ANTIOCH, Tenn. (WTVF) — Famous scientists, educators, politicians and entertainers filled the halls at Ezell-Harding Christian School Friday morning.
They were all portrayed by students — from kindergarten to the upper school — dressed up as notable African Americans for their annual "living museum" event to celebrate Black History Month. Nikki-Dee Ray visited the school and found the students not only looked the part, they knew their stuff!
"Students are assigned a historical figure to research so they go through the whole planning process with teachers: brainstorming, drafting, writing an essay and publishing that piece — then they create a speech," explained Lower School Principal Tonya Taylor.
As visitors walked the hallways and through different rooms, they're encouraged to push a "button" to prompt the student to read that speech — explaining who they are and what difference they made.
Dozens of students Nikki-Dee spoke to gave her a little more insight into Black leaders like Kamala Harris, Charley Pride, W.E.B. Du Bois, even former NewsChannel 5 anchor Vicki Yates!
The whole concept is the brainchild of Kindergarten teacher Janus Carr, who organized the first living museum at Ezell-Harding five years ago.
"Ms. Carr — longtime educator in Nashville, she's been so influential to our school and to so many people," said Ezell-Harding Christian School President Dr. Lindsey Judd. "Ms. Carr has done such a great job with this great vision .... it's such a neat event."
There are still so many families in East Tennessee hurting following the floods from Hurricane Helene in September. That made this year's running of the Santa Train extra special for many families in the northeast part of the state. This special Santa Express has been making an annual run in part of Appalachia for over 80 years.
-Lelan Statom
