metal tooling, high-school students combine digital photography and illustration to render thought-provoking compositions, and more.
