2026 Black History Live
Now in its 17th year, Colorado Humanities’ Black History Live tour is an annual recognition, held each February, of the significant contributions African Americans have made and continue to make to art, culture, economic development, education, human rights, medicine, public services, politics, and sports. The 2026 statewide tour will feature the living-history portrayals of Mary Fields by nationally acclaimed scholar/actor Becky Stone and York by scholar/actor Marvin Jefferson.
The portrayals will be performed in a Chautauqua format, which is a first-person dramatization of a historical figure. The speaker’s monologue typically lasts 40 minutes, followed by 20 minutes of Q&A, first in character and then out of character as the scholar/performer.
Click below to learn more about the historical figure and actor/scholar. For more information, please contact Assistant Director of Cultural Heritage Jennifer Macias at 303.894.7951 or jennifer@
View the 2026 Poster below
BHL 2026 Final Tour Poster 01.09.26
Upcoming Events
Sponsorship Opportunities
Colorado Humanities invites you to sponsor the 2026 Black History Live Tour: African Americans in the West. This acclaimed statewide program brings nationally recognized performers to libraries, museums, and schools—free to the public—sharing stories of York, the only Black member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and Mary “Stagecoach” Fields, the first Black woman mail carrier in the U.S.
Your sponsorship helps ensure that audiences across Colorado—urban and rural alike—can experience these powerful, educational performances at no cost. With giving levels from $250 to $5,000, there’s a meaningful way for every business, organization, and individual to participate.
Help us reach our $20,000 goal and keep these stories alive for all Coloradans.
Black History in Action
For our 2024 Black History Live tour, attendees were transported back to 1967 when Becky Stone and Marvin Jefferson portrayed Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr., speaking individually and together about their experiences before, during, and after the Civil Rights Movement.
2026 Black History Live Partners
Special thanks to our sponsors
