By: centraljersey.com
CHESTERFIELD – Ruby Bridges was 6 when U.S. Marshals escorted her past jeering crowds in 1960 as she entered the all-white William Frantz Elementary School to integrate the New Orleans school system.
Ruby was one of the civil rights heroes studied by the second-grade classes at Chesterfield Elementary School for their Black History Month research projects completed on Feb. 25.
The students learned that discrimination and bullying started long before they were born.
"I learned that you shouldn’t really look at people’s skin color," second-grade student Hope Springer said. "You should look at how their heart is and if they’re loving or not."
Second-grade teacher Melissa Midora has been holding the Black History Month museum for the past three years. Every second-grade class participates in the project. Groups of three or four are chosen to research a famous African-American and then make a presentation.
Parents are invited to attend and students tell everyone what they learned, make speeches and the day is finished off with a slideshow of pictures of the students preparing their projects.
"I wanted to capture the strength and spirit of black Americans," Ms. Midora said. "It can transfer to our kids so easily, because they battle the same things in bullying, keeping kids out and not letting them play with the group. It really is a great overlap of what we can do to teach them how to be."
Superintendent Ellen McHenry said she was very impressed with the turnout for the day and noted that the project will help students grow.
The groups included famous African-Americans like Martin Luther King, Jr., Ruby Bridges, Harriet Tubman, Jackie Robinson and Thurgood Marshall.
"I think we all learned to be brave, no matter what," Hope said.
Students spent the month of February researching their person, painting a portrait of their person and finding props to help them describe what their person did.
