Hillcrest students present Black History Month program Wednesday

Hillcrest High School held its annual student-led Black History Month program Wednesday.

Preparations for the program made national news earlier this month after students said they were told by administration to limit what was included in the program to events happening after 1970.

Nadia Lowther is part of the executive team of students at Hillcrest who worked on the program. In planning this production, she said she and her team thought it was important to include all parts of Black history.

“Slavery is really important to African Americans because without slavery, there wouldn’t be African Americans,” Lowther said. “There would just be Africans and Americans. Without slavery, we would have never come here. We would have never had gospel music. We would have never climbed and built the way we did. I just feel like it is really important to talk about.”

More than 1,000 students and residents filled Hillcrest High School’s gymnasium for the program.

“It was a lot of blood, sweat and tears,” said senior Jada Holt. “We started planning this back in November and I am very happy with the way it came out. There were a lot of bumps in the road but at the end, we got through it and did a great job.”

Reginal King Jr. and Holt are proud of their hard work because it gave them a chance to showcase their heritage through singing, dancing and art.

“I am just so proud that we were able to overcome everything we faced in the past few months,” King said. “I am proud of everybody who is involved in every single thing.”

Holt said it was awesome seeing so many people coming together to make the event happen.

“The best part to me was how everybody worked together and came as a team and was there for each other as a team and was there for each other and thinking we did good,” Holt said.” We stayed encouraging each other and keeping each other and keeping each other motivated.”

Students said preparation for next year’s program has already begun.