Friendship Hosts 4th Annual Black History Quiz Bowl
Story and slideshow by Paris Dozier
The Black History Quiz Bowl. Born in a classroom at my very own Woodridge International by Ms. Danielle Durham, is best explained by a quote given by Ms. Mintz when asked, “Why is it important to you that your students participate in the Black History Bowl?”
“I think it’s important that we have the Black History Bowl because it gives students the opportunity to really immerse themselves in the history of African Americans and also it gives them the ability to actually compete with other Friendship Schools. It builds great competitors.”
The Black History Bowl is a competition between middle and high schoolers (separately) and consists of three rounds. Joey Elliot, one of Woodridge's own brave and brilliant competitors, explains it best.
“Today in the Black History Quiz Bowl we’re going to start out with the “trigger round”, when they’re going to ask us a question and we have to give a specific name, song name, or artist. Next, we’re going to do Kahoot! where every team will share a device and teams will have their score from this round added to their points from last round. For our last round, we’re going to do a Jeopardy round about Black History.”
However, the event couldn’t start at all without a beautiful rendition of Lift Every Voice and Sing, or as some may call it, The Black National Anthem, sung by the Chamberlain Middle School Choir. Kudos to them!
The first trigger round contained questions such as:
Who is the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative?
Answer: Bryan Stevenson
Author of The Fire Next Time?
Answer: James Baldwin
In what year did the Black population in Washington D.C. surpass the 50 percent mark?
Answer: 1957
And there were other interesting, trivia-like questions. I feel like I learned a lot in this round.
Next up was Kahoot! Most people in school have heard of the game and use it as a fun, competitive trivia game. That is precisely how it was used for the Black History Quiz Bowl. This round moved fairly quickly, as it seemed everyone was pretty knowledgeable. After this round ended, the points received in this game were added to the total scores of both teams.
Last but not least, the final Jeopardy round. Teams were able to bet anywhere between 0 points and what they’d accumulated throughout the whole game! The trick is that the teams were only told the category, not the question itself before they placed their bets. It was super suspenseful! In the end though… congratulations went to the Friendship Ideal Middle School team on another victory!
Even though my school did not win this year’s Black History Quiz Bowl, I feel like I took away something bigger from it. Not only was it an honor to be able to join Ms. Mintz’s and Ms. Durham’s amazing team on this trip, I feel like I learned a lot about Black History and left feeling a little prouder to be an African American. I think that’s a pretty respectable takeaway. Maybe next year I’ll even join them as a competitor!
Paris Dozier is a 7th grade scholar at Friendship Woodridge International School.