About 50 students recently visited the African American Festival at the Willis L. Miller Library, which included the Sankofa: African American Museum of 600 pieces of Black History mementos.

The Southside Library Boosters sponsored the event.

Memorabilia consisted of framed images of hangings, miniature figures of slaves in a slave ship, photos of the Freedom Riders and water fountains that were for “whites only” and “coloreds only.”

Deariel Allen, a 10th grader, looked forward to gaining knowledge beyond the pages of her history books.

“Basically, I want to come here and learn more than just Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks,” she said. “They mean a lot, but we actually have people who didn’t get the type of attention that they needed on the things that they did.”

Other students expressed wanting to learn about their roots, including 11th-grader Johntavis Mckennon who wanted to know about the routes slaves ventured.

The museum elements are from Angela Jennings’ personal collection, an aunt who strived to educate her nephew on black history.

She now travels to share her collection with others to help them get a better understanding of the past.

The visiting group participated in a nationwide Poetry Out Loud competition where Madison County students had to recite a poem by memory.

Laneka Allen, reading and English language arts teacher, initiated the idea to bring the students to the museum so they could gain exposure to history.

“Of course, we read it in the history books, and we write about it, but sometimes it’s better when you have kind of a hands-on experience to appreciate it more,” she said.

Jarrett Wood, English teacher, said the museum connected the words in classroom books to the real world.

Simply relying on the textbooks is not enough, Wood said.

“They struggle to see what we’re reading in class in their town and in their community right there in front of them, at times,” Wood said.

Caulette Hicks, English and theatre teacher, agreed with her colleague explaining the historical pieces were visual elements.

During the visit, Jennings spoke with the group on the importance of recognizing African American history.

“We’ve got to learn to love each other,” she said during a speech as she told stories of how segregation divided the black and white communities.

The festival continued last week with African dancing, singing, storytelling and poetry.

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