Hi Justin,
You've got an iPhone with a screen made with older LCD technology, which means it has a backlight. It would be worth your time to check to see if the backlight has failed. Take a flashlight and hold it up against the screen and see if you can make out an image. If so, you may have blown a backlight fuse on the motherboard, which would be a tricky repair for us home DIY-ers. That sort of thing usually happens when the screen is connected or disconnected while the battery is plugged in; it rarely is a problem when the battery is disconnected before working on the screen.
Check that out and let us know what you find.
Does the phone appear to be alive in other respects? Does it make any sounds or vibrations when turned on or connected to a charger? Is there a response when plugged into a computer; does the computer recognize that it's there?