History Day

On April 2, Shelia Bumgarner and Thomas Cole of the Carolina Room's staff and John Camenga of the Main Library had the pleasure of serving as judges for a local round of the National History Day contest. Middle-school and high-school students from the Charlotte are had prepared free-standing displays, documentaries, web sites, even dramatic performances in response to this year's theme: "The Individual in History". They came to the University of North Carolina, where local coordinator Shep McKinley, a lecturer in the History Department, ran the show cheerfully and efficiently. This year's contest was particularly challenging because of its unprecedented size: 218 students participated.

The judges from the Carolina Room both oversaw presentations from middle school students. The students had to do research in primary and secondary sources then summarize and display their findings. The judges assessed the presentations on many points, and some succeeded on more fronts than others. Even students whose presentations had the most room for improvement showed genuine interest in their subjects and demonstrated that they had learned something. The best ones showed impressive command of historical material and diligence in research. We were particularly pleased to acknowledge the efforts of a student who had studied Dorothy Counts and the desegregation of Harding High because she had done her research in the Carolina Room. The vividness of her examples stood out in comparison to those of students who relied on publicly available internet material.