Students at Saint John Paul II Catholic Academy’s Lower Mills campus are celebrating Black History Month with a door-decorating competition in the Dorchester Avenue school’s hallways. Students and teachers have 23 doors to work with in the contest.

Eighth graders each chose to highlight a Black individual who “has made a difference in our world,” ranging from pioneers like Jackie Robinson and Shirley Chisholm to current-day leaders like Michelle Obama. On one door, the title lyrics from the Nina Simone song “To Be Young, Gifted, and Black” is emblazoned in red, green, and yellow, the primary colors used in the Black Lives Matter movement.  

It’s the cinema-inspired display at the entrance of the school’s Pre-K classrooms that might be seen as the real showstopper inside the elementary school. The space is outfitted with a replica of the Hollywood Walk of Fame and includes a red carpet and a video that features kindergartners titled, “My Life Matters.” In short clips projected onto the door, the youngsters share how they will be “a pioneer like Kamala Harris,” “a leader like Martin Luther King Jr.” and “an MVP like Michael Jordan.”

Said 8th-grader Victoria: “A lot of Black historical folks aren’t really recognized. There are just a few people who are really recognized during Black History Month, so we just wanted to give them their chance to shine.”

One door down, seventh-grade students dedicated their door to the late Shirley Chisholm, who was the first Black woman to serve in Congress when she was elected to the US House of Representatives in 1968. The door features a hand-drawn image of Chisholm, who also ran for president in 1972.
The school’s sixth-grade students highlighted hip-hop in Boston.

“We did a background and then everybody chose a person that made a big change in Boston hip hop and wrote paragraphs about it,” said one student, Alyscia. Her classmate Jaylin added: “I wrote about myself because last year at the spring concert I performed a song.”

One teacher, Ms. Brown, also personalized the assignment by including photos of her own family and those of her fellow teachers. With a portrait of her grandmother at the top and a crown of flowers above, Brown said, the door is a “homage to the ancestors” in which she is giving them flowers and recognition. 

Meanwhile, the library invites students to become a part of the decoration contest with the outline of a gold frame on the glass door that is a nod to the artist, writer, and photographer Lorraine O’Grady who designed “Art Is…” for the 1983 African American Parade in Harlem. The people on her float held up their own gold frames, showing everyone that they were the art.