SANTA ANA : Class Breathes Life Into Black History

Arsenio Hall never had such an array of guests on his show.

But Channel 79 went on the air Friday at a Santa Ana elementary school featuring live interviews with 21 black contemporary and historical figures, including civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., baseball legend Jackie Robinson, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Colin L. Powell.

In conjunction with Black History Month, a fifth-grade reading class at Russell Elementary School put on a mock television news broadcast, complete with cameras, roving reporters and commercials. Each of the students wrote lines describing the contribution made by the historical figures and delivered them in costume and in character.

“You learn more because people are acting out the parts,” said 11-year-old Sixto Moreno, dressed in green camouflage fatigues for his performance as Powell.

Moreno said his favorite historical figure of the group was King because “he was the one who fought to let blacks have the same rights as whites and other people.” In his speech, King, as portrayed by a student, said he hoped his four children will not be judged by the color of their skin. “It had a little bit of sadness in it,” Moreno said.

Teacher Earnestine Harvey, who is black, organized the event and said: “It creates an awareness that this world wasn’t built by one ethnic group. The sad part about it is that the contribution we made didn’t go into the history books.

“I think it’s important for kids to learn about history whether it’s black, brown, green or yellow,” Harvey said. “Since this is African-American History Month, what better time to focus” on black history.

The student population at Russell is almost exclusively Latino and Asian. None of the performers were black.

The more than 850 students from kindergarten to sixth grade who attended the performance clearly loved trumpet-toting Louis Armstrong, and 14th-Century Egyptian Queen Nefertiti, with her flowing gold robe and sparkling hat. But Ray Charles stole the show. Three times during the broadcast, Richard Tuvale, 11, mimicked Charles’ Diet Pepsi ads, playing a chord on a piano and saying, “You got the right one, baby,” as three girls sang back up. The audience burst into laughter.

Other celebrities mimicked by the students included Langston Hughes, a poet, Fredrick Douglass, an abolitionist and escaped slave, and Harriett Tubman, who risked her life to help smuggle more than 300 fugitive slaves to freedom.

More than two dozen students performed a slow dance to Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World.”

Donnie Garcia, 10, who portrayed KABC sports anchor Jim Hill, said the experience was entertaining and informative for both the audience and the actors: “It was just really fascinating. I learned a lot. That was the most things I’ve learned all year.”