To celebrate Black History Month, the Diving Deeper into Black History Wax Museum event was held at Vicksburg High School on Wednesday.

The event was organized by the Health and Human Services Career Academy at the high school.

VHS Principal Dr. Tameka Hyland said she was very happy with the event.

“It was absolutely amazing. Everyone enjoyed it. Community members that came out to help get the idea together, they enjoyed it,” Hyland said. “Students enjoyed it as well. They were allowed to come out of their classrooms to take a tour of the Wax Museum. It was absolutely an amazing event. Jaquita Coleman, my courtroom and AP psychology teacher came up with the idea, and her colleagues in the Health and Human Services Academy helped her get it all together.”

Students created a variety of exhibits highlighting the contributions of prominent Black Americans throughout history. Many were dressed as those historical figures and were a part of the exhibits themselves, where they could speak directly with visitors about the lives and challenges of their subjects.

One exhibit covered the freedom marches led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Students made and displayed protest signs demanding equality for Black Americans. Another exhibit recreated Rosa Parks’s harrowing protest that took place in 1955, with an entire history class playing the roles of the passengers.

The purpose of the event was to create an engaging way for students to interact with history.

“We thought that the students will gain more insight about history if they actually became a part of it,” Hyland said. “And that’s really the premise of the Career Academies that Vicksburg Warren School District has: making learning fun, and allowing students to really see the connection between content and real-world experiences.”

Hyland said the response she got from the event was so positive that they decided to hold the event again on Feb. 22 before Black History Month comes to a close. This time, it will be open to the public from 9 to 11 a.m., giving the community an opportunity to see what the students have created.

“The students and teachers work very hard. It’s an amazing event, and if they have time on Feb. 22, they should really come out and see all of the great things that the teachers and students in leadership at Vicksburg High School are doing,” she said.