The 2025 New Albany - Plain Local Schools’ annual Black History Month production, "WORK: United We Rise!” will feature approximately seventy-five students from the middle and high schools. Written as an original script, the subject for this year’s program parallels the ASALH (Association for the Study of African-American Life and History) theme of African Americans and Labor. (asalh.org)

The program celebrates the significance of Black workers and their specific contributions that built our country. Starting in 1850 with the creation of the American League of Colored Laborers (ALCL), African Americans realized that their voices of concerns regarding fair wages and treatment could only be achieved through unity. The overlap between fighting for civil rights and labor union rights is the main focus of this year's program, as 2025 is the 100-year anniversary of the creation of the first Black union to receive a charter from the American Federation of Labor, with activist A.Philip Randolph organizing the group. Randolph's March on Washington Movement (1941) strongly influenced Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who would later lead a similar non-violent protest to our nation's capital in 1963.

Dr. King continued the fight for higher wages and better working conditions as he joined sanitation workers striking in Memphis, Tennessee. There, on the day after delivering his legendary "I've Been To the Mountaintop" speech, he was assassinated. Other historical figures highlighted in the program include baseball player Curt Flood, domestic worker labor leaders Hattie Canty and Dorothy Bolden, and Amazon’s first union president Chris Smalls This year's musical selections come from a myriad of styles (including the genres of funk, blues, reggae, and disco) and all of those songs share commonalities of the theme of “work”. In addition, before closing the show with the student-choreographed finale dance, the program includes a musical tribute to the late great American record producer, composer, and arranger: Quincy Jones.

"WORK: United We Rise!" is in alignment with the district’s R-Factor (E+R=O) system which attaches the importance of being focused and thoughtfully engaged, as well as acting with purpose and pride in order to have positive outcomes, and supporting each other by celebrating the timeless values of equality and acceptance while building an inclusive campus culture.

We invite the community to a special preview performance on Thursday, February 20 at 7:00 PM in the McCoy Center for the Arts. Admission is FREE. The program will again be presented at grade-level assemblies on Friday, February 21 for students in grades 4-12.