Sharing the stories of Black Americans is essential to understanding the complexity and depths of our history. This February, in honor of Black History Month, we will highlight programs and resources from ourselves and our community and national partners to highlight how Black Rhode Islanders have made an impact locally, nationally, and globally. This page will continue to be updated throughout the month of February. If you have suggestions of resources to be added to this page, please email communications@rihs.org.

Programs • Reading Lists • Community Partners • Tools for Educators

  • Saturday, January 31, 4pm: Symposium Books Author Event with Jarvis R. Givens’ “American Grammar” Join Symposium Books on January 31st at 4pm as they host Harvard professor Jarvis R. Givens, who will be discussing his latest release, American Grammar: Race, Education, and the Building of a Nation. Signed copies of the book will be available for purchase in-store!

  • Wednesday, Feb 4, 12pm: Providence Performing Arts Center Say It Loud: Honoring Seven Decades of the Saint Martin de Porres Center With a visionary dedication to Providence’s diverse African diaspora, the Catholic Diocese of Providence’s Saint Martin de Porres Center has been a cornerstone of community and service since its founding in the 1950s. The Providence Performing Arts Center, in collaboration with the African American Museum of Rhode Island and Juneteenth RI, is proud to honor the Center’s legacy and to be a part of embracing its future for this second annual celebration of Black History Month. PPAC’s House Organist Peter Edwin Krasinski in musical collaboration with 2025 honoree Randall Ashe, welcomes the acclaimed Mac Odom Band and old school funk and R&B act Outta Control led by C.C. Biggs, to PPAC’s historic stage. Setting the stage will be stories of the Center’s legacy and inspiration for its future provided by Dr. Christopher West of the African American Museum of Rhode Island and Linda A’Vant-Deishinni, the Center’s Executive Director. A presentation of PPAC’s Wonders of the Wurlitzer community outreach program, SAY IT LOUD is free and open to the public. No ticket required. Attendees are welcome to bring their lunch. Complimentary beverages available.

  • Saturday, Feb 7, 2pm: Bristol Art Museum In Bannister’s Footsteps: Bristol Art Museum Presents In Bannister’s Footsteps. Speakers, Exhibit and Video by Barnaby Evans. Exhibition and screening of a 9-minute video that documents the Bannister Community Art Project and highlights the vast accomplishments of this relatively unknown artist, followed by speakers and a lively audience conversation. Guest Speakers: Theresa Guzmán Stokes, Executive Director of the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society and Gage M. Prentiss, Sculptor Facilitator: Dr. Victoria Gao, Director of the Bannister Gallery and Adjunct Professor at Rhode Island College. Participating Artists: Darrel Perkins, ponnapa prakkamakul, and Michael Talbot. Additional Viewing Hours: Feb 5 and 6, 1:00-4:00pm

  • Thursday, February 20, 2026 – August 20, 2026: Presented by: Rhode Island Black Heritage Society, in collaboration with the Rhode Island Fashion Week Roots & Rhythms Exhibit Roots & Rhythms celebrates the enduring creativity, resilience, and cultural leadership of African Americans across generations. This exhibition brings together historical artifacts and contemporary works to honor the voices, visions, and rhythms that continue to define Black artistic expression in Rhode Island. Through visual art, performance, storytelling, and design, visitors are invited to explore how creativity reflects lived experience and serves as a powerful tool for transformation.

  • Saturday, February 21, 11am: Rhode Island Historical Society Black History on Providence’s East Side – Walking Tour (Special Collaboration with Stages of Freedom) Join the John Brown House Museum for a special Black History Month walking tour of Providence’s East Side on Saturday, February 21 at 11:00 am, presented in collaboration with Stages of Freedom and ending at their bookstore. This 75-minute, one-mile tour explores the history of Black communities, resistance to enslavement and gentrification, and the legacies of struggle and resilience that shaped Providence. Admission is $10 for RIHS members and $15 for GA. 

  • Saturday, February 21, 2026, 4pm – 9pm: Presented by: Rhode Island Fashion Week, in collaboration with the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society and RAW Providence Culture & Couture: An Evening of Black Excellence Culture & Couture is an evening celebrating Black excellence through fashion, art, music, and community. The event features a Creative Marketplace from 4–6 PM with curated artists and vendors, followed by a Runway Showcase from 7–9 PM highlighting designers and creatives. Live performances are woven throughout the evening, enhancing both the marketplace and runway experience. Guests may attend one portion or enjoy the full experience.

  • Tuesday, February 24, 11am: RISD Museum Artist Talk with Roberto Lugo Ceramicist, social activist and poet, Roberto Lugo, will share his deeply personal and politically engaged creative practice. He will discuss the juxtaposition of using the historically functional medium of ceramics to explore contemporary social issues. Lugo’s porcelain urn entitled A Century of Black Lives Mattering, for example, deals with current and continued loss of Black lives.

