February is celebrated as Black History Month to highlight the contributions of African Americans to American society. While Black History IS American history, too frequently these contributions have been excluded from books and studies, to the point that its absence has created perceptions that there are no significant contributions from African Americans. Even today, political decisions have been made and are being implemented to diminish or destroy indicators and evidence of the rich contributions of African Americans, often crediting others for work they did not do. But the hidden figures have and are being revealed as data and documents are gathered and stored to continue to bring knowledge of the legacy.
While we celebrate national and international history makers, history is also made every day by people from and working in or with local communities. This year, DeSoto ISD will celebrate Black History Month by celebrating our local history makers. Some are residents of the community, others alumni of DeSoto High School, and still others are long-time public servants supporting the community. For this leap year, we have selected 29 DeSoto ISD-related individuals to highlight for Black History Month for the community to enjoy meeting or remembering in the game of ABC’s of DeSoto ISD Black History.
To begin, take a ‘quiz’ to see how many individuals can be identified by the general public. The graphic, depicting all 29 individuals with a letter of the alphabet (the A, B, C’s) assigned, is the first hint. The ‘quiz’ asks for the selection of the name of the individual from four options listed. Some questions are worth 3 points, others 4, for a total of 100 points. One bonus question will be why the individual is assigned the alphabet character?? The quiz will be open from Monday, January 29 through midnight Wednesday, January 31. Quiz scores over 85% will be added to a drawing to win prizes donated by some of our wonderful district partners including Access Self Storage, Bank of DeSoto, and Dutch Brothers Coffee.
Click here to start quiz
Beginning Thursday, February 1 through Thursday, February 29, the district will post one photo and caption of each individual to celebrate and remember their achievement and impact.
Join us in celebrating Black History Month with the ABC's of DeSoto ISD Black History! We hope you will learn something or be able to help someone else learn by engaging in an interesting discussion about local Black History!