Every February, the month that celebrates black history, there is a display downstairs parallel to the main office featuring accomplished African Americans. With each new year and comes a different theme and features an alternative group of African Americans. This year, truancy officer, Marilyn Hawkins and special education teacher, Jody Hickman displayed accomplished and successful African American women.

Along with famous African American women the display also features all of the African American women who work at South. Hickman and Hawkins agree that it recognizes female staff because they all have made contributions to South High School.

The display in general is, “A 20th century representation of some African American women that have made contributions to and the African American community at large.” said Hickman. Hawkins adds that it pays respect to these women.

Hawkins came up with the idea to have this theme for the display this year from an article in the NAACP magazine. Both Hawkins and Hickman say they wanted people to see that there was more of a “wealth to their history”.

The great thing about the display is that everyone in the diverse South community can see it, “…see what some African American women contributed…sometimes history books don’t include it…a sense of pride,” said Hawkins.

All female African American South High staff have their school pictures featured in black and white in a collage on the display. “[I feel] really good because ‘Freedom Sisters’ shows the unity of African American staff here at South.” said Special Education Assistant, Vera Benton.

“[I like] Opera Winfrey, Maya Angelou and Betty Shabazz. Those women have showed strong leadership in the accomplishments that they have made in America.” said Benton.