MILTON — Emma Philbrook, a student at Milton High School, was one of several students statewide who received recognition earlier this month on Vermont History Day.
The event on April 2 was a combination of in-person and virtual presentations that included physical displays, websites, talks, performances and presentations. Around 170 students from 17 schools and districts took part in this year’s competition, for which the theme was “Debate and Diplomacy in History.”
Philbrook’s project about the history of the Kake Walk at the University of Vermont took first place in the senior individual exhibit category and won the George F. Edmunds Memorial Prize.
MHS teacher Matt Heald assisted her with the project, which studied the Kake Walk, an event in which UVM students performed in blackface. The tradition started in the 1880s and was not canceled until 1969.
On Vermont History Day, students’ work was reviewed by teams of volunteer judges composed of local historians, educators and other professionals from the community.
The Vermont Historical Society has been running Vermont History Day since 198 and has sent hundreds of students in that time to the National History Day competition.
This year’s National History Day will take place online in June, and a number of Vermont students qualified, including Philbrook.
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