Black History Month at Maggie Walker was unique this year not only for its significance to connection and community, but also to the roots of our historical building. “It's about real engagement, and that engagement leads to awareness and understanding. I wanted to provide activities that serve more as opportunities to really learn about the nuances and complexity of culture,” stated Assistant Director Dr. Lisa Williams. Williams, along with the help of counselor Ms. Joy Cobb and a student committee, planned and led a series of activities throughout the month aiming to open a forum of discussion on the Black experience at Maggie Walker while simultaneously emphasizing the Walker Way. 

The activities included an Open Diversity Dialogue, a guest presentation on community by alumnus Ben Wong, and a panel of Maggie Walker High School alumni. Along with these presentations, the school also organized art and writing contests and a month-long scavenger hunt to allow students to better understand the school’s history and significance. 

Diversity Dialogue Day occurred on February 10, hosted by Maggie Walker’s Peer Mentors. The Peer Mentors Club, founded in 2005 and sponsored by Williams and Cobb, serves to provide support and connection to historically underrepresented groups of students at Maggie Walker. The event provided lunch and a chance for students to increase cultural awareness and simply connect with each other through simple topics of conversation, and drew in dozens of students. “I wanted to give opportunities to talk, low pressure opportunities just to get to know people that might be out of your circle. Break down some barriers and some walls,” Williams said.

“This year, our general goal for the school activities was to explore and connect with the history and legacy of this school,” said junior Sean Fang, who led the student committee that planned the month’s activities. “In order to promote this connection, we tried to focus on creating informative and eye-opening events that students would be genuinely interested in attending.”

Unlike the Black History Month assembly last year, which was mandatory for students and occurred as a one-off event, Williams and the planning committee wanted to ensure voluntary participation in this year’s events. “I want people to want to do stuff,” Williams said. “Sometimes when things are mandatory, you go into it like, ‘I've got to attend this.’ So, I wanted it to be optional. And that, to me, created a more positive mindset and involved people who actually wanted to engage and interact more.” 

“It was definitely a step-up from last year,” said junior Kori Benjamin, a sentiment echoed by many other students. However, Benjamin did mention the importance of more student leadership throughout the event this year: “Having it be more student-led would be beneficial because we relate to each other the most.” Johnson further mentioned how there was little time left for more substantial discussions that could have occurred if not for “basic, surface-level questions.” The Diversity Dialogue Day event featured mostly casual conversation, as opposed to substantial discourse. For Williams, however, this casual environment was intentional; she hoped that low-pressure opportunities among students would lead to further discussion.

Throughout the month, there were also ongoing activities that took place to honor Black History Month. The Visual and Fine Arts department showcased contemporary African American artists by displaying a video series with time for questions and discussion afterwards. Students were also invited to participate in schoolwide art and writing contests for Black History Month. The writing contest, sponsored by the MLWGS National English Honor Society, prompted students to write a piece that explored a universal theme such as love, loss, or power through the lens of the African-American experience. The art contest similarly asked students to depict a theme through the perspective of an African-American story. Additionally, throughout the month, the school ran a scavenger hunt that both faculty and students were invited to participate in. The hunt invited participants to find select artifacts throughout the school related to Maggie Lena Walker and the pre-governor’s school era of the school. 

Williams noticed that participation between events varied, with greater participation with the scavenger hunt and Dialogue Day and less with other activities. “Whenever you do something, you have to be prepared for it to fail, or to look at it and think of ways that you could improve,” she said. “The scavenger hunt, I give that a thumbs up because I think there was adequate interest in that.” Despite the disparities in turnout, Williams was proud with the way the festivities turned out, particularly in the last week of February. “You can always find room to grow, but overall, I was really happy, especially with the dialogue day. We had a really good turnout.” She emphasized the importance of reflecting on these activities, as this was the first year the governor’s school had planned Black History Month activities to this large of a scale. 

On February 23, alumnus Ben Wong, who graduated from Maggie Walker in 2015, gave a guest presentation, addressing community and discussing belonging and advocating for social justice. “I think, at the end of the day, the building block of a strong community is a meaningful, genuine connection with someone based on something that you've shared. Some aspect of your humanity,” he said during the talk. “When I think about those communities that I'm a part of, I think about how they feel, and when I think of community, I feel safe. I feel held, I feel affirmed, and I feel like I have permission to do what I think is right and be appreciated for those things.” Wong discussed the communities he was a part of and his work in social justice, engaging the student and faculty audience with their own experiences.

Finally, the alumni panel in the last week of February was a highlight of the month’s activities, inviting four alumni who graduated from Maggie L. Walker High School in the 1960s and 70s to speak about their experiences and answer questions from students. Speaking on her motivation to host the panel, Williams stated, “What is that thread of culture and pride that we can all buy into? This school didn't just come into being with the excellence that was established here in 1991. There was excellence here before that.”

Speakers on the panel included Mr. Glenroy Bailey, Mr. Rudolph Davis, Sr., Ms. Deborah Washington Roane, and Mr. Howard Hopkins. “Even though [the alumni] are a lot older and the school was different, there are still certain connections, like school pride,” said Williams about the panel. “Why were they so proud of this school? What did it mean to them, being a green dragon? What does it mean to our current green dragons?”

The panelists remarked on their personal experiences at Walker, stating that they were excited to see the school raised to today’s standards and to have built its foundation. “So many schools that I went to had been torn down, so whenever I pass by [Maggie Walker] today, I’m proud to say, ‘That’s my school,’” said Davis, who also remains connected to the school through his daughter, counselor Ms. Cobb. “It’s surreal to be able to stay connected to Maggie Walker. My father graduated from Maggie Walker, my brother graduated from Maggie Walker.”

“I am standing in front of the future of America. I can see that the future of America is in this room right now,” said Hopkins, who was the athletic director during his time at Walker and led the school’s football team to numerous victories. “I look at the panelists and realize the struggles that they went through to get to where they are today.”

The panel was well received by the student and faculty body, with dozens of students showing up to listen to the presentation. “I thought it was actually really interesting and it definitely helped me appreciate the history behind our school,” said junior Phoebe Johnson. Johnson’s great-grandmother attended Maggie Walker High School, and her son, Phoebe’s grandfather, went to Armstrong High School, Maggie Walker’s football rival in the 1960s and the only other all-Black high school in the city at the time. “I’ve heard some of it [the history] before, but hearing it from a different perspective was really cool. I definitely enjoyed it more than I thought I would.” 

The activities over the month marked not only an opportunity for students to connect with one another, but for the current governor’s school to recognize its history. “I want people to be seen; all students to be seen,” Williams concluded. “When you see somebody, try to understand them. I see you. I see who you are. I see what you represent. It's a deeper understanding. I want to give all students that opportunity to be seen and heard.”

A Note from the Editors: This is a correction to quotes said by junior Kori Benjamin in this piece. The full quotes read: “It [the assembly this year] was definitely a step-up from last year. It [last year’s Black History Month zoom] was a good idea, but the actual questions submitted by students were offensive.”

“It [Diversity Dialogue] was about everyone and not just Black/POC students, so because of the demographic of the school, you can guess how it went.”