Celebrating Black History Month

LMSD schools will celebrate Black History Month with a variety of educational and enrichment activities throughout February. African-American history is part of the year-long curriculum at all levels, but teachers and students will take extra time throughout the month for further exploration of significant historical figures and events. Displays throughout the schools will feature art, literature and general information reinforcing curricular programs while a variety of programs and classroom-specific activities will emphasize the history and significance of African-Americans throughout history.

Throughout the month, we will share information, events and programs celebrating Black History Month from all ten of our schools below. Click the respective links below to see what's happening at your school and be sure to check back here as we continue to add updates  throughout February!

• LMSD@Home
• Harriton High School
• Lower Merion High School
• Welsh Valley Middle School
• Belmont Hills Elementary School
• Gladwyne Elementary School
• Penn Valley Elementary School
• Penn Wynne Elementary School

Our American History Project Video of the Day

This video highlighting Dr. Maya Angelou was produced by Kariana Smith.

Students from Lower Merion High School's Black Student Union and the buildOn community team have partnered to develop the American History Video Project. Each day throughout Black History Month, a new student-created video highlighting an iconic and influential African-American will be featured under the main "Celebrating BHM 2021" tab. As new videos are published, the full menu of videos for this project will be curated below.

Our American History Video Project Introduction

When Carter G. Woodson established this tradition with a dedicated week back in 1926, he was aware of how important it would be to provide a theme to focus the attention of the public. The goal behind the theme is not to dictate or inhibit the exploration of African-American history or experience, but to highlight significant developments that warrant emphasis. This year's theme is "The Black Family: Representation, Identity & Diversity."

The black family has been a topic of study in many disciplines history, literature, the visual arts and film studies, sociology, anthropology, and social policy. Its representation, identity, and diversity  have been reverenced, stereotyped, and vilified from the days of slavery to our own time. The black family knows no single location, since family reunions and genetic-ancestry searches testify to the spread of family members across states, nations, and continents. Not only are individual black families diasporic, but Africa and the diaspora itself have been long portrayed as the black family at large. While the role of the black family has been described by some as a microcosm of the entire race, its complexity as the “foundation” of African American life and history can be seen in numerous debates over how to represent its meaning and typicality from a historical perspective as slave or free, as patriarchal or matriarchal/matrifocal, as single-headed or dual-headed household, as extended or nuclear, as fictive kin or blood lineage, as legal or common law, and as black or interracial, etc. Variation appears, as well, in discussions on the nature and impact of parenting, childhood, marriage, gender norms, sexuality, and incarceration. The family offers a rich tapestry of images for exploring the African American past and present.

-From the Association for the Study of African-American Life and History (ASALH) Website