February may be short and chilly, but it’s the perfect time of year to plan a trip to a city known for Black history and culture. 

You could head to Los Angeles for the Pan African Soul Film Festival and the annual Black Doll Show at the William Grant Still Arts Center. You could spend a weekend in New York City, savoring the best soul food in Harlem and catching a show at the Apollo Theater. Or you could escape south to New Orleans to tour Tremé, the oldest Black neighborhood in the U.S., and listen to African drumming in Congo Square.

Here are our suggestions for four of the best Black History Month destinations. And if you’re an avid traveler, consider buying annual travel insurance for all your getaways in the year to come. For one low price, every trip is protected—no matter where you go. Get a quote.

1. Kansas City, Missouri

If New Orleans is the birthplace of jazz, then Kansas City is where jazz went to school. In city nightclubs, most famously in the 18^th and Vine neighborhood, musicians like Count Basie and Charlie Parker developed the swinging, improvisational style called Kansas City jazz.¹ Visit the American Jazz Museum to see famous musicians’ instruments, clothes, and other artifacts. You can catch a live show in the museum’s Blue Room or another local club.

Jazz isn’t the only thing that makes Kansas City a great Black History Month destination. It’s also the place where the Negro National League was founded in 1920 to allow Black professional baseball players the chance to compete.² It wasn’t until 1947 that Jackie Robinson, then playing for the Kansas City Monarchs, broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball. The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum is dedicated to preserving and celebrating this history.  

Sign up for a tour with Urban Hikes KC to learn about lesser-known figures in Black history, like Tom Bass, an African American horse trainer who was instrumental in founding the American Royal equestrian show, and Ed Dwight Jr., the first Black man tapped to become an astronaut.

No trip to Kansas City is complete without sampling some KC barbecue, with its spicy-sweet sauce and signature burnt ends. It’s impossible to crown one restaurant as best, but you can’t go wrong with a classic like LC’s BBQ, Arthur Bryant’s Barbeque, or Gates Bar-B-Q.   

2. Washington, D.C.

The nation’s capital is high on our list of the best places to go for Black History Month, with countless ways to experience Black history, culture, music, and food. Here are a few ideas for your weekend itinerary:

• The Go-Go Museum & Café is a shrine to the mix of funk, R&B, hip-hop, and Afro-Latin beats created in the 1970s by Chuck Brown, the “Godfather of Go-Go.” The on-site café serves small plates and cocktails inspired by the African diaspora, and if you’re lucky you’ll catch a live concert in the garden.
• The National Museum of African American History and Culture is a jewel on the National Mall: a vast collection of art and artifacts covering centuries of Black history. Some are harrowing, such as a guard tower from Angola Prison and a “riot penny” burned in the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot. Some are delightful, like Glinda’s costume from the original stage production of “The Wiz” and Parliament-Funkadelic’s P-Funk Mothership.
• The Frederick Douglass National Historic Site was the final residence of the famed abolitionist, statesman, and orator. Take a tour of the historic house and, if the weather’s nice, stroll the grounds.
• The hip Shaw neighborhood was once called “Black Broadway” for its music and theater scene. Catch a show at the legendary Howard Theatre, where a statue of Duke Ellington stands out front and musical icons are honored on the Howard Theatre Walk of Fame.
• Grab a bite at one of D.C.’s iconic Black-owned restaurants: Ben’s Chili Bowl for chili, dogs, and burgers; Doro Soul Food for southern classics with an Ethiopian twist; Dōgon for acclaimed Afro-Caribbean food.
  
  

3. Charleston, South Carolina

Charleston was the largest port of entry for the United States’ transatlantic slave trade. Over 40% of all enslaved Africans trafficked to North America—nearly 150,000 people—arrived at Charleston Harbor.³ This bleak chapter in American history is memorialized at the Old Slave Mart Museum—but the story doesn’t end there.

The International African American Museum is one of the best Black History Month destinations to honor the resilience and triumph of Black Americans over the centuries. Spend a quiet moment in the African Ancestors Memorial Gardens, view art from west and west-central Africa, and visit the Center for Family History (CFH) to learn how to research African American genealogy.

Charleston and the nearby Sea Islands are also centers of Gullah Geechee life: a culture created and preserved by descendants of Africans who were enslaved on rice, indigo and cotton plantations. The Gullah Geechee community is known for its creole language, faith traditions, basketweaving artistry, and distinctive cuisine. Learn more on a guided tour from Gullah Tours, then savor Gullah Geechee-style seafood and soul food at Hannibal’s Kitchen.

4. Montgomery, Alabama

Few cities are as important to the civil rights movement as Montgomery. It was here in 1955 that Rosa Parks refused to move from her seat on a segregated bus, sparking the long bus boycott that ended with victory in court. And it was here in 1961 when a white mob attacked the Freedom Riders: nonviolent protesters who rode still-segregated buses across the South. Black history sites you can visit in Montgomery include:

• The Freedom Rides Museum, housed in the former Montgomery Greyhound Station where the attack took place
• The Rosa Parks Museum at Troy University, where you can see Parks’ fingerprint arrest record, a 1950s Montgomery city bus, and other artifacts
• The Legacy Sites: an immersive Black history museum, a riverside sculpture park, and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice that honors the victims of racial terror lynchings.
• The Civil Rights Memorial, an educational site dedicated to the martyrs of the movement.

To refresh your soul (and your stomach), stop by one of Montgomery’s best Black-owned restaurants. Founded in 1942, Brenda’s Bar-Be-Que Pit was a favorite of civil rights leaders; Pannie-George’s Kitchen is renowned for homestyle Southern cooking.

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