Albuquerque Public Schools
Celebrating Black History Month
In her weekly message, Superintendent Blakey challenges educators to highlight modern-day role models for students.
A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of meeting with members of Highland High School’s Black Student Union, and I’m grateful for our robust conversation. One thing that resonated with me was their genuine desire to be exposed to role models who aren’t tragic figures.
Make no mistake, slavery and the racial injustices that have played out in our country are a vital part of Black history. We can’t ever forget the role that people like abolitionist Harriet Tubman and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. played in our country.
But Black history is so much more than slavery and civil rights. Allowing ourselves to get stuck on that narrative does a disservice to our students.
We owe it to our kids to celebrate the amazing things Black Americans have done and to hold these individuals up as role models, not just for Black kids but for all of us! Because what they have accomplished is extraordinary, regardless of their race.
In that spirit, here’s a sampling of some of these remarkable individuals who I look up to:
Maya Angelou was an extraordinary poet and writer who had a knack for getting to the heart of an issue. Her hauntingly beautiful writings force us to reckon with our past while simultaneously celebrating the indomitable human spirit that soars against all odds. She died in 2014 but left behind a body of work that includes numerous autobiographies and books of essays and poetry.
If you watched the movie “Hidden Figures,” you’re familiar with Katherine Johnson, the outstanding mathematician who was instrumental in getting U.S. astronauts to space. To say she was brilliant would be the understatement of the century. She completed high school at 13 and graduated from college with degrees in math and French at 18.
Ketanji Brown Jackson became the first Black woman on the U.S. Supreme Court on June 30, 2022. She is a product of public schools who went on to graduate from Harvard University and then Harvard Law School. She clerked for three federal judges, including Justice Stephen Breyer, whose seat she now holds. She is also the first public defender to ever serve on the Supreme Court.
You get extra points if you know the next name on my list: Robert Sengstacke Abbott. He was born to parents who had been enslaved and went on to launch the Chicago Defender, which was our country’s most influential African American newspaper for decades. In the process, he became one of Chicago’s first black millionaires. He died in 1940, but one of his quotes still resonates 85 years later: “No greater glory, no greater honor, is the lot of man departing than a feeling possessed deep in his heart that the world is a better place for his having lived.”
The next person on my list is someone everyone knows: Beyoncé. She’s one of the greatest artists of all time and has had a giant impact on the music industry. Best of all, this incredibly talented singer isn’t resting on her laurels. She continues to push the envelope and rack up more honors. This past Sunday at the Grammy Awards, she walked away with the top prize, Album of the Year, for her country album “Cowboy Carter!” In delving into the country genre, she followed in the footsteps of another pioneer, Ray Charles, who once stunned critics by creating a country album.
Each of these individuals exemplifies excellence. Each one has made our world a better place.
As we celebrate Black History Month, I challenge you to find your own examples of excellence and share them with your students, your family members and everyone who will listen.
I want to leave you with an excerpt from Maya Angelou’s poem “Still I Rise.”
Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.