Black History Month Resource Guide from the Petey Greene Program
Updated for 2026
In recognition and celebration of Black History Month, the Petey Greene Program encourages you to learn more about how the criminal legal system disproportionately impacts the Black community as well as commemorate and celebrate the contributions of Black changemakers in the United States. We encourage you to explore the following list of events, exhibits, and additional resources to guide your learning and reflection.
2026 Events and Exhibits Happening in Our Regions:
Pittsburgh:
The Price of Resistance: Sala Udin, American Agitator Screening and Q & A (Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh; 2/28)
Philly:
Finding Justice: The Civil Rights Movement (Exhibit Eastern State Penitentiary)
23rd Underground Railroad and Black History Conference (Temple; 2/25)
Washington, DC:
Exhibit at DC Public Library (all month long): Up From the People and Freedom and Resistance
Black History Month Poetry Slam (DC; 2/21)
Beyond Heroes and Holidays: Leading and Learning Together (DC; 2/25)
New Jersey:
Douglass Day Transcribathon (Princeton 2/13)
Black Studies is for Everyone (Princeton; 2/27)
(NJ; 2/27)
New York:
Herstory is Being Erased (2/26)
Black History Month Brooklyn and the Abolitionist Movement (2/22)
Massachusetts:
From Ideas to Institutions (Boston, 2/13)
Digging Deeper into the Black Voices of the Revolution(Boston, 2/17)
North Carolina:
Black History Month Lecture: Ilyasah Shabaaz (Duke University; 2/17)
Virtual:
Virtual Exhibit - Rendering Justice - African American Museum in Philadelphia
Justice 101: Reconstruction and the Origins of Modern Incarceration
Journey of Black History Month: A Century of Black History Commemorations
Invisible Changemakers of Industry - National Museum of African American History and Culture
Articles and Readings:
https://solitarywatch.org/2025/02/25/black-history-month-is-world-history-always/
https://thefulcrum.us/democracy/black-history-month-2026
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2018/08/20/jim-crow-s-lasting-legacy-at-the-ballot-box
https://prisonjournalismproject.org/2021/04/30/george-jackson-to-george-floyd/
https://prisonjournalismproject.org/2023/02/08/always-black-history-month-prison/
“What Does Black History Month Mean to Me?,” Illinois Prison Project
https://www.prisonpolicy.org/racialgeography/report.html
Books and Readings:
Collection of Poetry for Black History Month, poets.org
Collection: Poetry and Racial Justice and Equality, Poetry Foundation
“What Does Black History Month Mean to Me?,” Illinois Prison Project
Resources on the 2025 Black History Month Theme, African Americans and Labor:
2025 Black History Theme Executive Summary, Association for the Study of African American Life and History
Suggested Books on African Americans and Labor, Multnomah County Library
Worse than Slavery: Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice, David Oshinsky
“The New Battle Over an Old Institution: Forced Prison Labor,” The Marshall Project
“Mississippi doesn’t have to provide protective gear to working inmates. Bill aims to change that,” Mississippi Today
Archive of 2025 Events & Resources:
Lessons of the Hour Gallery Talk (February 12, Portrait Gallery) (Washington D.C.)
Vigilance: The Life of William Still, Father of the Underground Railroad - Book Talk (February 8, African American History and Culture Museum, Washington D.C.)
The Schomburg Center Presents The Harlem Chamber Players’ 17th Annual Black History Month Celebration (February 13) (New York City)
“Jimmy! God’s Black Revolutionary Mouth: Celebrating 100 Years of James Baldwin” (Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture) - through February 28 (New York City)
Explore Events offered at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)
History Making Saturdays and Storytelling Sundays at the Betsy Ross House (Philadelphia) - ongoing throughout February 28
Commemoration of the Slaves who Built the Capitol (Washington D.C.) - February 6