Black History Month began on February 1st, 2023. African Americans and other people with the same melanin tone commemorate their culture, their accomplishments, and look back on the past during Black History Month. As Black Americans, it is our responsibility to be proud of our challenges and to use them as a foundation for improvement in the coming year. Howard W. Blake High School conducted a presentation on the first of the month that featured former students from the era when Blake initially stood. They shared with us their struggles with segregation and how difficult it was to be an African American in the past when they rejected us for who we were, our skin tone, and our ancestry. 

     At our little gathering, Charles “Fred” Hearns, who was born on November 28, 1948, in the Bronx, New York, parents Grace Tillman Clark and Samuel Hearns, served as the keynote speaker. Hearns has achieved a great deal over the years and has amassed numerous degrees as a result of his diligence and skill. Hearns tells us in the theater about his father, who attended Blake in the 1940s and 1950s, when the school’s name was Don Thompson Vocational High School. Howard W. Blake High School, named after an African-American professor and educational leader from Tampa, was the school’s first name when it first opened as a segregated facility for African Americans in 1956.

     His lecture was significant for us and for everyone else.  I hope that the black students were interested in learning about the history of the school and the struggles that our forefathers endured in order for us to finally enjoy equality and be treated as human beings, especially since some of the children and adults who protested for their rights may have been their grandparents or great grandparents. Knowing the struggles of the elder generation, who only wanted to be treated like white people and not like animals, the presentation came across as sour grapes.  To see the alumni alive and healthy, having the ability to stand up and tell their stories goes to show how truly strong they are. That is something called black excellence, something everyone should be proud of. 

     This month is the time to shed light on all of the things that African Americans have preserved through, appreciate that you’re still here despite all of the things that gets thrown at you, and be even more proud of your ancestry.  Being black is great and i  feel like everyone should know that, don’t ever be ashamed when our ancestors worked their hardest to let this world be walked on by us – don’t let that work go to waste, make them and yourself proud.