With February back in full swing, the Calgary Catholic School District (CCSD) is celebrating Black History Month. This year, they’re honouring a few Calgary-familiar faces.
The CCSD’s Racial Justice-Equity-Diversity-Inclusion team has prepared activities and resources supporting Black History Month (BHM). Among them, four new posters honouring Dr. Charles Odame-Ankrah, Dee Adekugbe (Mama Dee), and CCSD Alumni Deane Leonard and Amen Ogbongmegibe.
CCSD Director of Catholicity, John Wasch, said that while important, Leonard and Ogbongmegibe’s time in the CCSD may not be their crowning achievements.
“Both of these young men, Amen and Deane, were Calgary Catholic students at Notre Dame High School, and they went on to achieve fairly significant athletic success in something called sorry, I just got to check this, the NFL,” Wasch joked during the CCSD Board of Trustees meeting on Feb. 4.
“You might have heard of it. It’s apparently a marginally popular kind of thing.”
Leonard, who now plays for the Los Angeles Chargers, and Ogbongmegibe, who plays for the Chicago Bears, were both drafted into the CFL before opting to head south in their post-CCSD years.
Annually, the district puts effort into honouring local, national and international individuals. Wasch said that he is pleased with the uptick and the enthusiasm with which our schools and teachers allow BHM to create connections with the students they serve.
CCSD Trustee Terry W.N. Thuo, who is in her first year as trustee and originally from Kenya, said that in Africa, many Catholics and Christians are persecuted because of their faith. The positive feelings associated with the CCSD honouring BHM were hard for her to put into words.
“It’s not easy to describe Black History Month or any other month when you feel like the minority has been acknowledged. It’s not that you’re not acknowledged every day, but for that month, especially for young people, they feel seen, they feel heard,” she said during the meeting.
“It’s a special moment, but it’s hard to explain, unless you have been there, because usually you feel this passive feeling when you walk to the store. It’s all associated with negativity, but when it’s faced with positivity, it’s beautiful.”
As the 30th anniversary of BHM in Canada, this year’s national theme is 30 Years of Black History Month: Honouring Black Brilliance Across Generations — From Nation Builders to Tomorrow’s Visionaries. The district is pleased with the continued dedication and importance CCSD schools and worksites have placed on recognizing BHM, according to a report shared during the meeting.
Notes for next year’s posters
Dr. Bryan Szumlas, CCSD Chief Superintendent, said schools recognizing BHM is an expectation, not an ask.
“The posters are visible in all the schools,” he said during the meeting.
“High schools may dive deeper into things than an elementary school, but every school does something when it comes to Black History Month.”
Trustee Chantelle Dur, said she loved the posters. Her only feedback was to include some distinctly Catholic figures next year.
“I would love to see saints, they can be holy heroes to children and we are a Catholic District,” she said during the meeting.
Dur, who’d been reading a book titled Black Catholics on the Road to Sainthood, said that there are many poster-worthy stories to choose from.
“It would be so wonderful if our district could highlight one of these home heroes, we have a lot of African priests in our diocese; it would be wonderful to hear one of their stories and to have them on the poster as well,” she said.
