Black History Month 2023 Events Planned In The Doylestown Area

DOYLESTOWN, PA — Several events are planned in the Doylestown area in February to observe Black History Month.

“Black Resistance” is the theme of this year’s observance, which starts Wednesday and continues through the month. Since 1976, every U.S. president has set aside February as a month to celebrate the achievements of African Americans and their role in U.S. history.

Events in February will explore “how African Americans have resisted historic and ongoing oppression, in all forms, especially the racial terrorism of lynching, racial pogroms and police killings” since their arrival on the shores in the 1600s, according to the sponsoring Association for the Study of African American Life and History.

The African-American Museum of Bucks County

• The museum presents two exhibits in Doylestown during the month of February. These exhibits are free and open to the community. One display will feature the Civil Rights Movement, highlighting important figures and events from the 1950s and 1960s leading up to the present day. The second display will focus on Hidden Figures of Bucks County. It is called: “Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things.” The exhibits will be held in two locations in Doylestown and visitors are encouraged to visit both. One display will be in the County Courthouse Administration Building at 55 Court Street, Doylestown, and the second will be at the Justice Center, accessed through the main entrance at 100 N. Main St. Both are free and open to the public.

Bucks County Community College

• From Slavery to Freedom: The month kicks off with “Lord, Write My Name: From Slavery to Freedom” at 7:30 p.m. Friday, February 3 at the Newtown campus of the Bucks County Community College. Renown baritone Keith Spencer is joined by Peter Hilliard on piano as they present a musical tapestry interspersed with narratives, poetry, and letters penned by enslaved people and iconic Black figures throughout history. In this masterful collection of song and word, Spencer, accompanied by Hilliard on piano, performs well-known Spirituals such as “Go Down, Moses,” “Walk Together Children” “Steal Away,” and several others brilliantly reimagined and arranged by Hilliard. “Lord, Write My Name” takes place in the Zlock Performing Arts Center, located on the campus at 275 Swamp Road, Newtown. Tickets start at $20 and can be purchased at bucks.edu/tickets.

• Centuries of Distorted Maps. On Thursday, February 16 Kevin Antoine presents “The True Size of Africa” at 12:30 p.m. on the Newtown campus and online. Antoine, the college’s Associate Vice President of Community and Government Relations and Chief Diversity Officer, says it’s no accident that for more than 400 years, map makers have depicted Northern Hemisphere continents as much larger than they are, and the African content as much smaller than it is. “The True Size of Africa” takes place in the Library Learning Studio on the campus at 275 Swamp Road, Newtown. It will also be presented simultaneously online to those who register at https://bit.ly/TrueMapAfrica. Admission is free.

• Battle at the Ballot Box. Activist and community leader John Jordan presents “The History of Voting Rights in America” at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, February 21 at the Epstein Campus at Lower Bucks. Jordan, vice president of the Bucks County NAACP, takes the audience from the Women’s suffrage movement to the Voting Rights Act to recent attacks on the right to vote happening today. Jordan was appointed by President Obama to serve on the National Voting Rights Commission and received the prestigious Drum Major for Justice Award for his Civil Rights advocacy work. The Epstein Campus at Lower Bucks is located at 1304 Veterans Highway, Bristol. Admission is free.

The first Black History Month observance was held 97 years ago. Called Negro History Week at the time, it was established by Harvard-trained historian Carter G. Woodson, the son of illiterate former slaves, who believed that the important contributions of Black Americans had been largely overlooked in published accounts of U.S. history.

• Related: 2023 Black History Month: 5 Things To Know

He established the Association for the Study of African American Life and History in 1915 to create a social scientific collection recording and publicizing the accomplishments of Black Americans.