There are many interesting and educational things to do across the state during "Black History Month" Just click on the links below for more information.

GREATER BOSTON

Boston African American NHS

Museum of African American History

African American Patriots Tour
Tales of intrigue and bravery, poetry and defiance by Black Bostonians will unfold during the 90 minute African-American Patriots walking tour offered by the Freedom Trail Foundation. Visit the sites of key important to both the revolution and the Abolitionist movement that led to the Civil War. Led by costumed guides, visitors view history through the eyes of revolutionaries such as Crispus Attucks, Phillis Wheatley, Peter Salem, Prince Hall and others.
The Freedom Trail

Roxbury's Black History trolley tour
Join us on an informative trolley tour through three centuries of Boston's historic Black neighborhoods. Follow the progression of the Black churches, gain an appreciation for the importance of the arts, learn about the struggles during the civil rights movement, and become more familiar with the movers, shakers, and strivers in Roxbury's Black history.
Trolley departs:
12:30pm: Roxbury Heritage State Park/DCR, 183 Roxbury St
12:50pm: Hotel 140, 140 Clarendon St (former YWCA)
Purchase tickets ($25) online or by calling 617-427-1006.

JFK Presidential Library and Museum

The Presidency and Civil Rights
February 20
JFK Presidential Library and Museum
Please join us for this half-day conference examining key civil rights milestones from FDR through LBJ and how the lessons learned from this history apply to the challenges of our time.

Mad River Theater Works’ Freedom Bound
Hibernian Hall, 184 Dudley St., Roxbury
February 12 & 13
A musical play that tells the true story of Addison White, an escaped slave from Kentucky who traveled north in 1851 on the Underground Railroad

NORTH OF BOSTON

Walking Tour: African American Heritage Site North of Boston
Site 1: Hamilton Hall – 9 Chestnut Street
Hamilton Hall was designed by the famous architect Samuel McIntire and built in 1805. In the early nineteenth century, Hamilton Hall was the center of the catering business of John Remond, an immigrant from the Caribbean Island of Curacao.
Site 2: Harmony Grove Cemetery – 30 Grove Street
Harmony Grove Cemetery was consecrated in 1840 and is a beautiful example of “rural garden” cemetery, with landscaped trees and winding paths. This cemetery holds the burial plots of many members of the Remond family. Charles Lenox Remond shares a common marker with many of his family. He was one of the first African Americans to be paid to lecture on the abolitionist circuit.
Site 3: Salem Lyceum – 43 Church Street
The Salem Lyceum opened in 1831, and its rows of banked seats quickly filled with residents of Salem eager to watch demonstrations, lectures, and concerts. Many activists in the abolitionist movement came to the Lyceum. The hall was also used for meetings and lectures by the Salem Female Anti-Slavery Society, whose members included the noted African American abolitionists Charlotte Forten and Sarah Parker Remond.
Site 4: African American Sailors - Pond Street In the 1830s and 40s, Pond Street was home to an ethnically diverse population and included many of Salem’s sailors. Between 1842 and 1846, approximately 46% of African American males with an occupation listed in the Salem City Directories were sailors.
Site 5: Charles A. Benson, Sailor - Rice Street
Charles Benson was an outstanding sailor who lived on both Pond Street and Rice Street. He sailed for twenty years, and because of his skill he earned more than the able bodied seamen in his crew.
Site 6: Cedar Street Like Pond Street, Cedar Street was home to several African American families. During the Civil War, several residents of the street served in the Union Army.
Site 7: Cemetery Howard Street - Howard Street
When the Howard Street Cemetery was established in 1801, a portion was dedicated to Salem’s African American population. Many prominent members of the African American community are buried in the cemetery.

SOUTH OF BOSTON

23nd Annual National African American Read-In
February 8, 9,10th 2012
Bristol Community College
1st Opening Ceremony with African Drummers 12:30pm
Enjoy the literature, poetry, and writings of prominent African-Americans. Join Farah Habib, instructor of English and multi-cultural literature in reading from an array of works from writers and leaders including Langston Hughes, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr. and Nikki Giovanni
Bristol Community College, at The H building, brick area and 1st African Drummers G Building, 77 Elsbree St. Fall river, 508-678-2811
Wed., Feb 8: 9:30am-12:15 pm

Bristol Community College at the Attleboro Center Auditorium,
11 Field Road, Attleboro, MA 508-226-2484 x2208
Thurs., Feb. 9: 12:30pm-1:45 pm

Bristol Community College, at the New Bedford Campus
800 Purchase St ,New Bedford, MA 508 678-2811 x2208
Fri., Feb. 10: 11:00am-1:00pm

