CELEBRATE BUFFALO BLACK HISTORY
A TIMELINE OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY IN BUFFALO, NY 1790-PRESENT ince our inception, Buffalo Bike Tours has sought to amplify Buffalo’s lesser known histories. This February (2021), in light Sof Black History Month and our commitment to the Black Lives Matter movement, we present a series of 4 articles on our city’s black history of resistance and resilience.
Want to learn more? Buffalo Bike Tours can provide private tours themed around black history. We are also developing tours for younger audiences. For school field trips on Buffalo black history by bike, bus, or foot, see our website or contact us for more information on hosting your class.
BUFFALO BIKE TOURS BUFFALOBIKETOURS.COM [email protected] (716) 328-8432 1790-1900
EARLY HISTORY OF BUFFALO’S BLACK COMMUNITY
rior to the war of 1812, Buffalo was a pioneer town with a population of just under 1,500. PBuffalo’s first black citizens lived alongside early settlers and largely resided in the Fourth Ward.
Buffalo’s black population faced many adversities but experienced more freedom than many other parts of the country. New York State was one of the more liberal states and enacted policies, such as abolishing slavery in 1827. Still, life in Buffalo was far from perfect for black families in the 1800s.
Due to its proximity to the Canadian border, Professor Wilbur H. Siebert’s underground railroad of WNY map Buffalo soon became a key part of the underground railroad: it was the last stop before reaching freedom. The city became known to conductors around the country as a network of “stations” were established. Underground Railroad sites in Buffalo, NY - interactive Google Map
This became even more critical in 1850, when President Millard Fillmore (from Buffalo), passed the Fugitive Slave Act, imposing hefty fines and jail time on those assisting freedom seekers.
Buffalo’s defiance of the Fugitive Slave Act reflected currents happening around our region. In Rochester, Austin Steward was a business owner, abolitionist author, and underground railroad conductor. In 1847, Martin R. Delany and Frederick Douglass also moved to Rochester, where they published North Star, which became the leading newspaper of the abolitionist movement.
In 1825, with the opening of the Erie Canal, Buffalo became a boom town. As European immigrants from around the world sought opportunity in Western New York’s industries, the city’s population ballooned. Buffalo’s black population remained As the 20th Century approached, Buffalo was fast small however and tightly knit, concentrated along becoming an economic powerhouse, and Buffalo’s Michigan Street. As the Circle Association writes: black community was finding its voice. These are a few key moments in the timeline of Buffalo black In 1855 the seven hundred-odd black people history pioneers, 1790-1900. living in Buffalo have two churches and a separate, segregated public school for their children. And while many black men worked as common laborers and most black women as domestics, there is a considerable large number of skilled workmen in the city’s East Side black community. Indeed, the job descriptions of many of them that are noted in the censuses of the mid-nineteenth century read like a handbook of trades. ”Black Joe” Hodge, thought to be an escaped slave, lives in Buffalo with the Seneca Indians. He is the first non-Native person to live in WNY and operates a trading post. JOSEPH HODGE Fluent in both Native and English languages, he is an interpreter LIVES IN and is known for serving alcohol BUFFALO out of his home (making him 1790 Buffalo’s first bartender).
A number of black owned businesses establish at a 3-story building known as the Union Block at Canalside. The area is well known as a magnet for vice, UNION BLOCK with as many as 60% of buildings ESTABLISHED serving as brothels. One of the more colorful establishments is AT CANALSIDE Dug’s Dive, operated by William Douglas, an escaped slave from
1830s Tennessee. Located below sea level, the bar is a literal “dive” one could not stand upright in.
The “Colored Methodist Society” of Buffalo is founded, otherwise known as the Vine Street Church. Its first pastor, Rev. George Weir, serves for 10 years and remains BETHEL AME active in improving the economic, social, and political conditions of FOUNDED his people for several decades. While the street and building are 1831 no longer extant, the congregation is still active.
After escaping slavery and working on steam ships in Cleveland, William Wells Brown moves to Buffalo. He helps more than WILLIAM 70 blacks escape on boats he WELLS BROWN navigates across the Niagara River at Black Rock Ferry. He becomes MOVES TO the first African American BUFFALO to publish a book, Clotell; or, 1836 The President’s Daughter, and travels the world speaking on abolitionism. His homesite is Shilo Baptist Church today. Elisha Tucker establishes a second Baptist Church in Buffalo to serve primary a black congregation. In 1838, several of the church’s leaders pass a resolution opposing slavery and the church MICHIGAN ST becomes a regular stopping ground for black thought leaders, including BAPTIST Frederick Douglass, Booker T Washington, and W. E. B. Du Bois. In 1842, the church CHURCH established its home at 511 Michigan. FOUNDED 1836 The building is rumored to have been an underground railroad station. It is still in operation today.
