Black History Month is a time to celebrate African Americans and their contribution to society today! What better way to celebrate on campus than to have a Black History Month Assembly presented by our Black Student Union. This was the first “in person” BHM Assembly in two years. Last year’s assembly was a video presentation and the year previous to that was fully online. 

This year, our very own Black Student Union decided to focus on celebrating higher education, specifically Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). This is an important topic because many students don’t hear about HBCUs during their high school experience. The goal of this assembly was to inspire African American students and encourage them to explore options in higher education.

The crowd remained engaged for most of the assembly, especially when there was an opportunity to win candy for answering trivia questions. Even teachers had the chance to win candy for trivia! The crowd’s energy was encouraging to all of the performers.

Throughout the assembly, students view a multitude of different talents including spoken word, student producers, dance, and more! A crowd favorite was a spoken word piece titled Black Boy, Black Boy by Youth Speaks, performed by LHS students, Ivory Alexander and Brielle Radford. One of the most exciting parts of the assembly was the collaborations between BSU, Soul Steppers, STOMP, Choir, and the NJROTC. The two dance groups worked with BSU to put together dance pieces highlighting Majorette dance styles which has been a historic dance style among the HBCU communities since the 1960s. Choir members led by Kobe Davis sang Lift Every Voice and Sing, also referred to as the Black National Anthem. The NJROTC led the pledge of allegiance. These collaborators showed the student dedication and unity that we have here on campus!