State Champ History Team Heads To Nationals!

Oh no biggie, just THE Henry Louis Gates wishing Piedmont's team well as we head to Nationals:

@LisGurthie Go Piedmont!!!

— Henry Louis Gates Jr (@HenryLouisGates) May 16, 2014

It's not every day that middle schoolers feel any connection toward something that happened halfway across the country back in 1921. Events of only one generation ago in their hometown sometimes might as well be ancient history to them.

Not for Mr. Reddig's State Champion National History Day team here at Piedmont! Despite the distance of time and space, they are advancing to the National History Day competition this summer precisely because of their passionate connection to the events of the Tulsa Race Riot, their diligence in researching and finding those who had lived to tell the tale, and their insistence that they do what they can to make sure it never happened again. Read on for the press release on the topic and to see photos of the team on their winning day.

Brianna getting help from her brother in transporting the project to competition.

From the Press Release:

In their first year of entering the National History Day competition, a group of ambitious 8th grade students from Piedmont IB Middle School won the regional and state competition and will be competing at nationals at the University of Maryland on June 16,2014.  They won first place in the Junior Group Exhibit category at the North Carolina State Championships on April 26th at the NC Museum of History. 

Their unique exhibit which displayed an array of primary resources told the obscure story of the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot.  Their topic was inspired by The African Americans:  Many Rivers to Cross PBS series created by Henry Louis Gates, JR.  Once known as the Black Wall Street, the Greenwood community of Tulsa, Oklahoma was the second most prominent black community in the United States in 1921 when it was burned to the ground as a result of segregation and racial tensions.

The competition required students to submit a process paper with an extensive list of primary and secondary sources, create an exhibit, and be interviewed by judges. The competitors' 8th grade social studies teacher and competition advisor Ronny Reddig stated, "It was really the interview at both competitions that I attribute to the group's victory.  The group did a tremendous amount of research, including calling historical record departments in Tulsa, searching out survivors and watching numerous videos relating to the event.  The judges could easily recognize how inspired they were by the event, and their passion to tell the story so that similar events would not be repeated by future generations.

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Partial detail of the winnning display.

Look at the expressions on those winning faces- that's the pride of a well-deserved victory ! Piedmont's State Champion History Day team (left to right) Daks McClettie, Ronny Reddig (Teacher Advisor), Sheila Garcia-Garcia, Logan Long, and Bre'Anna Clinkscales enjoy the fruits of their labor the pride of well-deserved victory