The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Parents dress up kids as role models to teach Black history
Mother-daughter project becomes annual tradition.
When Chauncia Boyd Rogers realized her 5-year-old daughter, Ava, was not learning about Black History Month in her pre-k class, she took action.
It was February 2015, and “I looked at the calendar and saw they didn’t have anything planned,” she said, adding that the school in Orlando, Florida, typically acknowledged other cultural celebrations and holidays. “I didn’t want her to miss out. I wanted her to know that the month of February is dedicated to celebrating Black lives.”
So Boyd Rogers 37, “decided to teach her myself.”
She wanted to teach her daughter about the many Black women who blazed the trail before her.
“Ava has a crazy imagination, and at the time, she loved to play dress up. So I decided I would dress her up as different people each day and teach her about what the person has done and why they’re relevant to her history,” said Boyd Rogers, who now lives outside Dallas.
The elaborate mother-daughter project became an annual tradition, and now, at age 11,
Ava is dressing up as a different Black trailblazer every day this month.
Ava has portrayed Phillis Wheatley, Michelle Obama, Ella Fitzgerald, Oprah Winfrey, Condoleezza Rice, Harriet Tubman, Robin Roberts, Serena Williams, Amanda Gorman and countless other figures.
“She really does see herself in them,” said Boyd Rogers, who shares side-by-side photos on social media of her daughter mirroring the women. “It makes her feel proud and like she can really do anything.”
The initiative has touched many people, a number of whom have emulated it in their families.
Jalen and Keyonna Seawright have spent February dressing up their two daughters, Karington and Kaidence — ages 3 and 2, respectively — as Black trailblazers and taking them on historical field trips.
To mark Rosa Parks’ birthday on Feb. 4, Jalen Seawright, 28, brought his daughters to the Henry Ford Museum in Michigan, where they live, to see the public bus on which Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man in 1955.
“The world is going to be theirs to take on,” Seawright said. “I want them to realize that it hasn’t always been that way and they should be both grateful and dedicated to pursuing their dreams.”