Black History Month is a good time to immerse yourself in the lore, but it’s a journey worth taking, period. For a trip that’s educational and celebratory, consider these destinations.

In Greensboro, North Carolina, stop at the International Civil Rights Center & Museum at the F.W. Woolworth building, where four college freshmen sat at the “whites only” lunch counter and helped launch the sit-in movement. Take in the pictorials, video re- enactments, interactive components and artifacts. Stay at historic Magnolia House, a former Green Book motel, where legends like James Brown and Ray Charles slept. Make the 90-minute drive to Charlotte for the Levine Museum of the New South, a comprehensive interpretation of the post-Civil War South, and the cutting-edge Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture.

The self-guided Richmond Slave Trail includes 17 markers along the path that tells the story of slavery in Richmond, Virginia. Then there’s Jackson Ward, the country’s first historically registered Black urban neighborhood and a center for Black enterprise and entertainment from the 1920s to the 1940s. Now it’s home to the Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site, honoring the first African-American woman to charter a bank and serve as president; the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia; the Bill “Bojangles” Robinson Monument; the Mending Walls murals; and Black-owned restaurants.

Glimpse life in the 1950s and ’60s along the Downtown Civil Rights Trail in Louisville, Kentucky. Find more truth at the new Roots 101 African American Museum, which doesn’t sugar-coat Louisville’s history. Don’t miss the Kentucky Derby Museum’s Black Heritage in Racing Tour honoring Black jockeys who dominated horse racing before they were forced out by Jim Crow laws. The Muhammad Ali Center is a must, as are a self-guided Footsteps of Greatness tour of his childhood home and his final resting place. The new weekly pop-up market MELANnaire is the city’s first permanent market to feature Black artisans.

Montgomery, Alabama, was ground zero for the Civil Rights Movement. Visit the Rosa Parks Museum; Freedom Rides Museum; Dexter Avenue Church where MLK, Jr. preached; the National Memorial for Peace & Justice; and the Legacy Museum, honoring the victims of lynching and displaying the history of U.S. slavery and racism.

If you have time, follow as much of the U.S. Civil Rights Trail as you can, featuring more than 120 landmarks across 14 Southern states. Download a pre-planned itinerary or customize your trip at civilrightstrail.com.

© OLIVIER LE QUEINEC | DREAMSTIME.COM

With 12,000 artifacts, the Smithsonian National Museum of African History and Culture in Washington, D.C., leaves little else to be said. The National Mall beckons as the site of the March on Washington in 1963, the inaugural Million Man March in 1995 and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s I Have a Dream speech on the Lincoln Memorial steps. Stroll the Shaw neighborhood, once home to Duke Ellington and considered “The Heart of Chocolate City.” No visit is complete without seeing the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial.

A Tour of Possibilities in Memphis, Tennessee, offers a 2.5-hour tour of African- American history to enjoy from your car. Listen to the guide’s commentary through your car speakers and explore sites like the Slave Haven (you descend the stairs into the dark, damp cellar and peer through the trapdoors and hidden passages where fugitives were harbored); the National Civil Rights Museum/Lorraine Motel, where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated; Beale Street; neighborhoods like Soulsville; Stax Museum of American Soul Music; the I Am a Man Plaza; and more.

The Scott Joplin House or the National Blues Museum in St. Louis, Missouri, will stir memories from the soundtrack of Black America. Spend time in the George Washington Carver Garden at Missouri Botanical Garden, honoring the life of the scientist who left a mark on agriculture and education. The Missouri History Museum has a new walking tour of “The Ville,” the neighborhood home to Grammy Award winners, Kennedy Center honorees, one of the first Black woman millionaires and a chemist who worked on the atomic bomb, as well as a memorial for Tuskegee Airmen.

Georgia offers plenty of history, particularly Atlanta. Don’t miss the National Center for Civil and Human Rights with its immersive exhibits, events and educational programs. Also visit the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park, boasting the house where King grew up, the original Ebenezer Baptist Church and The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change.

Chicago played a pivotal role in the Great Migration from the South to the North. Make your first stop the DuSable Museum of African American History, the nation’s first independent museum dedicated to the history of African and African-American culture and housing more than 15,000 artifacts, including priceless paintings, sculptures and memorabilia. Next, stop at the Bronzeville Visitor Information Center for tour information. The neighborhood includes the homes of Nat King Cole and Louis Armstrong, the Monument to the Great Migration and the Victory Monument that memorializes an African-American unit that served in France during World War I. The Bronzeville Walk of Fame honors more than 100 Bronzeville residents’ accomplishments, such as those of activist Ida B. Wells and astronaut Robert H. Lawrence, Jr.