A controversial door display at a North Carolina high school has been taken down. Teachers at West Charlotte High School decorated the doors of their classrooms for Black History Month.
One door was Motown themed, one said "and still we rise," and one was decorated with the words “Rosa sat so Martin could walk so Obama and Harris could run," according to a video the high school shared on Facebook. The video featured door displays created by several different teachers, but one was missing: a display with a “Sears Department Store 1930” sign above two doors.
One of the doors beneath the Sears sign was labeled "colored entrance” while the other was labeled "white entrance." Though the door display was meant to be educational, some interpreted it as being offensive.
The school district, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, said the display was taken down shortly after it was put up.
More from LittleThings: White Woman Who Identified Herself As Black Years Ago Recently Fired For OnlyFans Account
In a statement shared with WCCB Charlotte, the school district said, "Once school leadership was made aware of the doors, the displays were immediately removed. This happened over the course of a few hours in one school day on February 14, 2024."
The district also told the outlet that teachers will be "retrained in the specific social studies curriculum practices that can be utilized in lesson plans to teach students.”
According to the school district's statement, history lessons should be "age-appropriate." Some doors decorated by teachers at the school were "inappropriate" and "not aligned to State Standards or with CMS curriculum and approved lesson plans."
Images of the controversial door display were shared across social media platforms like Facebook and X. On Facebook, HBCU Pride Nation shared an image of the doors and asked people what they thought of the display. According to its website, HBCU Pride Nation is "an online platform that promotes the significance, importance and connectivity of HBCU (Historically black colleges and universities) graduates and students."
The post from HBCU Pride Nation was captioned with, "We actually like it because it shows the reality that our ancestors, grandparents and some parents went through. This is simple yet create because of the impact that it will have."
Crisis in the Classroom reported that the teacher who put up the display felt "hurt" when it was taken down, allegedly without being informed about it first, according to her daughter.
On social media, some were surprised by the door display or concerned about how it might be perceived, while some thought it was a powerful way to raise awareness and start conversations.
"When I first looked at it, I thought it was distasteful, and then I thought about the impact it could potentially make… great idea… ," one person wrote on Facebook.
"This is a great display and lesson especially with them trying to eradicate it from our children’s history books," another person wrote.
