Students bring history to life at Huntington's living wax museum
Posted: February 19, 2026
One by one, visitors touched fists with the unmoving figures in front of them. Each one sprang to life, introducing themselves and giving a brief description of their outsized contribution to history.
Huntington Middle School students portrayed prominent people as fellow students and families visited their Black History Month living wax museum on February 13 in the school library. In preparation, sixth and seventh grade students who wanted to participate had researched their characters' lives, rehearsed public speaking skills, and dressed for their parts in preparation for delivering their presentations numerous times.
"I had an amazing time," said sixth grader Liam Evans, who portrayed President Barack Obama and was the first stop on the guided tour. "I feel very honored."
Evans added that he will "most definitely" learn more about the various people he and his fellow students studied as part of the project.
Adrianna Brown, a seventh grader, had already done extensive research for previous writing about her character, businesswoman Madam C.J. Walker. Brown was able to tell the story of Walker's hair care entrepreneurship while researching many other historical figures.
"I learned about other people's characters and what they did and all those things," Brown said. "It was really fun to do this because a lot of people just don’t know about it. So it was fun to just tell people, but not in a reading type of way."
Students are studying a unit on careers and since February is Black History Month, 6th Grade Professional School Counselor Monica Anderson thought it would be a good idea to include some of her students' future aspirations and careers by doing research, she said. Students started by finding information about prominent African Americans in the library and at home, and then moved to practicing reciting the short bios their research had been condensed to.
Listening to their stories was a journey through historical milestones that covered close to 20 notable figures from Wally Amos of Famous Amos Chocolate Chip Cookies to NASA Astronaut Mae Jemison, Superintendent Dr. Michele Mitchell to Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm.
"They did a lot of research on the characters that they wanted to portray," Anderson said. "Some picked their characters and we picked some of the characters. The script was initially from their research and then we just combined the information into one script."
Costumes and props were collected from staff, community donations and other available resources. Several students served as ambassadors, guiding groups through the museum to facilitate their visits.
All of the preparation and experience is valuable, according to Anderson.
"It's also teaching them skills that they'll need in their future," Anderson said. "They're going to need to learn how to present in their careers, their occupations. This information that they're learning in middle school, they're going to use in high school and college if they decide to go to a college or university."
Portraying Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler, sixth grader Nyila Palmer said it took a little getting used to seeing her friends in the small groups who came up to tap her fist. She quickly felt comfortable playing her character.
"We learned how to stop stepping side to side when you’re nervous," Palmer said. "I didn't do that, but I did fidget with my hands because I do that a lot anyway. My mind did go blank a few times when I was saying it. But other than that, I remembered it."
Sixth grader Milan Pacheco Solano portrayed Dr. Mark Dean, a computer engineer and inventor.
"I learned a lot from my character and I learned a lot from the Black History project," Pacheco Solano said. "I had fun."
