Answers found in black history

February is Black History Month, and people throughout the Triangle are remembering the past this weekend with readings, films and speeches.

But Raleigh resident Antoine Medley wanted to do something new. He wanted to encourage children to delve into the stories of African-Americans who came before them, both those who achieved great things and those who were persecuted.

Today, Medley, founder of the nonprofit Future Black Men of America, will host his first Black History Quiz Bowl. Ten two-member teams of Wake County middle and high school students will compete from noon to 5 p.m. today at Raleigh's Baptist Grove Church, 7109 Leesville Road.

Medley, a telecommunications engineer who started mentoring African-American boys four years ago, said he hopes this is the start of what eventually will be a countywide, or even statewide, event hosted by the public schools.

Medley said too many children of all races are growing up with only the most rudimentary knowledge of black history. Some know nothing of the days of Jim Crow or of the civil rights struggle, he said.

The contestants have spent the past few weeks studying a 90-page booklet full of questions about black artists, athletes, inventors and about the long fight for equal rights.

"It's empowering to know what people did before you," Medley said. "It shapes their consciousness to know what people had to go through before them just to go to school."