A student dressed as Sheryl Lee Ralph for a Black History Month project — and Sheryl Lee Ralph approves
Getting a perfect score was probably not even the best part.
Lots of kids do school projects about their heroes, but almost none ever hear from them, let alone get a personal thank you. And viral kudos on the internet? Dream on.
That is, unless you are Emily Fleming, age 10. The fifth grader from Susquehanna Township chose Abbott Elementary Emmy winner Sheryl Lee Ralph as the subject of her Black History Month assignment. On Thursday, the actress and original Dreamgirl posted a photo of Emily and her research on Twitter, accompanied by high praise.
“This girl made me the subject of her Black history project and even took the time to create an Emmy and dress like me!” tweeted Ralph, who plays master teacher Barbara Howard in the hit show about a fictional Philadelphia public school.
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For Emily, it was an honor.
“Ms. Ralph makes me just go, wow!” Emily said. “Her work is amazing. She is nice and kind, and she inspires me to be a good person.”
Emily is a big Abbott Elementary fan, and as a musical theater kid, she admires Ralph’s many talents. Emily has Type 1 diabetes, and so it was Ralph’s activism that made her especially want to choose her for her subject.
“Her AIDS activism inspired me, and I want to be like Ms. Ralph and donate my time and money to help support JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation),” Emily said.
Emily not only had to do a lot of research into Ralph’s life, but she also presented her project before community and student audiences in character, as Ralph, down to wearing a gown and carrying a purse to resemble her ensemble at the Emmys. She even created an Emmy statue.
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Emily had never met Ralph before she decided to focus her research project on her, but her family and the singer-actress’ family do have a bit of a connection. Emily’s father is state Rep. Justin C. Fleming, and Ralph’s husband is state Sen. Vincent J. Hughes. Emily’s mother, Lisa Fleming, is deputy director of the state Senate Appropriations Committee. Hughes is the committee’s Democratic chairman.
Lisa Fleming said Emily texted and emailed Ralph to get her facts right and had a brief conversation at the end of her research. Ralph thanked Emily for choosing her, the student’s mother said.
Tamaura Woodson, Emily’s teacher at Thomas W. Holtzman Jr. Elementary School, said she started the project called Blacks in Wax in honor of the Baltimore museum years ago. Students are encouraged to interview someone in their future career field. (Woodson, by the way, also enjoys Abbott Elementary: “Yes, hilarious!”)
Keith Edmonds, Holtzman’s principal, sees a bit of himself in Abbott’s Mr. Eddie — he’s also from Baltimore and his father is a retired military officer.
He, too, is proud of Emily — an avid learner and leader who mentors new students. She got a perfect score on her presentation, he said.
The nearly 57,000 and counting likes on Twitter couldn’t have agreed more.
“That’s too sweet,” tweeted one person.
“What a cutie, and she’s inspired by a beauty,” wrote another.
“This is so awesome!” read another tweet. “Congrats to you both!”