Chester elementary school presents living Black History Month wax museum project

CHESTER, Pa. (FOX 29) - A Chester elementary school presented a special project Thursday night.

In 1949 I became one of the first African American women awarded a PHD in zoology," said Akasha Drayton as Alberta Jones Seaton.

"Hi. My name is Thurgood Marshall. I was born July, 2 1928 in Maryland. As a child I had many debates with my father about court cases he sat in on," said Jasmar Plaza as Thurgood Marshall.

Third graders at Stetser Elementary School in Chester are bringing black history to life. Literally.

"My name is Barack Obama the 2nd. I was born August 4, 1961 in Honolulu Hawaii," said Kevin Logan as Barack Obama.

Tonight the students presented their project in the form of a black history wax museum. They dressed as influential African Americans in history, put together a storyboard and wrote a speech.

They also wore a button that when pressed activated them to come alive as their historical black figure.

"My wife's name is Coretta Scott King and together we have four children," said Devin Holmes. He was Martin Luther King Jr. who he says he learned a lot from studying.

"There's many things that white people can learn from black people and black people can learn from white people," he said.

8-years-old Alissa McKnight presented Rosa Parks.

"This is the boycott. That's the Rosa Parks and this is Rosa Parks in the Montgomery Bus Boycott," said Alissa showing her tri-fold board.

Keiyona Naylor presented Harriet Tubman.

"Did you learn anything that you didn't know about her or did you pretty much know about Harriet Tubman? That she freed 1,000 slaves," said Keiyona.

Janet Baldwin is the principal.

"It's an important third grade project for them to develop their research skills, oral speaking and being able to share that with the community," said Baldwin.

This is the third year Stetser has done the black history wax museum project. They extended it into March to promote continuing to learn about black history.