The city’s 2026 Black History Month celebrations launched with a poignant new project honoring local trailblazers. The Evansville-Vanderburgh County Human Relations Commission’s inaugural Downtown Black History Month Banner Project was unveiled Feb. 3 at Innovation Pointe. Community members nominated living and late residents whose leadership, resilience, and service continue to impact the city.
“Black history is Evansville history,” Stephanie Terry, the city’s first Black mayor, said in a statement. “It is important for all of us to acknowledge and celebrate the contributions and impact Black residents have had in shaping our city.”
Of 33 individuals nominated by the community for consideration, 10 were selected:
- Willie Effie Thomas, a former NAACP leader and educator considered the “first lady” of Evansville’s civil rights movement. She passed away in 2001.
- Estella Moss, the first Black woman elected to county public office in Evansville
- Educator Aurelia S. Bradley (1906-2002)
- George Flowers Sr., the city’s first Black fire chief
- Rev. Adrian M. Brooks Sr., who founded the Memorial Community Development Corporation
- Stevenson’s Realty and Insurance Company co-owner Alberta Stevenson, who was the first Black school counselor in the city’s integrated school system. She passed away in 1993.
- Jacqueline LaGrone, the first Black woman appointed to city government. She passed away in 2018.
- “Our Times” newspaper founder Sondra Matthews, who also helped found the Evansville African American Museum
- Business owner and author Dallas Sprinkles, who passed away in 2001.
- Boom Squad founder Verdelski Miller
Evansville resident Dennis Haire nominated Bradley, his schoolteacher at the former Columbia Street School. His family frequently moved due to evictions, causing a young Haire to bounce between multiple schools each academic year. Bradley noticed the toll it took on her pupil. One day, “Mrs. Bradley quietly asked me to stay after homeroom so she could talk with me privately. She was very careful to not cause embarrassment to me in front of the other 30 kids. As I cried, she very lovingly and steadily said to me, ‘From now on, Dennis, your address is my address as far as school is involved. I am not going to let you change schools again. Just let me handle this,'” Haire recalls. “I never was sure what she exactly did, but I was able to stay at Columbia until I graduated eighth grade. … Mrs. Bradley did not see color. She saw a young boy who was desperate and needed help.”
Haire also shared a memorable connection with Stevenson, who helped him land a spot in the Upward Bound college-prep program for low-income, first-generation potential college students while he attended Central High School. “She lived and taught during segregation and Jim Crow. She saw Martin Luther King assassinated and countless other discriminatory actions, yet she was standing up for a poor white kid who lived in the projects,” he says. “What Mrs. Stevenson did took courage, as she didn’t know if by accepting me it would knock out a poor white kid in the country or an Evansville city Black kid. I never knew, but I was hoping and praying, that I was just one extra body and there wasn’t anyone affected by my acceptance into Upward Bound.”
In addition to unveiling the new walkway, events are lined up to celebrate Black History Month in Evansville. Moss, the city’s first Black woman elected official, is the subject of a new exhibit, “An Evansville Trailblazer: The Life and Career of Estella Moss,” celebrating the 1976 victory in the race for Vanderburgh County recorder that made her the county’s first Black woman elected official. “An Evansville Trailblazer” runs through Feb. 28 at Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library’s Central Branch. More exhibits on Black history are found Wednesday-Saturday at the Evansville African American Museum, where visitors can enjoy free admission through the month of February. EVPL branches also are hosting family-centric Black History Month activities, including a Guess Who? scavenger hunt and trivia night Feb. 23 at the East and West branches, respectively.
Several resource fairs are planned this Black History Month. Feb. 7, meet Black entrepreneurs, creatives, and service providers, shop their products, and engage their services at the Black Business Showcase at The Helms Hall Wedding & Event Venue. The University of Evansville’s Journey to Justice program also is hosting Hezekiah Williams, mistakenly arrested for being a freedom rider at age 13 — which led to a lifelong fight for civil rights — for a talk at Benjamin Bosse High School Feb. 12. The he Victory Theatre will host “Back To The Roots,” a free concert featuring the Unity Choir under the direction of Kandace Hinton, plus performances by a children’s choir, Byron Lander, and Shawn Humphries.
Rounding out the month’s festivities, New Hope Missionary Baptist Church pastor Ryan Jackson gives the keynote address at the NAACP’s MLK Community Breakfast: The Fierce Urgency Of Now, Feb. 21 at the Greater St. James Missionary Baptist Church. General admission is $40.
