5-Year-Old Girl Dressed Up As 28 Iconic Figures For Black History Month

Cristi Smith-Jones has posted photos of her daughter dressed as historical black figures since 2017. Photos are shared to her Twitter account, along with stories and pictures that highlight black culture.

Cristi Smith-Jones is a Seattle resident that celebrates Black History Month by doing something unique. Ever since February 2017, she has taken pictures of Lola, her daughter, and posted them on Twitter. She does this to celebrate black culture and history and her daughter is dressed up as significant, black historical figures. She also re-creates images from art and literature.

CNN ran a story on Smith-Jones in 2017 and she told them how the idea started. Lola was only five years old at the time and she told her parents after coming home from kindergarten that she had learned about Martin Luther King Jr. in school. Her parents then came up with the idea to get their daughter involved and more connected to that history. Lola loved dressing up, so a photo project was started by Smith-Jones in 2017, on the first day of Black History Month. It began with her daughter dressed as Nina Simone.

In 2017, black women were the primary focus of the project. It included Dr. Mae Jemison, the first black female astronaut, and Rosa Parks.

The first black woman promoted to principal dancer in American Ballet Theatre, ballerina Misty Copeland, was the focus of the following picture:

Smith-Jones started to change things in 2018. Along with honoring black women, they also started focusing on black men. Additional focus was also put on black culture, including books, plays, paintings, and poems. Lola would dress up as those characters, in addition to dressing up as real people.

This picture is Shuri from “Black Panther”:

The photo series continued in 2018 and 2019. On the first two days of February this year, Smith-Jones got things started again.

The focus on February 1 was a picture of her daughter dressed up as Janet Jackson when she was a child. On February 2, she was Mamie Smith.

Smith-Jones made the announcement on February 3 that she would not be continuing to re-create pictures. She said that she would still share pictures and stories highlighting black culture daily during Black History Month. She also said that exciting news was coming soon.

Even though it is disappointing that we won’t see the pictures as in years past, there are still plenty from the past few years to peruse.
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