The Dallas ISD Racial Equity Office, Dallas Truth Racial Healing & Transformation, City of Dallas Office of Equity and Human Rights, and Dallas Public Library hosted Dallas ISD students from South Oak Cliff High School and Kimball High School for the first ever 2018 Dallas History Hackathon.
Dallas History and Archives Division of the Dallas Public Library, Remembering Black Dallas and Dallas Mexican American Historical League gave interactive presentations that allowed students to interact with historical text and artifacts. Students were paired with community members from those organizations to edit selected Wikipedia pages to begin the process of highlighting Dallas historical figures that students and adults rarely, if ever, see in history books. This event is part of an ongoing exercise to introduce students and adults to underrepresented historical figures that need to be highlighted.
In an exciting surprise for students and adults that attended the hackathon, Trinidad “Trini” Garza, who was elected the first Hispanic member of the Dallas ISD Board of Trustees in 1969 and was appointed Deputy Regional Director of the U.S. Department of Education in President Clinton’s Administration, arrived and talked with students. Former Trustee Garza showing up as a real life historical figure solidified the importance of paying homage to living legends that paved the way in history.
This hackathon was the first of a series of hackathons that will engage students in a creative way of studying history. The Dallas ISD Racial Equity Office is thankful to the Dallas ISD Technology Department for providing the technology set up and ongoing support as they host a series of these events for the 2018 – 2019 school year.
