February marked Black History Month, also known as National African American History Month, the annual celebration of notable achievements by African Americans as well as a time to reflect on their critical role in the history of the United States. This period of recognition dates back to 1915, 50 years post-emancipation, when historian Carter G. Woodson and minister Jesse E. Moorland founded the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), formerly the ASNLH. This organization went on to sponsor a week dedicated to Americans of African descent during the second week of February, which coincides with the birthdays of two of the most important figures in all of U.S. history, Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.

Since 1976, that week has expanded to embrace the whole month of February, and each year the sitting ASALH has established a different theme for Black History Month. For 2019, that theme was “Black Migration.” According to their website:

The theme Black Migrations equally lends itself to the exploration of the century’s later decades from spatial and social perspectives, with attention to “new” African Americans because of the burgeoning African and Caribbean population in the United States; Northern African Americans’ return to the South; racial suburbanization; inner-city hyperghettoization; health and environment; civil rights and protest activism; electoral politics; mass incarceration; and dynamic cultural production.

Elementary and middle school students at The New Century School learned last month just how Baltimore figures into this theme in very important ways. Although Maryland upheld the constitutionality of slave-holding from 1715 through 1864, the city of Baltimore was a hybrid of northern and southern proclivities. Being so close to the Mason-Dixon line, it was a stopover point for escaping slaves headed north to abolitionist states or Canada. It was also home to many freed former slaves, one of whom was Frederick Douglass himself.

TNCS Head of School Alicia first gave some preparatory social/emotional learning lessons tailored to first one cohort of 4th- through 8th-graders and, later, a second cohort of 2nd- and 3rd-graders.

After, they walked through Fell’s Point to the Frederick Douglass | Isaac Myers Maritime Park & Museum overlooking the harbor on Thames St. and now under the aegis of Living Classrooms.

TNCS students would explore some big questions prior, during, and after their visit: “How can one man own another?” for example. They would also consider the Underground Railroad and how so much of a runaway slave’s chance of successful escape was completely out of their own control— how much uncertainty and difficulty a slave would likely encounter.

The students were completely captivated by the interactive exhibits. They will not soon forget their encounter with Frederick Douglass or with what it was like to follow the North Star with the fervent hope of reaching a better place.