Photo: Langdon ES (DCPS)
For Black History Month and Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action at Langdon Elementary in Washington, D.C., the parents and grandparents of the third grade and preschool students became guest readers in the classroom.
One of the preschooler’s grandparents, Manuel Washington, who travels from West Virginia every month to visit his granddaughter’s class, read “We March” by Shane W. Evans. Every time they heard the word “March,” the students, who were given picket signs by Mrs. Thomas, the coordinator of Teaching for Change’s Roving Readers, were instructed to stomp their feet. According to the D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice, after reading, “Mr. Washington spoke to the students about his experiences having to use bathrooms and water fountains marked “‘Colored.'”
Impacted by his story, the preschoolers honored all those who paved the way by performing “We Shall Overcome,” the classic protest song of the civil rights movement, and James Weldon Johnson’s “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” also known as the Black National Anthem.
See the next generation pay homage to the ancestors below.