Every year Grayslake North’s Juniors all do a history project that takes them a couple of weeks to complete. This project then goes into a statewide History Fair. This History Fair gives students a chance to showcase the hard work they put into their projects. Judges will then come to the high school to see the student’s projects and will place them and some projects will go state and go against other projects from other schools in the state. The theme of this year‘s history fair was how to break down barriers.

An advisor from Jefferson Middle School and Waukegan came to see all of these projects made by the students of North she decided to pick out her favorite projects that involve race. Some projects that were picked for about how jazz music helped break down racial barriers, one project was about Ray Charles, a very famous African musician, one was about Aretha Franklin and many more that involves race inclusivity. 

These students got to go to Jefferson middle school on the last Thursday of Black History Month. They got to speak to the students of the middle school about their project and why it’s important to learn about today. There were a handful of students that got to go and speak to the middle school. The advisor from the middle school spoke about how she wanted the children to learn more about their history, more than Martin Luther King Jr or Malcolm X. This chance to speak to the middle school gave the students of Jefferson Middle school more insight into the history of Black History Month.