Nearly five decades ago, in February 1976, President Gerald R. Ford issued a federal recognition of Black History Month.
In the country’s bicentennial year, the recognition was, the Republican president wrote in a letter from the White House, an opportunity to “honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”
In February 2025, we’re living in a profoundly different moment, one in which honoring Black history—and acknowledging the past and ongoing adversity the Black community faces—is increasingly seen as subversive. Recognizing Black History Month on a community level feels more important than ever.
Below, find a few suggestions for how to spend the month. This list is by no means exhaustive, but hopefully, it can serve as a starting point.
Take a walking tour of Raleigh’s Civil Rights history
This month, the State Capitol is offering its free walking tour, “We’ve Always Been Here,” every Friday in February from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. The half-mile route begins at Charles Keck’s three-president statue of James K. Polk, Andrew Jackson, and Andrew Johnson located outside of the Capitol and will wind through downtown as the tour touches on 20th-century social movements in Raleigh.
Go see a film screening
The North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA) typically holds a few film screenings every month. Up first this month, on February 8: Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat, a 2024 documentary that explores colonial narratives, music history, and how Black jazz luminaries came to be used as CIA pawns in the 1961 assassination of Congo leader Patrice Lumumba.
On February 22, the museum will show Family Tree, a documentary exploring the fight of Black families in rural North Carolina to preserve their land. Family Tree screened at last year’s Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and you can read our interview with director Jennifer MacArthur here. Film screenings are $5 for NCMA members and $10 for non-members.
In Durham, NCCU is hosting a free screening on November 7 of Wilmington on Fire, a 2015 documentary about a shocking chapter of North Carolina history, when a militia of white supremacists overthrew Wilmington’s thriving multiracial government in 1898 and massacred more than sixty Black residents.
Explore North Carolina Central University Museum‘s permanent collection
The museum at North Carolina Central University (NCCU) boasts an astonishing permanent collection, with 1,300 pieces by seminal Black artists, including Romare Bearden, Jacob Lewis, Sam Gilliam, and Kerry James Marshall. Beginning February 9 and running through March 16, the museum will highlight works from the permanent collection by sculptor and graphic artist Elizabeth Catlett.
Catlett was born in 1915, just two generations from the end of slavery—both her maternal and paternal grandparents were born into slavery—and went on to study art at Howard University. Her work—notably, her commanding raised wooden fist sculptures and striking social realist linocuts—are instantly recognizable. Catlett was a passionate activist throughout her life, eventually decamping to Mexico, where she continued to be involved in the Civil Rights Movement.
A less-known item in her biography: In the mid-1930s, Catlett lived in her mother’s hometown of Durham. Here, she taught public school for two years and participated alongside Thurgood Marshall in a fight—unsuccessful at the time—for equal pay for her fellow Black schoolteachers. Although her Durham stint was brief, the summers she spent visiting her maternal grandparents strongly influenced the imagery in her work—sharecroppers and other scenes of rural Black Southern life and struggle.
Black History Month events often involve heavy topics that need processing—for another museum event, on February 9, consider attending the Nasher Museum of Art’s free family day. Hosted by Gabrielle Rivero from Express & Release, the afternoon event will explore healing through artwork, storytelling, and movement.
Attend a Valentine’s Day concert
On February 14, music is in the air, across the Triangle, with a series of Valentine’s concerts. In Durham, the Durham Symphony Orchestra is putting on Voices of the Unarmed: Justice, Love, Resilience, a program that pays tribute to Black lives lost to police violence and honors the struggle for justice—read the INDY’s feature on the program here.
Also in Durham, you can spend an evening soaking in smooth jazz with a Luther Vandross tribute concert at the Hayti Heritage Center; tickets are $43 and there is a 6 p.m. show as well as a 9 p.m. show. In Cary, neo-soul jazz performer (and local legend) Al Strong and bassist Chip Shearin will perform a special Valentine’s Day program at the Cary Arts Center; tickets are $27.
Celebrate Black stories in material culture
In Carrboro, the ArtsCenter is currently playing host to a beautiful exhibit, Portraits of Resistance and Resilience, which showcases portrait quilts honoring Black women—Anna Heyward Cooper, with roots in Wake County history The quilts were made over the course of nine months by members of West Raleigh Presbyterian Church and Wilson Temple United Methodist Church; a February 14 opening reception will feature wine, snacks, and covers of music by Libba Cotten.
Over in Durham, meanwhile, the African American Quilters Circle is celebrating 25 years in residency at the Hayti Heritage Center and marking the occasion with Ubuntu: I AM because WE ARE, an exhibition that runs through March 16.
Follow Culture Editor Sarah Edwards on Bluesky or email sedwards@indyweek.com.