12 destinations where you can learn about Black history in America

Editor’s note: This post has been updated.

What began as Negro History Week — established by historian Carter G. Woodson in February 1926 — evolved into Black History Month decades later in 1976.

The annual observance honors, celebrates and preserves the memory of the people who selflessly sacrificed to break racial barriers for freedom, equity, inclusion, integration and equal rights.

It is more critical than ever to embrace these stories and not avoid the unpleasant past that shaped this nation, especially in the current political climate where historical truths are being violently erased and rewritten.

Learning about Black history and culture shouldn’t be limited to Black History Month. These cities and states are excellent places to learn more about Black history and the legendary trailblazers who have shaped Black culture, life and history in the U.S. at any time of year.

Buffalo, New York

Founded in 1935, The Colored Musicians Club and Jazz Museum in Buffalo welcomed Black artists, providing a safe place to perform and enjoy music when they were often denied entry to other clubs and venues. The museum will reopen this spring following a $2.95 million renovation and expansion, with interactive exhibits and artifacts chronicling the Black social club scene and musician unions during the Jim Crow era.

Together with the Buffalo African American Museum, the Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center operates a bus tour that honors freedom seekers and abolitionists in the Niagara Falls area. At the Forest Lawn Cemetery stop, learn more about Mary Burnett Talbert, the radical woman who opened her home for meetings of the Niagara Movement. Those meetings were pivotal in strategizing civil rights campaigns and a precursor to forming the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or NAACP.

Alabama

Called the birthplace of civil rights, Montgomery was home to many activists and movements that propelled change in this county.

The Rosa Parks Museum at Troy University’s Montgomery campus takes visitors beyond textbooks to learn about the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The exhibit starts with a feature film of people of all races speaking about what it was like to protest segregation and racial injustices in their city. You are then ushered into a room for a digital reenactment of the night Rosa Parks was arrested, projected from a replica of the Cleveland Avenue bus.

Just two blocks away from the museum is a statue of Rosa Parks near the location where she stood for the bus Dec. 1, 1955 — the day that etched her name into history.

The museum also discusses the Freedom Riders, a heroic group (including the late Congressman John Lewis) who set out to challenge segregation at bus stations while riding from Washington, D.C., to New Orleans. Part of the former Greyhound station in Montgomery, where an angry mob violently met these riders, has been converted into the Freedom Rides Museum. Pieces of the “For Coloreds Only” waiting area and boarding platform remain intact.

Another noteworthy stop in the city is the Dr. Richard Harris House, a safe house and a strategic planning location for the Freedom Riders and other civil rights movements throughout Montgomery in the Centennial Hill area.

Mobile is another city rich in Black culture and history. Just a few miles from downtown is Africatown, formed by 32 West Africans who were in the last known shipment of illegal enslaved people to the U.S. This historic site is part of Mobile’s African-American Heritage Trail.

Nashville

Nashville has a rich Black history. Although other sit-ins had taken place in the years prior, on Feb. 13, 1960, 124 students from historically Black colleges and universities around Nashville staged sit-ins at Kress, Woolworth and McClellan lunch counters around town.

The students continued their sit-ins and expanded to other locations but were eventually met with violence Feb. 27, a day that also resulted in 81 arrests. After refusing to pay the associated fine of $50, the students spent a little more than 30 days in jail. Woolworth has been rebranded as Woolworth Theatre and has a historical marker outside its doors.

Of course, music has always been an intrinsic part of Black culture and has inspired major genres and musical phenomenons. The National Museum of African American Music takes you through the evolution of music from hymns to folk music, bluegrass, jazz and present-day hip-hop. Here, you can learn about the pioneers in these genres while curating a personal playlist of songs. You can even enjoy a dance room and a recording studio during your visit.

For tours specific to Black history in Nashville, book through United Street Tours.

Western Massachusetts and Connecticut

While there are plenty of Black history landmarks to explore throughout New England, if you only have time to make one stop, it should be the New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks, Connecticut. The exhibit “The Tuskegee Airmen: Their Untold Stories” beautifully recounts the history of the first Black airmen in the U.S. military through interviews with surviving members and their families. 

Head to the Berkshires to see the Elizabeth Freeman Monument in Sheffield, Massachusetts. Installed in 2022, this 8-foot bronze statue honors the legacy of Elizabeth Freeman, the first African American woman to sue for her freedom in the state. Her successful lawsuit contributed to the abolition of legal slavery in Massachusetts in the 1780s.

Kansas City, Missouri

The epicenter of Black culture in Kansas City is in the historic 18th and Vine neighborhood, also known as the Jazz District. At a time when Black residents were facing housing restrictions, the area was filled with successful Black businesses. Medical practices, churches, restaurants and hotels built by people living and working in the area created a sustainable and thriving community. That community still exists today and preserves the stories of perseverance and triumph through cultural entertainment.

