Kids get educated on black history

  • Published
  • By Kevin Gaddie
  • Team Eglin Public Affairs
Black History Month committee volunteers visited Eglin Elementary School Feb. 8 to read stories of notable African-Americans to children, as part of this year’s events.


The readers were Air Force Life Cycle Management Center contracting office members Yanique Grant, Jennifer Floro and Rachel Tilley.

Floro’s story about Barack Obama, held the third grade class’ attention; while Tilley engaged second graders with a tale about botanist and inventor George Washington Carver. 

Grant read a story about Jackie Robinson, the first black baseball player to integrate Major League Baseball, to a kindergarten class.

“It was a pleasure reading to the kids,” she said.  “They were very open to the story and interacted well.  It was a wonderful experience.”

Callie Benton, six, daughter of Sgt. Carla Benton, 96th Medical Group, thought the reading was “great.”

The kindergarten teacher was impressed with how well some of the children related to Robinson’s story.

“A few of them play baseball and watch it on television,” she said.  “They understood the story immediately and liked it.”

Grant hoped the children took one of the book’s messages to heart.

“Treat people kindly, like you want to be treated,” she said.  “Jackie Robinson set a great example for all of us to follow.  He turned the other cheek in the face of adversity and stuck to his dream of playing Major League Baseball.  He didn’t let anything stand in his way.”