A local school hosted a multicultural program, highlighting people and their defining moments in history.

Chocowinity Primary School held the event yesterday in the school’s multipurpose room, bringing students, faculty and guests together for program led by the school’s fourth-grade AIG reading class. The students presented a series of skits that highlighted significant figures in black history and the defining moments that made them famous. The program was presented in a format Paige Cochran, the AIG teacher at CPS, dubs “the Human Timeline.” The group also recruited the talents of school custodian Walker O’Neal, who played President Barack Obama, and school secretary Carol Minor, who played Michelle Obama.

Among some of the figures and events depicted in skits were: Harriet Tubman, highlighting her role in leading slaves to freedom; the Civil War, highlighting President Abraham Lincoln’s signing of the Emancipation Proclamation and the passing of the 13^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, abolishing slavery; Jackie Robinson, who was the first African American to play on an all-white baseball team and in an all-white baseball league; Rosa Parks, highlighting her refusal to give her seat to a white man on the bus, which facilitated the 13-month bus boycott that led to a Supreme Court decision ban segregation on public transportation in 1956; Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., highlighting his involvement in the civil rights movement; and Barack Obama, who became the United States’ first African American president.

Also, throughout the program the student group led the rest of the school in the audience in song, which included “Drinking Gourd,” “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” and “Free at Last,” to name a few.

Cochran said the school puts on similar events each year, none of which have been led by students. Cochran wanted the program to be created and presented by student leaders so the group was tasked with putting on this year’s program. The students were responsible for deciding the events and figures they would depict and researched each for factual information. The information was then turned into script format for the skits, and the students also added funny ad-libs and other humorous improvisation to make the program more interesting, Cochran said.

“I never thought of how hard it would be for fourth-graders — to take facts and put it into ‘this is what she said, this is what he said,’” Cochran said. “The came up with whatever props they were going to use, they decided how it would flow, recruited others to come in and help, and all of that came together today.”

Julie Sizemore, CPS music teacher, taught the entire school different songs that were to be used in the program so all could sing along during its presentation, Cochran said. The students in the audience, ranging from prekindergarten through fourth-graders, were not only able to participate through song, but they were also able to see history unfold through the skit-based presentation of the program, Cochran said.

“This was a chance for (the students) to see what (the events) probably looked like,” Cochran said. “It was a really good way to bring history to life, and I think they did a really good job of that. They kept true to the historical context of it. If you give them the opportunity (to lead projects), it’s interesting to see how far they will take it.”