The Black Archives of Mid-America is dedicated to highlighting the contributions of Black people in the region through exhibits and artifacts. As an extension of the Equal Justice Initiative, a memorial is dedicated to Black Americans who were lynched throughout Missouri. The building is former Firehouse No. 11, Kansas City’s first Black fire company.

Mutual Musicians Foundation, now a National Register of Historic Places site, was created in 1917 as a gathering place for Black musicians. It was here those musicians found refuge and could safely rehearse. Artists and musicians still gather here on weekends for late-night jam sessions.

You can learn more about the history and influence of jazz in Kansas City at the American Jazz Museum, which takes you through a hands-on visual and sonic experience while you learn about local and international legendary jazz musicians like Charlie Parker, Jay McShann and Pearl Bailey. Interactive mixing rooms allow you to try creating your own jazz sound, and there are live performances at the Blue Room throughout the week. 

Baseball, America’s favorite pastime, was not always the diverse sport it is now. It wasn’t until April 1947 that Major League Baseball had a Black player, Jackie Robinson, who started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers. The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City pays homage to players such as Robinson and Satchel Paige, and it’s just a few blocks from the YMCA, where the Negro League was formed in 1920. Immerse yourself in the stories of baseball’s unsung heroes and legends through interactive computer stations, artifacts and the Hall of Fame locker room.

New Orleans

From jazz music to Creole cuisine, Black culture has a rich tapestry in the bayou — and there’s no better place to start than The George & Leah McKenna Museum of African American Art. The museum houses a private collection of documents, artifacts and art that immerses viewers in Black excellence from the 18th century to the present.

Next up is Le Musee de f.p.c., a historic house museum. It’s one of the few attractions dedicated exclusively to telling the story and preserving the material culture of free people of color. Also owned by the McKenna family, Le Musee de f.p.c comprises a collection of documents, paintings and decorative arts that simultaneously interpret and preserve the history and culture shared by many free people of African descent in New Orleans and throughout the country.

Another historic landmark to add to your itinerary is Congo Square, formerly Place de Negres. This area is known for being a gathering area of enslaved people, who, on Sundays, would spend their day off selling goods, singing and playing music.

And who can come to New Orleans and not experience the cuisine? After opening in 1941 as a sandwich shop, Dooky Chase’s Restaurant quickly became the meeting place for civil rights, entertainment and culture. The late Leah Chase, known as the Queen of Creole Cuisine, turned the shop into one of the first African American fine-dining restaurants in the U.S. By adding the work of Black artists to the walls of the restaurant, Dooky Chase’s became the first art gallery for Black artists in New Orleans.

Greensboro, North Carolina

Established in 1891, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University — a top historically Black college in the U.S. — is in Greensboro. This illustrious university has a long-standing history and a significant role in civil rights for African Americans.

On Feb. 1, 1960, Jibreel Khazan (then known as Ezell Blair Jr.), Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil and David Richmond — four first-year students at A&T — helped initiate sit-in demonstrations. The sit-in occurred at Woolworth’s when the four sat at a whites-only lunch counter. They became known as the A&T Four, and their nonviolent protest propelled a wave of similar sit-ins that ultimately played a key role in ending segregation in North Carolina and across the South, including the Feb. 13 sit-in in Nashville.

The site is now a historic landmark that gave birth to the International Civil Rights Center & Museum, which refers to itself as “an innovative social justice educational organization devoted to the understanding and advancement of civil and human rights at home and around the world.”

In a wooded area of the Guilford College campus is a path traveled by many seeking freedom, also known as the Greensboro Underground Railroad. Here, you can walk the path to the Underground Railroad Tree in a self-guided tour that simulates how fugitives navigated the area with the help of abolitionists and local African Americans, free and enslaved.

In 1949, The Historic Magnolia House, formerly the Daniel D. DeButts House, opened its doors to provide a place for Black travelers. It is believed that it was one of the only hotels that provided lodging for African American travelers between Richmond, Virginia, and Atlanta during Jim Crow. The hotel, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was featured in six editions of Victor Hugo Green’s “Green Book” and is also believed to be the only “Green Book” hotel still in operation within North Carolina.

Celebrities such as Duke Ellington, James Baldwin, Tina Turner and Ray Charles all resided at the hotel during their performances and travels in the area. Currently, the hotel is open for stays, brunch and special events.

Related: A conversation with Candacy Taylor, curator of the Smithsonian’s ‘Green Book’ exhibition

Los Angeles

When we speak about Black history, it’s important to remember how multifaceted this history is, and we would be remiss to leave out the heroic actions of Black people who shaped the progression of LGBTQIA+ rights and freedoms.

One such hero is Jewel Thais-Williams, a nightclub pioneer who opened Jewel’s Catch One bar in Los Angeles in 1973. Her establishment was hailed as an “epicenter for gay Black life,” serving as a safe space where people could let loose and be themselves at a time when police were arresting people for their sexual preferences. While the establishment has changed its name to just Catch One, it is still open.

