To celebrate Black History Month, the SPLC is spotlighting those who embody the creativity, resilience and intersecting identities of Black people. Throughout February, we will update Black History Month 2023: Facts, influential figures each week and uplift modern-day Black history makers across social media. We hope you’ll join our #BlackHistoryMonth celebration on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

We seek to highlight and explore Black excellence in all facets of life and from all walks of life. Everyone we have chosen to honor this month is deserving of boundless recognition, but we’d like to highlight one special story that encompasses our mission here:

In 2020, Trude Lamb, a track and cross-country star at Robert E. Lee High School in Texas, wrote a letter to her school board stating that she will no longer be wearing her school jersey. As a student from Ghana at a school named after a slave-owning Confederate general, she felt uncomfortable playing sports and attending a school bearing the name of someone who participated in the oppression and abuse of her community. Lamb’s letter brought widespread attention to the issue, which even led to a protest on the day of the board meeting. Her efforts prevailed, and the school changed its name, eliminating all traces of Robert E. Lee.

Thank you for joining us in recognizing these Black trailblazers fighting hate, correcting the narrative and making waves.