National History Day Competition.
In my freshman year, 2020, I entered into the National History Day Competition through my school, BTHS. National History Day is a competition that has been going on since the early 1970s each year. Here is the site of the national non-profit running it. That year, the theme was “Breaking Barriers.”
There are different categories in the competition, including dividing it between middle school (junior) and high school contestants (senior).
I entered in the individual documentary competition. I chose the subject of Arthur Ashe, one of the greatest American tennis players. He helped break the barrier for African-Americans to play and compete in tennis.
I did well in the competition at school and then moved on to the New York City competition at the Museum of New York City I came in 2nd in my category which meant I moved on to the New York State Competition.
That was supposed to take place in Cooperstown, New York, but it was cancelled because of the Corona Virus Pandemic. That was a really bummer.
But several weeks later, the national organization decided to host a virtual competition for New York State. So I was able to compete in the NY State competition. I edited my documentary some more and addied another interview for the documentary . The results came out on May 6, 2020. I came in 4th place out of a field of 19.
The top two in my category go on to the National Finals in June. I feel good about placing 4th. Not bad for a first try. I also feel I improved from my showing in the NY City Championship. The competition in the state round was fierce. Many good documentaries. Note the contestant who came in 1st in the City competition to my 2nd place didn’t place in the NY State Competition. So my documentary appears to have definitely improved from the the NY City competition. You can see all the great history projects here.
My movie is now up on my Youtube Channel. I am dedicating this documentary to my history teacher at BTHS who passed away in March 2020: Mr. Andrew Decker. He was an amazing teacher and greatly inspired me. I will always remember him.
On June 11, 2020, my school, BTHS, gave me a nice shout out on the “Good News” email to all the students. I really appreciate it.
I entered the NHD competition again in my sophomore year. This time I did my documentary on Leone Baxter and Clem Whitaker who were arguably the first political consultants in America. They helped the Republican in California to prevent Upton Sinclair from becoming the governor of California in the 1930s. I did well in the competition in the BTHS, but then in the City contest I did not go on to the NY State competition. But still, I had fun making this documentary. And I learned a lot.
And in my Junior year at BTHS, I made another NHD documentary on the Dayton Accords. In the competition in BTHS, I came in 1st in the individual documentary competition. Then in the NYC competition, I came in 3rd place and then competed in the New York State Competition.
For 2023’s NHD theme, frontiers in history, I was inspired by the plight of six million African Americans who migrated in the 20th Century from the South to the North and the West. As a son of immigrants, I had heard many stories from my grandmothers and my parents as to how my relatives had to leave Armenia, Romania and Yugoslavia, because of war, violence and discrimination. I realized that many African Americans have similar stories: they had to leave their homes in the South because of violence and discrimination. This is just like what the millions of immigrants from Europe who came to the United States at the end of the 19th Century and beginning of 20th Century were motivated by. However, American history has not really focused on how millions of African Americans were essentially internal immigrants in the 20th Century as they migrated to various cities and areas on other parts of the country looking for a better life. My research sought to address that gap in American history. In particular, this research sought to find out what motivated so many African Americans to leave their home in the South and move to unfamiliar places, like Chicago, New York and Cleveland. In addition, this research sought to find out how difficult it was for these migrants and what did they have to deal with when they tried to find new homes. In particular, I research if they were similarly discriminated in their new homes in the North and West as they had been in the South. There is so much material about the Great Migration and so many stories about the heroic people that had to travel for a new home that it was challenging to decide what to keep in the documentary and what to exclude.
This documentary competed in the NYC NHD competition.