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We’re giving this week’s NewsDepth A Plus Award to middle school students who worked to bring justice against racism in their own city’s history.
Last year, a group of eighth graders at North Olmsted Middle School decided to learn about the city’s first African American settlers for a language arts and history project.
While doing research, they realized that they couldn’t find a lot of information about some of the families. The project led them to a local cemetery to look for the settlers’ graves.
But instead of finding stones and names, they simply saw a long stretch of grass.
They discovered that, long ago, members of those families had been buried without tombstones or markers because they were African American. The students worked night and day on their investigation, and even took it to city hall.
The mayor of North Olmsted eventually visited their class to hear their concerns. Their work caught so much attention that eventually, Butternut Ridge Cemetery received a donation of a memorial stone for the graves. The memorial was unveiled to the community back in November.
One of the students, Kameron Swanson said, “Everyone wants to be remembered and feel like their life had meaning and I feel like this project helped that happen.”
And group member Rafel Alshakergi added, “It made me realize that you can still change history today. If a 14-year-old can do it, then everyone can.”
Nice job! We’re proud to award this week’s NewsDepth A Plus for your dedication and hard work.