  • Thursday, February 26, 5:30pm: Rhode Island Historical Society Finding Black Voices in the Archive with Dr. Christopher West and Jennifer Galpern Join the John Brown House Museum on Thursday, February 26, 2026, at 5:30 pm for Finding Black Voices in the Archive, a panel led by Dr. Christopher West of the African American Museum of RI and RIHS’s Jennifer Galpern exploring how institutions uncover and share the stories of Black Rhode Islanders. Through real examples and archival techniques, this program invites attendees to learn how Black history is preserved and how they can engage with these collections themselves.

  • Thursday, February 26, 5:30pm: Sail Newport “Sailing to Freedom: Recovering and Recentering the Maritime Dimension of the Underground Railroad” Sailing to Freedom highlights little-known stories of freedom-seeking by sea and describes the less-understood maritime side of the Underground Railroad.  This talk will reconsider and contextualize the importance of enslaved African Americans’ maritime and waterfront labor in southern ports, and how escapes were managed along the East Coast, moving from the Carolinas, Virginia, and Maryland to safe harbor in northern cities such as Philadelphia, New York, New Bedford, and Boston.

  • Saturday, February 28, 5pm: The Rhode Island Guardians Association (RIGA) “Rhode Island Guardians Black History Month Benefit Gala Dinner Dance” Attend a dinner dance at the Cape Verdean Progressive Center, 329 Grosvenor Avenue, East Providence, RI. This fundraiser, themed, will include dinner and an R&B band (MOGA Band). Brief opening remarks by Mayor Bob DaSilva (East Providence) and Dan Corria (CV Club President). A special keynote address will be presented by RI Historian Keith Stokes, who will conduct an educational and historical presentation about “Rhode Island’s Black History.”

  • Saturday, February 28, 6pm: RI Slave History Medallions “George T. Downing’s Maquette Oyster Fest Reception” The model of the first statue in Newport to a person of color, George T. Downing, will be unveiled at an Oyster reception and presentation at the Newport Art Museum from 6-9pm February 28, a Black History Month event hosted by Rhode Island Slave History Medallions. Robb Dimmick of Stages of Freedom will speak on the importance of recognizing Mr. Downing, entrepreneur and civil rights advocate, for combating racism. Sculptor Vinnie Bagwell will talk about her process in creating the model.

https://sailnewport.org/calendar/sailing-to-freedom-challenger-lecture-series

  • Library of Congress Black History Month Website– The Library of Congress website honoring Black History Month includes online information from the National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
  • Civil Rights Timeline– Civil Rights Timeline from Rhode Island Black Heritage Society, Rhode Island Historical Society, & the Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Cultural Commission.

  • Encompass- Civil Rights in Rhode Island– Explore the history of the Civil Rights Movement in Rhode Island with essays and primary sources, along with lesson plans and additional materials including video clips and oral histories.

  • Resources on African American History from the 1696 Commission– The 1696 Historical Commission was signed into law on July 1, 2014 and was tasked with developing a comprehensive African American history curriculum for Rhode Island public schools from kindergarten through grade 12. This page includes resources provided by organizations, scholars, and historians throughout Rhode Island to support classroom instruction in African-American history.

  • A Matter of Truth Report– The examination and documentation of the role of the City of Providence and the State of Rhode Island in supporting a “Separate and Unequal” existence for African heritage, Indigenous, and people of color.

  • Sacred Spaces: The Legacy of the Black Churches in Rhode Island: Visit the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society’s new exhibit celebrating the African Heritage communities in RI, including Black, Afro-Caribbean, Cape Verdean, and West African migrants who built religious and service institutions that shaped their cultural and spiritual identity. The exhibit is on display in the Black Heritage Society’s headquarters in Building 8 on Rhode Island College’s campus.

  • No Turning Back: 1960: The Civil Rights Movement Educational Video Game: Mission US is part of an expanding body of “serious games” that immerse users in historical and contemporary problems in ways that encourage perspective-taking, discussion, and weighing of multiple kinds of evidence. The year is 1960. You are 16-year-old Verna Baker, born and raised in the Mississippi Delta. As you move to the city of Greenwood to start high school, a movement for civil rights is gaining momentum. How will you take part in the struggle for freedom and equality?

  • Gilded Age Newport in Color Take a virtual tour of Gilded Age Newport in Color, an exhibition exploring the often-overlooked stories of African heritage entrepreneurs, professionals, and families who helped shape Newport during the Gilded Age. Featuring more than 150 objects, the exhibition highlights how Black Newporters built community, wealth, and cultural life within a unique resort setting.