Maya Angelou. Mansa Musa. Boudica. Thurgood Marshall. Mary Shelly.
For students at Chatham Youth Development Center, these and other historical figures became intimately familiar last week, as the facility hosted its inaugural history wax museum event.
Here’s how it worked. Several months ago, educators at Chatham began planning a series of summer enrichment activities to continue students’ education during the summer break. These events, known as “Fun Fridays,” included pet therapy, a language arts book fair, a back-to-school bash and other events to keep youth excited about learning.
“One of the ideas that came up was to do a historical wax museum,” said DJJDP Regional Principal LaKresha Brown. “With collaboration of all the staff here at Chatham, we were able to gather all the clothing items that they needed to represent the different historical figures. It helped them truly connect with the people they were representing in their wax museum project.”
Chatham History Teacher Bryan Moore, himself a historical reenactor, led the activity, encouraging his students to pick a figure from the past to research. On July 31, youth presented those findings as a first-person narrative while dressed in clothing their chosen figure might have worn, each donated by Chatham staff, their families and community supporters.
“Collecting the costumes was the hard part, since this was our first event,” Moore said. “It was staff and other people stepping up - my parents donated money for me to order some costumes. Staff members donated a large number of items.”
Beyond costumes, there were also details such as hair and makeup to consider. With a majority female population at Chatham, Moore credited the facility’s lady staff members with going above and beyond to help the girls style and adjust their hair – the final touches needed to step into character.
For two of the youth participants, H. and J., that’s exactly what happened during the event. H. chose to take on the persona of Queen Kandake, a Kushite ruler from the first century BC who overcame the deaths of her husband and son to lead her people to victory against Roman occupation. J., meanwhile, dressed as NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, a notable 20th century African-American woman whose calculations helped humanity reach the moon.
For H., it was inspiring to study a powerful female figure from African history. H. described Kandake as resourceful, intelligent and brave. She was most impressed by the queen’s successful campaign against Roman occupation at a time when the empire’s power encircled the entire Mediterranean Sea.
“She never gave up,” H. reflected. “Even after her husband dying and losing her son to war, and losing an eye, she never gave up. She still fought for her civilization… I feel like what I got out of it is that the more research you do and the more you pay attention in history class, you can learn a lot. I knew nothing about Kandake before I started, and now I feel like I know her personally.”
J., who portrayed Katherine Johnson, first learned about the mathematician’s accomplishments from the movie “Hidden Figures.” J. noted that the contributions of many historical women have been overshadowed in the larger historical narrative, and she found significant inspiration in Johnson’s story.
“I feel like girls who want to be in science should learn a little bit more about Katherine Johnson and see how she lived.” J. said. “I was inspired by her dedication to be somebody and not stopping because of her color. She was determined to get into NASA. It wasn’t easy, but she made it and stayed there for 33 years. The way she was getting treated there, I would have left, but she stayed, ten toes down, and that’s something that everyone needs to know – don’t ever stop and don’t give up.”
That message of not giving up, as illustrated in the lives of both Queen Kandake and Katherine Johnson, resonate not only at Chatham YDC, but throughout North Carolina’s Juvenile Justice system.
“Our students are sometimes discouraged during the regular school year, because a lot of times when we receive students, they haven’t been to school in a very long time,” Brown said. “We always try to push forward the idea that school can be cool, when you learn, you’re growing, and that this is helping you prepare to transition back to your community… This was an amazing experience. We are so proud of our teachers and Mr. Moore for the way he was able to pull together our educators, our direct care staff and all the people who are invested in these youth. I know this has provided a life-changing experience for our students.”