February is Black History Month, and the first Black History Month took place at Kent State University in 1970 after Black educators and the Black United Students proposed a way to honor and highlight the African diaspora’s shared history.

Six years after the first celebration at Kent State, Black History Month was being celebrated all across our country in educational institutions, centers of Black culture and community centers, both great and small. When President Gerald Ford recognized Black History Month in 1976, during the celebration of the US Bicentennial, he urged Americans to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history”.

In the Black community, Black History Month was met with enthusiastic response; it prompted the creation of Black history clubs, with an increase in interest among teachers, and interest from progressive whites. Today, it was a nationwide event with college majors dedicated entirely to the study of Black History. Taught in schools of all demographics across our nation, names like Fredrick Douglas and Harriet Tubman have become just as synonymous with American history as figures like George Washington and John Adams.

While we have a way to go for true equality in America, we can start by learning our shared history, as Black History is just as much American History as the stories of our white founding fathers. Just as U.S. history is African American history, Greater Philadelphia history is African American history.

The region is home to the founding church of the African Methodist Episcopal denomination (Mother Bethel A.M.E.), the country’s first major museum devoted to Black American history (The African American Museum in Philadelphia) and many stops along the Underground Railroad.

To learn a bit more about Black History, this month and every month of year, check out this local educational resource near your apartment.

Washington Square, one of city planner William Penn’s five original parks, was once known as Congo Square. A wayside in the city-block park describes activities of three centuries ago, when free and enslaved Africans gathered at the then-potter’s field during holidays and fairs to celebrate traditions of their homelands. Located just down the street and under ten minutes away from your 1213 Walnut apartment, this is a great place to reflect and connect with more our local African American history.

Washington Square, 210 W. Washington Square

The African American Museum in Philadelphia, founded in 1976, is the first institution built by a major U.S. city to preserve, interpret and exhibit the heritage and culture of African Americans. The museum takes a fresh and bold look at the stories of African Americans and their role in the founding of the nation through the core exhibit, Audacious Freedom. Other exhibitions and programs reveal the history, stories and cultures of those of African descent throughout the African diaspora. As of January 2022, the museum is open for timed visits Thursday through Sunday. You can walk to this museum from 1213 Walnut apartment in under 20 minutes, or catch an Uber for an even shorter ride.

The African American Museum in Philadelphia, 701 Arch Street