Every year, seniors at Wayne High School’s New Tech Academy design and create art projects around an important moment in Black history as part of an anti-racism art exhibit. Once completed, the projects are displayed in the school’s hallway for students and staff to see.
Bob Haddad’s senior government class is encouraged to feel uncomfortable as they consider the topics for their art projects. Many of them focus on instances of racial injustice, violence or police brutality.
Erianna Greene and Madalyn Bontempo created a canvas symbolizing the legacy of Emmett Till, a young boy who was lynched in 1955 after a 21-year-old white woman accused him of whistling at her.
Bontempo said they wanted to put Emmett Till’s age into context by portraying him as child-like at the top of their canvas.
“He was 14-years-old," she said. "That’s the age of some freshmen here and he lost his life then and that woman was old enough to know what she was doing was wrong, but she didn’t care that she was in the wrong.”
Carolyn Bryant, the woman who accused Emmett Till of whistling at her, and later admitted she lied about him flirting with and touching her, died in 2023.
The song played during this story was created by senior Julian Alvarez.
