A Greenwich teacher who taught herself to edit videos and make thumbnails during lockdown has seen her children’s Black history project grow into a platform recognised by broadcasters and YouTube.
Keighley Douglas founded Kids Black History in 2020 after noticing what she described as a lack of diversity in teaching resources for younger children.
Working with her daughter Raiyah Douglas, now 11, she began creating videos introducing children to Black historical figures, achievements and culture, with the aim of making learning feel fun and accessible.
Douglas said: “I wanted to do it in a way that would be nice for children to be able to learn in a way that doesn’t feel like they’re learning, it feels fun, it’s accessible and absorbable.”
She wanted children to encounter positive role models before some of the more difficult subjects associated with Black history, while connecting lesser-known stories to music, art and other school subjects.
Douglas said classroom discussions too often returned to familiar topics such as civil rights and Windrush, rather than exploring the wider range of Black history.
The project has since collaborated with children’s broadcaster Milkshake!, while Douglas said YouTube had invited them to discussions and industry events. The mother and daughter also appeared on ITV’s This Morning in October.
But Douglas said the early years involved a steep learning curve. She initially handled much of the work herself, learning to mix audio, edit videos and create thumbnails while managing the channel’s output.
Douglas said: “You’re learning how to mix, you’re learning how to edit, you’re learning how to create thumbnails, and it’s been a process.”
As the audience grew, Douglas said the workload became overwhelming.
She said: “As the platform has grown, and it got there very quickly because the need for this content was out there, it was quite overwhelming because it was just me.”
Douglas subsequently built a wider team that included editors and scriptwriters to help manage the growing platform.
For Raiyah, presenting the videos has also been an education.
Raiyah said: “I enjoy teaching children about Black history because when I’m in the process of teaching children Black history, I’ve also learned things myself.
“It’s not just about Windrush and slavery. There’s so much more to it.”
She pointed to stories such as inventor Lonnie Johnson, who created the Super Soaker water gun, as examples of the subjects covered by the channel.
Raiyah described appearing on This Morning as exciting and said pupils at her school recognised her afterwards. She said the programme’s presenters made her feel comfortable on live television.
The project is also experimenting with music as a way to teach children. Douglas said the team released a song at the end of August and was exploring how music could become a bigger part of its educational content.
With the channel currently attracting around 49,000 YouTube subscribers, Raiyah hopes it will reach 100,000, the threshold for YouTube’s Silver Creator Award, and wants more people to discover Black history beyond the topics they already know.
For Douglas, the ambition is to keep finding engaging ways to make that wider history part of children’s everyday learning.
Feature image courtesy of Keighley Douglas, with thanks
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