Laura Kattilakoski

Staff Writer

Video by Morgan McCollough

Black History Month is celebrated in February nationwide and Coppell High School is doing its part to recognize the achievements of African-Americans in history.

CHS gets involved with the event through its black history daily facts on the announcements. However, some classes do more than simply listen to a couple of facts on the announcements.

One such class is Tim Trout’s physics class.

Trout is working hard to give his students an understanding of the importance of this month. His students watch videos about famous African-Americans and participated in activities that helped them understand the struggles of African-Americans in history.

“So what we did in our class for Black History Month was to look at a couple of videos of people who are famous and made contributions to our society in this class, and then we wrote about what we would feel like if we were in different scenarios in history,” Trout said.

The activities help students to put themselves into the shoes of blacks who have endured racism and discrimination in the past.

“For example, what it would be like to be a slave on a plantation that was very sick. How would it feel to know that you couldn’t take any time off, had to work? So those are things that are very important for us to look at as we understand who we are as a culture and where we’re going,” Trout said.

To relate to physics, the videos focused on black scientists who have made contributions to our society.

“What we did in our class was we watched a few short YouTube videos about scientists who beat the odds and became really famous. Since they were black, a lot of people didn’t take them seriously at first, but then they became really famous and they actually helped us to become what scientists are today,” said sophomore Lexie Davidson, a student in Trout’s class.

Historically, this month was known as the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. The goal of the organization was to spread appreciation for contributions of black people as well as to instill pride in blacks. With the development of society, the name was changed to Negro History Week in 1926.

“We just talked about why it was important to learn about this month, and it’s important because we need to know what not to do so we don’t repeat what we did,” Davidson said.