Black History Month gives us 28 days full of learning about experiences and circumstances of the incredible leaders before our time. When we learn about each individual who helped shape this nation into what it is today, our thoughts may wander into thinking what life would be like if a woman named Rosa Parks didn’t refuse to go to the back of the bus , or if Martin Luther King Jr. didn’t fight for the right of equality for all black people. During the month of February, we’re reminded that equality is important for all people, of every color, religion, class and culture.
This month, there are plenty of events happening in Philadelphia that promote learning and open-mindedness in order for us to continue progressing as a nation:
- Independence National Historical Park is hosting The President’s House: Freedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation, which dives deep into the history of freedom and slavery under the presidencies of George Washington and John Adams. The outdoors site is open 24 hours a day, located just outside the Liberty Bell on Independence Mall.
- The Philadelphia Museum of Art presents the exhibition Represent: 200 Years of African American Art, featuring the works of renowned African-American artists now through April 2015. The pieces shown here express personal, political, and racial identities of collective artists such as Henry Ossawa Tanner, Horace Pippin, Jacob Lawrence, Alma Thomas, Martin Puryear, and Carrie Mae Weems.
- Germantown Avenue is keeper of The Johnson House Historic Site, a vital stop in the Underground Railroad movement. Runaway enslaved Africans were hidden in the attic, and the house still displays damages from musket rounds and cannonballs fired during the Revolutionary War’s Battle of Germantown in 1777. Harriet Tubman was sheltered and fed here with the enslaved Africans she would often later guide to Lucretia Mott’s nearby home in Cheltenham.
- The Independence Seaport Museum introduced their Tides of Freedom: African Presence on the Delaware River exhibition in May 2013. This is the first exhibition in the Seaport Museum’s River of Freedom series, curated by University of Pennsylvania Professor of Sociology and African Studies Tukufu Zuberi. Conceived by a committee of leading African-American scholars, this show explores the concept of freedom through the lens of the African experience along the Delaware.
- The National Constitution Center is hosting a month-long celebration of African American history. The interactive Breaking Barriers show spotlights the lives of Thurgood Marshall, Bessie Coleman, Jackie Robinson, and other notable African Americans. With Presidents’ Day coming up, visitors can enter with free admission all day on Monday, February 16. In addition, families can create crafts at special activity tables and hear classic tales from African American history.
Of course, you can always pay a visit to the African American Museum at 701 Arch Street! How are you getting educated and spreading awareness this month?
