Four students from La Vega ISD’s H.P. Miles Intermediate campus will represent Texas at the National History Day competition next week after earning first place in the Junior Group Performance category at state competitions in April.
The trip marks the first time a team from the district has advanced to the national competition since 1984, according to reporting from the Waco Tribune-Herald.
“It’s like we’re making history,” sixth-grader Riley Satchell said.
The sixth-grade team of T’Najah Gilliam, Campbell Baldwin, Sariyah Dancer and Riley Satchell created a performance based on the story of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, nicknamed the Six Triple Eight. The all-black, all-female unit was assigned to clear a three-year backlog of military mail during World War II.
“They went through change in how people looked at them because most people didn’t really like black women, they didn’t think they would do it,” Satchell said of the Six Triple Eight. “They changed the way people looked [at them]”
Each year, students competing in National History Day create projects around a common historical theme. This year’s theme was “Revolution, Reaction, Reform in History.”
Students can choose from a list of suggested topics, or find their own, as long as the project fits that theme. The La Vega project came from a suggestion Gilliam had after watching the 2024 film “The Six Triple Eight.” She credits their success with that decision.
“The Six Triple Eight isn’t really a popular topic people would talk about in normal conversation. It would be hard to bring so much interest in something they’ve [judges] heard about a thousand times,” Gillian said.
Baldwin said she remembers practicing every chance the group had, and that work paid off.
At the regional competition, La Vega placed second behind a seventh-grade team from Lake Air Montessori. Only the top two projects in each category advance through each round of competition. At state, La Vega took first place.
“It was almost like before you go on a roller coaster,” Gilliam said. “It was exciting but nervous.”
“We didn’t even let them finish, we just got up. That’s how excited we were,” Satchell added.
At state and national competitions, projects can win awards in sponsored categories, representing outstanding research in a specialized topic, like legal or military history. At state, the team won the “Willie Lee Gay Award for African-American History.”
That gave the girls a sense of pride for themselves and their community.
“It was good to have attention brought to us, especially because we were doing something on an African American storyline,” Gilliam said.
“I’m a young black girl as well, so I would take all the stuff that I’m doing, I would do it with pride,” Baldwin added. “I would always do it how the Six Triple Eight did it.”
And, Satchell said, learning about the women in the 688th Battalion taught the girls the importance of teamwork and resilience.
“No matter if anybody supports you, just keep going, because that’s how the women did,” she said.
“Always just keep pushing, even if no one believes in you,” Gilliam added.
National History Day will take place June 14-18 at the University of Maryland.
The team from H.P. Miles will be joined by another Waco-area team from Waco ISD’s Lake Air Montessori School which also qualified for the national competition in the Junior Performance Division.
Got a tip? Email Molly-Jo Tilton at Molly-jo_tilton@baylor.edu.
KWBU is made possible through the generosity of our members. If you find this reporting valuable, consider making a tax-deductible gift today. Thank you.
