Black History Month takes place every February as a way to celebrate and uplift Black voices, communities, contributions and achievements. It is recognized in the United States, Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom. It is celebrated in February as it coincides with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, two important figures in the abolitionist movement.
Student leadership and affinity groups at Lincoln collaborated to organize events, activities and displays to shine a light on Black stories during the national Black Lives Matter (BLM) Week of Action. Students created a display remembering Trayvon Martin in the commons, a 17-year-old black teenager who was killed by George Zimmerman in 2012 while walking home from a convenience store in Sanford, Florida. The BLM Week of Action also featured presentations by students, community members and organizations that were shared in Freshman Leadership and Inquiry (FLI) classes and school-wide sessions.
Senior Yetta Lorimor is a leader of Black Student Union (BSU) and was involved in planning the Week of Action. She believes the Week of Action is an enjoyable way to engage with Black History Month and show support for the Black community and Black-led organizations.
“We really try to come up with a lot of different sessions, so it’s not just specifically about race, but music and dance and sports,” said Lorimor. “We try to make it broad and engaging by doing a lot of different sessions and having something for everybody to do [based on] what they’re interested in.”
Sophomore Rose Sandell is the sophomore class Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) representative and is also a member of the District Student Council. She feels that this month is valuable in raising awareness of issues that disproportionately impact people of color such as police and legal systems.
“These [issues] are there in our everyday lives,” said Sandell. “Some kids might feel like it’s a tough conversation to have with people of color, whereas we try to present it as conversations we need to have [every day].”
In addition to normalizing conversations about race, senior and leadership student Nylah Robinson wants to emphasize that these conversations relate to present-day issues as well as past challenges. This includes instances of police brutality and other examples of systemic and institutionalized racism.
“[It is important to] keep [conversations] modern. It is just a good way to make sure people know that this is still an ongoing fight for justice and equality,” said Robinson. “We have to make sure we are still talking about [present day issues] and not just focusing on […] things that happened in the past because these [examples of racism] are still happening today.”
Celebrating Black History is not limited to just February, and there are many ways for students to get involved. Lorimor suggests options to engage with Black-led organizations such as the ones who presented during the week of action.
Organizations presented during the Week of Action include: Hip Hop HIITS ®, Word is Bond, Don’t Shoot PDX, Friends of Noise, Portland Playhouse and GetSchooled.
“If you’re going to go hear an organization, actually stay involved and reach out to those organizations and get volunteers,” said Lorimor. “Sometimes people think that like, ‘Oh, I’m here, I’m showing up for support, I’m here for this moment,’ but it’s a year-round thing.”