Black History Month Activities

Gozaic partners commemorate Black History Month with tours of homes where slaves lived, stories of the Underground Railroad, a festival celebrating African-American history and more.

New Castle Court House Museum, New Castle, Delaware
Network to Freedom and Emeline Hawkins: Her Journey from Slavery to Freedom on the Underground Railroad , Ongoing Exhibits
In honor of Black History Month, the New Castle Court House Museum in historic New Castle, Delaware, is hosting an exhibit titled “Network to Freedom.” This display explores the building’s connection to the Underground Railroad, for it was here in the nation’s first state capitol and court that abolitionist Thomas Garrett was tried and found guilty. Additionally, the Court House Museum features an ongoing exhibit titled “Emeline Hawkins: Her Journey from Slavery to Freedom on the Underground Railroad.” This exhibit chronicles the compelling story of Emeline Hawkins and her family and their 1845 odyssey from slavery in Maryland, as they travelled through Delaware on the Underground Railroad to freedom in Pennsylvania.

Mount Vernon, Mount Vernon, Virginia
Slave Life at Mount Vernon Tour, Feb. 2010
In observance of Black History Month, Mount Vernon interpreters, stationed at the slave quarters, highlight the lives and contributions of the slaves who built and operated the plantation home of George and Martha Washington. Throughout the month, a daily “Slave Life at Mount Vernon” tour explores the lives and contributions of the slaves who lived at Mount Vernon. A wreath-laying and presentation occurs daily at noon at the slave memorial site, throughout February.

Apalachicola, Florida
African-American History Festival, Feb. 20, 2010
Join the day-long celebration at the seventh annual African-American History Festival on Feb. 20, 2010, at the 6th Street Recreation Center in Apalachicola. Festivities include a parade, music, education and fun for the kids. The Hillside Coalition of Laborers in Apalachicola (H'COLA), a group of men and women with strong ties to their community, hosts the festival.

Louis Armstrong House Museum, Corona (Queens), New York
Celebrating Louis Armstrong: Jazz Great & Civil Rights Pioneer, Feb. 20 & 27, 2010
Louis Armstrong was one of the world's greatest entertainers: a genius trumpeter and singer, a goodwill ambassador, charismatic movie star, prolific writer and talented collage artist. But he was rarely viewed as a civil rights pioneer. In honor of Black History Month, the Louis Armstrong House Museum staff offers weekly family-friendly presentations on the life and legacy of Louis Armstrong, including a look at the many barriers Armstrong broke during his remarkable 50-year career. The presentations explore Armstrong's controversial response to the Little Rock Nine school desegregation crisis in 1957, when he refused to go on a State Department-sponsored tour to the Soviet Union. View the FBI file that carefully tracked Armstrong's whereabouts after his public call for change. Reservations required.

James Madison’s Montpelier, Montpelier Station, Virginia
The Montpelier Train Depot – In the Time of Segregation, Feb. 21, 2010
The opening of James Madison's Montpelier's newest exhibit: “The Montpelier Train Depot – In the Time of Segregation” uses the authentically restored 1910-era building to teach about the Jim Crow period of segregation in the space where it actually happened. The exhibit uses the old segregated colored and white waiting rooms to show the reality of racism that African- American travelers confronted during this period, and lets visitors examine first-hand the fallacy of "separate but equal." This exhibit opens Feb. 21 at 2 p.m. Admission to the opening is free. There is a fee for the day’s lectures and reception.

Colonial Williamsburg, Williamsburg, Virginia,
From Freedom to Slavery Program, Feb. 27, 2010
A variety of programs at Colonial Williamsburg help you discover how colonial African Virginians fought for their individual and collective freedom in the face of a slave society. “From Freedom to Slavery” presents the compelling story of Elizabeth, an enslaved African-American woman, forced back into slavery after living free with the Shawnee Indians on the western frontier.

Photos top to bottom: Louis Armstrong at home with neighborhood kids, late 1960s, courtesy of Louis Armstrong House Museum; Colonial Williamsburg.