Hickman High School’s tradition of celebrating Black History Month continues through the classroom door decorating competition.

Students are encouraged to participate in creative and celebratory artworks of historic figures of the past and symbolic murals to cover Hickman’s classroom doors in February.

First year coordinator N’ya Fritz shared her thoughts on the Black History Month door competition and its addition to the student body culture.  

“This is my first year [teaching] and first year leading the Black History Month activity. I feel like it’s just a really good opportunity to not only honor black history, but showcase it to the school with everyone walking past the doors,” Fritz said. 

Students are also excited to share their history through this competition.

“It’s…honorable to be here right now and experience knowing other races and getting to know them very well, and not seeing them differently,” Tony Woodfork(11) said.

With such a diverse student body at Hickman, it is important to showcase and celebrate Black History Month in an innovative way.

“I love art. I love black history. So I was like, Yeah, I’m all down for it. So I love this competition,” Fritz said.

Passion for art and its uses for celebrating black history gave a large range for students’ creativity to shine. The door decorations included representation of unique hairstyles, plant life, landscapes and even facial murals. 

Tony shared his reasons on why his class chose their artistic style and symbolic black figures.

“We chose a face mural because some people don’t really know them, and we’re trying to give them a visual of them. There’s not many people that are on devices nowadays,” Tony said.

Additionally, there will also be a Black History month assembly on Feb. 28. Traditionally, Hickman has had local participants in the community perform cultural music, dance and poetry readings. 

“I am seeing the benefits of seeing people really come together, especially for the fashion show practice and stuff for the assembly, and [seeing] how passionate the kids are, it has a lot of benefits, so I would like to do it again next year,” Fritz said.