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Pathways Hosts Black History Quiz Bowl

The history of African-Americans is much larger than one ethnic group – it is embedded in the story of all Americans.
“Black history is all of our history,” said Tanika Flowers, counselor at Pathways Academic Campus as she introduced the school’s annual Black History Month Quiz Bowl.
Four three-student teams competed in a tournament format Thursday each representing an academic department.
In two preliminary rounds and a final round, Flowers and counselor Michele West asked 21 questions and the two teams, seated on a raised platform in the school cafeteria gave answers.
In the end, the group representing the English department won, defeating the science department 14-2 and then the social studies department 15-6.
Questions covered an impressive gamut from Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks to Oprah Winfrey, Barack Obama and Spike Lee.
It also touched on the Little Rock Nine and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, an NBA coach, professional boxer, NASA mathematician, Harvard University president and an NFL football executive.
While studying for the quiz bowl, senior Zy’Lin Jordan was struck by the tragedy of Emmitt Till, a 14-year-old boy lynched in Mississippi in 1955.
A racist mob killed the teenager who supposedly offended a white woman. Jordan said he learned that the youth just wanted some candy in a grocery store.
The Pathways senior said he enjoyed seeing his peers getting excited about learning facts of history and culture.
“It’s really for awareness,” he said of the quiz game. “We are discussing some facts people might not know. It spreads awareness.”
Pointing out the team members gathered on the stage for a photo, Jordan noted that some were Black and others white, Hispanic or Polynesian.
They all volunteered for the quiz bowl.
“There are all kinds of people up there,” he said. “It’s everyone’s history.”
Junior Shyann Hay was also on the winning team.
She said the quiz bowl and similar events during Black History Month help her feel less ostracized as someone who is identified as Black and is actually half Latina.
“There are still moments I feel like I don’t belong,” she said. “People here are willing to learn and understand history.
“People want to learn how the past brought us here today.”
Black History Month continues through the month of February, though the learning continues.