For the first time ever, East’s Black History Month assembly featured students from another school – Proviso West – and Morton East students loved it.  

The month of February is known as Black History month which is used to remember the important contributions and achievements of African Americans throughout our country’s history. On February 7th, 2019 Morton East had its annual Black History Month assembly. In the assembly we had students from Proviso West come and perform with 3 different groups which were their marching band, choir, and dance group called Panthera’s. There also a guest speaker called Jonny Ashford who was part of a civil activist group called Freedom Riders. According to HISTORY, Black history month grew out of the event called “Negro History Week” created by Carter G. Woodson, since 1976 every President has made February as Black History Month.  In a survey of 140 Morton East students, 128 students report that they enjoyed the assembly.  

 Throughout the day after the assembly was done, it was the big topic all teachers and students were talking about. The main performances that were talked about were the marching band and dancing performance (Panteras). 

“The band was really good, I liked the dances too. You can really tell that the students from Proviso West are dedicated,” said junior student Leslie Lopez. 

As it was known that the assembly was a huge hit it was obvious that the students were more engaged throughout the assembly and. More students are now hoping to see future assemblies with performances from other schools. 

“It was pretty interesting, and they should bring other schools to perform more often,” said senior student Angel Menendez.

Since Proviso West came to our school for Black History month, a couple of clubs went to their school to perform for Hispanic Heritage month.   

“For Hispanic Heritage month we had our folkloric dance group and mariachi go and perform for their assembly,” said vice principal Mr. Randall Borgardt. 

Even though Proviso West is part of our west suburban conference making them our competitors, it was a good experience seeing both schools come together to teach each other the importance of both heritages.  

“You can tell how the students were encouraging of them regardless of being competitors in sports. It was nice being in an environment where everyone was being so supportive and engaged,” said student athlete Kassandrah Mercado.