Also in Los Angeles, The African American Firefighter Museum pays homage to Black firefighters, including Sam Haskins, who was listed as the first Los Angeles fireman of African lineage when he was hired in 1892. With an array of documents, equipment, artifacts, photos and stories, the AAFFM was the country’s first free-standing African American firefighter museum.

No trip to the City of Angels is complete without visiting Watts Coffee House, a venue that sought to revive the historic Watts Happening Coffee House. Watts Happening became a gathering place for artists and activists following the Watts Rebellion in 1965, when the neighborhood was burned to the ground in response to the arrest of a Black man by white law enforcement. Just across the street from the original location, the current coffee shop preserves the legacy of Watts Happening.

New York City

Starting as a small luncheonette with only six booths and 15 stools in 1962, the legendary Harlem restaurant Sylvia’s is helmed by namesake Sylvia Woods, known as the Queen of Soul Food. This establishment has long been a staple in the Black community, garnering the attention of foodies, politicians, celebrities and TV shows.

Famous African American poet and author Langston Hughes is one of the most well-known creatives credited with being a part of the Harlem Renaissance. His home, where he spent the last 20 years of his life creating some of his most popular literary works, is a registered historic landmark in Harlem.

While open to the public for tours and viewings, Hughes’ residence is also home to the I, Too, Arts Collective, a nonprofit organization committed to nurturing creativity within underrepresented communities.

Another site is the famous Apollo Theater, which opened its doors to Black people in 1934. It hosted weekly talent shows and birthed the careers of some of the world’s most famous entertainers, including Marvin Gaye and James Brown. Visitors can still attend live performances and events at the music hall.

New Jersey

New Jersey’s relevance in Black history dates back to the 1600s when the first captive Africans were brought to the mid-Atlantic area by Colonial settlers.

Now, the Black Heritage Trail spans the state, identifying historical landmarks, Black-owned businesses and historic homes to commemorate the contributions of past and present residents.

Noteworthy spots along the trail include the Scotch Hills Country Club (renamed Shady Rest), the first Black-owned golf and country club in the U.S. In the northern part of the state, the first Black church in Morristown, the Bethel Church of Morristown, was established in 1843. 

The story of abolitionist Harriet Tubman has many layers, but Cape May plays an integral part. Tubman lived and worked in this town — famous for its beaches, boardwalks and Victorian-style homes — using her income to fund her mission of freeing enslaved people. 

The Harriet Tubman Museum outlines her life, her work in Cape May and her journeys. You can also take an Underground Railroad Trolley Tour around the city to learn more about the area’s history and enslaved people’s passage, using the Cape May lighthouse as a guide through treacherous waters.

This spring, the renovated Paul Robeson House will open in Princeton to honor ​​the life and legacy of Paul Robeson, the son of an enslaved man who dedicated his life to activism and was also a professional football player, actor and singer.

Providence

You may not think of Rhode Island as a place to learn about Black history, but the state’s capital, Providence, has many stories to tell. The self-guided Providence Walks Early Black History Tour pinpoints those sites.

At the Providence Gazette, you can see the ads of yesteryear placed to sell enslaved people, as well as ads seeking assistance to capture runaway enslaved people. The site truly magnifies Providence’s role in upholding slavery through the power of media.

Along the tour is a stop at Mount Hope Sharing Garden, which recognizes the enslaved and free Black farmers of Rhode Island. Here, you can learn more about how the crops aided their survival long after enslavement.

Another important part of the tour is the Snowtown Riot Plaque, which honors the five people who lost their lives in 1831 when a white mob terrorized Black neighborhoods in Providence for four days.

Seattle

Black history in Washington state dates back to approximately 1845 when a man from Missouri, George W. Bush, his wife, Isabella, and their five children (along with several other families) settled in the southern Puget Sound area now known as Bush Prairie. African Americans continued to flock to the state, and many were recruited for work in coal mines.

In later years, the prevalence of Black people in the area was also the result of immigration from African countries such as Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia.

With a mission to share the “evolution of its Black community” in the Pacific Northwest, the Northwest African American Museum tells the story of the area’s Black history, present and future through art, artifacts and exhibits.

As the population grew through the centuries, so did the African American influence on music.

The city had a bustling jazz scene from the early to mid-1900s. It’s where legends like Ernestine Anderson and Ray Charles got their start. Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley and The Royal Room celebrate the contributions of local artists, capturing the soulful essence of clubs at that time.

The Jimi Hendrix Memorial, located in Greenwood Memorial Park cemetery, celebrates the life of the international musician and guitarist who called Seattle home.

Bottom line

There is no American history without unveiling the secrets and truths of Black history. From settlement after enslavement to building bustling communities within the cities across this nation, we can find the intricate stories of triumph and perseverance woven into the tapestry of the U.S.

In February and beyond, those stories should be told and magnified. To learn more, visit any of the locations mentioned above or any of the 130-plus sites on the U.S. Civil Rights Trail.