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Family Celebrates Black History Month Through Adorable Photo Re-enactments

By Shayla D
Published on: 11:49 PST, Feb 26, 2017

One family found a unique way to celebrate Black History Month and it’s quite possibly the most adorable history lesson you’ve ever seen. According to the Seattle Times, 5-year-old Lola Jones came home from school last month having just learned about Martin Luther King Jr. and her parents felt like there was so much more they could teach her and her younger sister.

With Black History Month just around the corner, the Jones family saw it as the perfect opportunity to teach their children about racism and slavery. Lola’s mother, Cristi Jones, began taking pictures of Lola re-enacting famous photos of inspirational black women in history and sharing them on social media each day of February. The unique nod to Black History Month is breathtaking, heartbreaking, beautiful, and adorable. Check out some of Jones’ more poignant photos:

Each post by Jones on Facebook gives a short history lesson on the woman being honored for Black History Month. She said the most difficult thing about putting the project together was figuring out which women to feature because she had an awareness of so many impactful black women.

“I’ve always had a love of black history,” Jones told the Seattle Times of putting the Black History Month photo shoot together.

“I wrote about Zora Neale Hurston in elementary school and did a high-school paper on Josephine Baker. There are so many women I have deep respect for, it was hard to choose.”

Jones covered everyone from civil rights activists to musicians to poets and more who have made a significant contribution not only to the black community but to the world by advocating for equality. Other notable people emulated in the Black History Month photo shoot include Shirley Chisolm, the first black woman nominated to congress; Dr. Jae Jemison, the first black female astronaut; and black ballet dancer Misty Copeland among others.

Black History Month is recognized in the United States annually, every February. It originated from Harvard-trained historian Carter G. Woodson’s belief that by raising the awareness of contributions made to civilization by African American individuals would help dispel falsehoods about the black community that were based simply on racist ideas. In 1925, the awareness project began as a week-long celebration to take place during Frederick Douglass’ birthday.

The celebration went from being a week-long observance to Black History Month at the urging of President Gerald Ford in 1976. According to the Department of Labor, President Ford suggested that Americans of all colors “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”

Each year, a theme is represented in the government’s recognition of Black History Month. This year’s theme was “Black Women in American Culture and History.” Many phenomenal tributes have arisen recognizing the accomplishments of black women in history including the hit film Hidden Figures which is up for several Oscars this evening.

Hidden Figures tells the true story of African American women who worked as mathematicians for NASA. The film is centered around Katherine G. Johnson who calculated the trajectory for the orbital flights of Alan Shepard and John Glenn.

For more information on black women in American history, check out PBS.org for commentary on Harriet Tubman, Maya Angelou, Daisy Bates, and many more. Or you can just check out Cristi Jones’ Facebook page and see even more cute pictures of Lola.

[Featured Image by MorelSO/Thinkstock.]

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