Walk down the hallway near the Pedro Pio Library in Mount De Sales Academy in Catonsville this month and you'll see Frederick Douglass, Eubie Blake and Jackie Robinson.
Their faces are there because of Arlene Simms King of Columbia's Long Reach village. She put up posters of the black history makers at the all-girls academy to teach the 297 students and their teachers about the contributions that Douglass, Mr. Blake, Mr. Robinson and 61 other blacks have made to the world.
The posters are part of the more than 200 Mrs. King has collected since 1977.
"I am a contributor to black history where Carter G. Woodson left off," she said. Mr. Woodson, an educator and historian from New Canton, Va., founded Negro History Week in 1926. That week evolved into Black History Month.
The 64 posters -- some in color and some black and white, some large and some small -- hang on the walls of the lengthy hallway. TC They are grouped by categories, including religion, inventors, Marylanders, athletes and entertainers. Biographies are attached.
At one end of the hallway, a large colorful print of Horace Pippin's painting, "I Tell My Heart," rests on an easel. It features a man sitting on a red park bench, perhaps on an autumn day. Mrs. King purchased the print from the Baltimore Museum of Art.
"Every year, her exhibit gets better and better," said Connie Baker, Mount de Sales Academy's assistant director of public relations. "It's not just the content of the exhibit; we know Arlene's heart is in it."
The theme for the public exhibit changes each year. This year's exhibit spotlights inventors and women such as Bessie "Brave Bessie" Coleman, the first black to get a pilot's license. Next year's theme will feature blacks in the arts.
Sister Helen Marie, the college prep academy's principal, praised the exhibit, saying it complements a course curriculum that doesn't include much about blacks. Of the academy's 297 students, 24 are black.
"I think it's excellent. It's perfect for our students," Sister Helen said. "We like the fact that she has so many women."
During the exhibit, students compete for books and other small prizes in a black history trivia contest. "The trivia contest encourages the girls to come down" and read the posters, Sister Helen said.
She added, "We feel blessed to have Arlene do this for us."
On her way to gym class one day recently, senior Maria Rivera, 17, said she doesn't get a chance to travel the halls often. But when she does, it's valuable.
"I think it's real interesting what she's done with the halls. We've learned a lot about the different contributions black people have made to this country," Maria said.
Growing up, the times were quite different for Mrs. King, who now is in her 50s. She attended a similar all-girls academy in her native New Orleans, but her lessons didn't include black history. The history books then had very little about blacks, she said.
And her teachers were nuns who didn't have extra time to teach students about the contributions of blacks, she said.
Mrs. King moved here in 1968 when her husband Earl landed a job in Maryland.
She began collecting posters in 1977, gathering materials from museums, friends and other resources. "It's not in the history books," she said about black history. "You may find Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman or Martin Luther King, but you don't find many blacks in the history books."
She held her first exhibit at Phelps Luck Elementary School in 1978, where her daughter Rolena, now 22, attended. She also held exhibits at Trinity School in Ilchester, where her son Erroll now 27, was enrolled. Her exhibits also have been held at Talbott Springs Elementary School and the Church of the Resurrection in Ellicott City.
She began the exhibit at Mount De Sales in 1989, where her daughter was a student. By that time she had about 100 posters. She asked the principal if she could hang some posters. "I think she thought I only had two," Mrs. King said. "She was surprised" when there were 50.
When they aren't on display, Mrs. King stores her posters at home flat and in the dark so the colors don't deteriorate. The most expensive ones are those that she's laminated for about $9 each. She spends between $200 and $300 annually on her collection.
"That's not important," she said of the costs. "The important thing is someone is learning. If one person learns -- then I'm happy."