"American to the Backbone: The Life of James W.C. Pennington"
February 23, 2012, 7:00pm
Webber has written a richly detailed, wide-ranging biography of James W.C. Pennington, a black educator, clergyman, orator, author and abolitionist who was born a slave in 1807. Pennington fled north at the age of19. Illiterate and so ignorant he had never heard of the Underground Railroad, he encountered it after reaching the North. Within five years, he was teaching, preaching and participating in the earliest national black-activist organizations. He emerged as a leader in black churches in New England and became a major player in the beginnings of the international movement to end slavery.
The Friends Meeting House, 83 Spring Street
508) 979-8828

CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS

African American Heritage Trail - Martha's Vineyard

Museum of African American History - Nantucket

Central Mass

Fruits of Freedom
Worcester Art Museum
February 12 & 23
As part of its Black History Month celebration and in conjunction with its current exhibit, In Search of Julien Hudson: Free Artist of Color in Pre-Civil War New Orleans, the Worcester Art Museum, 55 Salisbury Street, Worcester, will host two lectures this month. On Sunday, February 12th at 2 p.m. join professor Janette Greenwood, author of First Fruits of Freedom: The Migration of Former Slaves and their Search for Equality in Worcester, exploring the worlds of free people of color in both the American South and New England. On Thursday, February 23rd at 6 p.m., WAM invites you to join them and guest speaker Justin D. Poche, assistant professor of history at the College of the Holy Cross, for a lecture The Ghost of Pere Antoine: Afro-Creole Traditions and the Making of New Orleans Catholicism. Both lectures are free with museum admission

Western Mass

WE ARE THE SHIP: The Story of Negro League Baseball
Original Paintings by Kadir Nelson
February 7-June 10, 2012
Award-winning artist and author Kadir Nelson spent seven years researching, writing, and creating striking oil paintings to be included in the brilliantly illustrated book, WE ARE THE SHIP: The Story of Negro League Baseball, which is dedicated to the preservation of the history of the Negro Leagues. During the process of creating the book, Nelson interviewed former Negro League players, traveled to museums around the country, pored over old photographs, firsthand testimonies and documentaries, and collected baseball memorabilia. He posed and photographed himself in original uniforms with the intention of putting himself in the shoes of a former Negro Leaguer to recreate an authentic depiction of life in baseball’s Negro Leagues.
Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art
125 West Bay Road, Amherst

The Pan African Historical Museum USA (PAHMUSA)
Tower Square, Springfield
413-733-1823

The African American Film Festival
2/8 – “A Warm December”
2/11 – “A Warm December”
2/18 – “Happily Ever After” with Whoopi Goldberg, Samuel Jackson
2/25 – “Tuskegee Airmen”
Donation requested - $7
Each showing held at PAHMUSA, Tower Square, Springfield
12 noon
Reservations required. 413-733-1823

Testing the Ice: A True Story about Jackie Robinson
Through May 6, 2012
Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, 125 West Bay Road, Amherst
Testing the Ice by Sharon Robinson, an educational consultant for Major League Baseball and vice chairman of the Jackie Robinson Foundation, and illustrated by the award-winning Kadir Nelson is a story about her father, baseball legend Jackie Robinson. The original art for the book as well as numerous preliminary sketches will be on view in the museum’s Central Gallery.

A Tribute to Richard Yarde
R. Michelson Galleries, 132 Main Street, Northampton
Richard Yarde's vision was about healing: physical, cultural, intellectual, and spiritual. From the portrayals of African American icons to explorations of his own illness, his work encompassed the wide range of the human experience: from isolation to perseverance, triumph and pure joy.

Race: The Power of Illusion
February 12, 19, & 26, 2012
Triplex Cinema, Great Barrington
In honor of W.E.D Dubois’ birthday and Black History Month, the documentary: Race, The Power of Illusion will be shown at 11am followed by facilitated discussions led by Multicultural BRIDGE Race Task Forces. Admission is free.

Norman Rockwell Museum
Rockwell’s Vision on Civil Rights
February 10, 2012
Curator of Education Tom Daly will be presenting a lecture starting at 2:30 p.m., exploring Norman Rockwell’s powerful visual commentary on the subject of civil rights. The event is free with Museum admission, free for members.

MASS MoCA Sanford Biggers: The Cartographer's Conundrum
Ongoing
The Cartographer's Conundrum is a major multi-disciplinary installation By New York-based artist Sanford Biggers inspired by the Houston, Texas based artist, scholar and Afro-futurist John Biggers (1924-2001). A cousin of his subject, Sanford Biggers' goal is to both study and expand the emerging genre of Afro-futurism, which engages science-fiction, cosmology and technology to create a new folklore of the African Diaspora while simultaneously illuminating the underrepresented career of master painter and muralist John Biggers. Open daily 11am -5pm; closed Tuesdays.

Williams College Museum of Art African Americans and the American Scene, 1929-1945
Through April 22
African Americans and the American Scene, 1929-1945 explores the role of African Americans in the visual and performing arts during the Great Depression.

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