Wax museum highlights African American pioneers

To honor the lives and legacies of influential African American men and women in history, Lake Joy Elementary School fifth graders presented a wax museum last Thursday.

Coordinators Linda Jackson, fifth grade teacher, and Bernie Brown, ESOL (English to Speakers of Other Languages) teacher, said they present the exhibit every year.

“It’s the culminating activity for Black History Month,” said Jackson. According to Principal Tami Godman, the exhibit is educational, enlightening and enjoyable.

In an attempt to highlight all of the contributions of African Americans in the different fields of medicine, government, literature and arts, Jackson said they allow the students to select someone who has made history and they have to do research and present the person in a wax museum format. The exhibit was open to all of the students, teachers and parents.

Brown said as part of the curriculum, the students are learning about many of the different people who were represented in the wax museum.

“It connects with what they’re learning in the classroom,” she said. “It’s important that they get a chance to come out and see.”

The students get an opportunity to choose the person they would like to portray. Jackson said they had about a month to prepare. She said around the first of February, they presented the project to the students, who chose from a list of people or decided on their own who they would like to portray and then they learned how to stand and be frozen, how to present their information and what to wear.

In the main corridor of the school, classmates were directed to press a red button (made out of red construction paper) on the wall next to each exhibit, which then the students would “come alive” and introduce who they are and give three to four relevant facts of why that person is famous in history and close by repeating that person’s name.

Jackson and Brown said the students had a scavenger hunt that went along with going through the wax museum.

“As they’re listening to the person speak and talk about the person in history, they’re actually listening for key words and facts that will help them find the person on their scavenger hunt sheet,” said Brown.

Jackson says it takes about 20-30 minutes to get through the wax museum. The first exhibit was from 9 to 11:40 a.m., and the second exhibit was from 12:20 to 3:15 p.m. A total of 52 students participated.

Some of the people who the students portrayed included former President Barack Obama, botanist and inventor George Washington Carver, abolitionist Harriet Tubman, jazz pianist Count Basie, author W.E.B. Du Bois, Tuskegee Airmen pilots, gymnast Simone Biles, actress Halle Berry, mathematicians Dorothy Vaughan, Katherine Johnson and Mary Jackson and several others.

Jackson said the school’s music, physical education and art teachers helped guide the students through the museum.

“They really help us out a lot,” she said. “It’s a big team effort amongst the whole school.”

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