HOUSTON, Texas — A school with a majority Hispanic student body is embracing Black History Month.
"One thing I love about my students is they are open and wanting to learn about the Black culture and the Black community, and Black history,” said teacher Shyra Moody.
Moody and several students spoke with KHOU about what they’ve been doing for Black History Month.
"And they, you know, are very open to expressing what they’ve learned and talked about what they’ve learned and how it affects them today,” said Moody.
Senior Hilario Fraire recently submitted a project on Tulsa Oklahoma’s Black Wall Street Massacre during which white mobs killed hundreds of African Americans and burned an entire black district to the ground.
It happened 100 years ago this coming May.
"Obviously, I’ve learned about people like MLK and Rosa Parks," said Fraire. "But something like the Black Wall Street Massacre was something I’ve really ever even heard of once, but even then I wasn’t taught it." "I didn’t know the specific details.”
George Washington Carver, the iconic agricultural scientist responsible for innumerable breakthroughs, was the focus of freshman Vanesa Cruz’s Black History Month project.
“I wanted to know more about him because, even when I was like little, I only heard about him doing like peanut butter," said Cruz. "So I wanted to know more about him.”
Many of us know about the infamous 1964 murders of three civil rights workers in Mississippi thanks to movies and TV.
It spoke to Furr freshman Joseph Gomez who believes historical discussions help better understand current events and similar struggles within different cultures.
"We’re learning about Black history and racial injustice and I’m pretty sure we can make a movement to the next generation trying to make that better,” said Gomez.
It's a generation about which their teacher is very optimistic.
"And that’s one of the things we focus on here at Furr is giving our students a voice,” said Moody.