African American History Month

The Pasadena School District holds an annual African American History Bee.  Contestants come from each elementary school and compete in teams of two according to their grade level.  Addison and her classmate, Carola, represented the third grade for our school.  They had an eighteen page packet of facts to study.  Not only did they have to be familiar with national heros in politics, music, the arts, and sports, but they also had to know definitions, inventors and local history makers.  These girls studied very hard.  They were the first third-grade team from their school to ever make it past the third round.

Here are the three questions the judges posed to them:

Round 1:   I used a network of hiding places called the underground railroad to help over 300 slaves escape to the North and Canada. (click here for the answer.)

Round 2:  I was elected by my fellow Board members as Mayor of Pasadena in 1982, the first African American woman mayor of the city.  (by answering this questions, the girls eliminated 3 other teams who had been unable to answer.)

Round 3:  In 1965 she became the first African American woman admitted to the bar in the state of Mississippi and is the founder, president, and spokesperson for the Children's Defense Fund. (And this was the question that finally knocked them out.)

These two girls are very proud of themselves and are raring to win next year!