How 2020’s racial unrest led four friends to create a scholarship for Black students

Explore Our Galleries

A man stands in front of the Djingareyber mosque on February 4, 2016 in Timbuktu, central Mali.
Mali's fabled city of Timbuktu on February 4 celebrated the recovery of its historic mausoleums, destroyed during an Islamist takeover of northern Mali in 2012 and rebuilt thanks to UN cultural agency UNESCO.
TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY SEBASTIEN RIEUSSEC / AFP / SÉBASTIEN RIEUSSEC

African Peoples Before Captivity

Shackles from Slave Ship Henrietta Marie

Kidnapped: The Middle Passage

Image of the first black members of Congress

Reconstruction: A Brief Glimpse of Freedom

The Lynching of Laura Nelson_May_1911 200x200

One Hundred Years of Jim Crow

I Am Somebody! The Struggle for Justice

NOW: Free At Last?

Memorial to the Victims of Lynching

The Freedom-Lovers’ Roll Call Wall

Frozen custard in Milwaukee's Bronzeville

Special Exhibits

Breaking News!

Today's news and culture by Black and other reporters in the Black and mainstream media.

Click Here

Ways to Support ABHM?

Click Here

April 19, 2023

Cameron Goodnight, Delaware News Journal

Quadir Phillip, Caeser Rodney High School Class of 2022, was awarded a $1,500 scholarship from the Black Seed Scholarship Foundation after applying last year. Photo Credit – The Black Seed Scholarship Foundation

In 2020, Dominique Nziffa felt inspired to make a difference in her Camden community after witnessing something that shocked the world.

Outrage erupted over footage of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, being killed in police custody by a white Minneapolis officer. The officer pinned him to the ground with his knee for nearly nine minutes until Floyd stopped breathing. Images of Floyd’s lifeless body were shown repeatedly on news channels and social media.

Driven by the terrifying footage and racial justice protests, Nziffa decided she wanted to do her part in honoring Black Lives Matter — a social justice movement formed in 2013 dedicated to fighting racism and violence against Black people.

[…]

This desire led Nziffa, with input from her three childhood best friends, to create a scholarship for their alma mater in Camden, Caesar Rodney High School.

Continue reading about the scholarship foundation here.

In the Jim Crow era, Black students received education under the philanthropy of “Rosenwald Schools“.

Keep up on breaking news here!

Comments Are Welcome

Note: We moderate submissions in order to create a space for meaningful dialogue, a space where museum visitors – adults and youth –– can exchange informed, thoughtful, and relevant comments that add value to our exhibits.

Racial slurs, personal attacks, obscenity, profanity, and SHOUTING do not meet the above standard. Such comments are posted in the exhibit Hateful Speech. Commercial promotions, impersonations, and incoherent comments likewise fail to meet our goals, so will not be posted. Submissions longer than 120 words will be shortened.

See our full Comments Policy here.