Leader of the Vine Street Church choir, “Peg Leg” Harrison befriends Edwin “Ned” Christy. They begin practicing together as Christy’s Minstrels and revolutionize theater with their bawdy performances, PEG LEG including the hit song, “Buffalo Gals,” about prostitution in Buffalo’s Canal HARRISON district. While steeped in racist MEETS NED stereotypes, minstrel shows allow early
black entertainers an outlet to challenge CHRISTY 1843 perceptions and audiences, and purse new careers.
Vine Street AME Church hosts a national convention with the purpose of discussing how to end slavery. Speakers include Samuel H. Davis, George Weir, NATIONAL Frederick Douglass, and Henry Highland Garnet. Garnet’s calls for Southern CONVENTION slaves to refuse to work and resist their oppressors by any means necessary. OF COLORED The gatherings exceed the church’s MEN capacity and are moved outdoors, 1843 where 5,000 attend.
Newspapers detail a dramatic, failed attempt by bounty hunters to arrest Christopher Webb, a waiter at the Gothic Hall Saloon. When their warrant is discovered illegitimate, a group of FUGITIVE Buffalonians, including the Deputy Sheriff, chase the bounty hunters out of SLAVE ACT town. RIOT 1847 Buffalo hosts a major convention for a new political party: The Free Soil Party. It is founded on an abolitionist platform, summarized FREE SOIL by a large banner that reads, “Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor, Free PARTY Men”. 40,000 attend speeches FOUNDED IN at Lafayette Square. Poet Walt Whitman is in attendance. 1848 BUFFALO
During the 1800s, blacks are regularly employed to break up union organizing efforts. As a fight breaks out between laborers and scabs, a mob coalesces. Hundreds of Irish dock workers attack blacks at random. One black is 1891 DOCK shot, at least two are murdered, and dozens are beaten. Rioters WORKER RIOT turn their attention to the Union
1891 Block, where a mob surrounds the building. Police rescue a large number of black men at Dug’s Dive, who are taken to jail for their own protection.
Mary Talbert moves with her husband William, from Oberlin, OH to Buffalo. She becomes a leading voice in the women’s suffrage and abolitionists movements. She MARY TALBERT becomes founder of the Niagara Movement and is instrumental in MOVES TO anti-lynching legislation. She is the first black woman to earn a 1891 BUFFALO Ph.D. from University at Buffalo.
After studying at a Virginia seminary, Rev. Jesse Nash moves to Buffalo at the age of 24 to be pastor of the Michigan Street Baptist Church. Nash co-founds the Buffalo Urban League and REV. JESSE Colored YMCA in Buffalo and serves his congregation for 61 NASH MOVES years. His house is a museum and TO BUFFALO education center today. 1892 1900-1950
BUFFALO BLACK HISTORY IN THE 1900S
t the turn of the Century, Buffalo’s black population was sparse and intermixed. But Aas the 1900s progressed, a more highly concentrated neighborhood emerged with black owned businesses, including nightclubs, drug stores, restaurants, and churches along Michigan Street.
Buffalo’s black population expanded with the onset of World War I. Many Southern blacks moved to Buffalo to pursue better paying jobs in our wartime industries, such as Bell Aircraft and Bethlehem Steel. This became known as the first wave of the Great Migration. The Great Migration saw a large increase in Buffalo’s black population
Buffalo was an appealing destination. The city was the second busiest rail hub, second only to Chicago. The interconnectivity between rail and waterways provided new opportunity for black families. The waitresses at Dan Montgomery’s (2008)
Map of Buffalo’s Fouth Ward, G. M. Hopkins & Co., 1872
Racism was pervasive. Beginning in the 1930s, banks employed racist housing practices, including redlining. This meant blacks had difficulty obtaining loans for housing outside of a predetermined area.
Redlining created in a highly segregated city, one in which race tensions sometimes flared. It also created a cycle of poverty, with black families struggling to make ends meet.
Still, Buffalo’s black community persevered and organized. Building on its activist past, Buffalo became a central part for the formation of the modern civil rights movement, including the foundation of the Niagara Movement.
The arts flourished in an entertainment district
known as the “jazz triangle”, consisting of Map showing redlined areas of Buffalo that discriminated against black Club Moonglo, Vendome, and Colored Musicians families seeking loans. Club. The city became a regular stop for traveling musicians, with a growing number of venues including the McAvoy Theater, Little Harlem, Zanzibar, and Dan Montgomery’s.
By the end of World War II, Buffalo’s black community was making strides towards upward mobility. These are a few key moments in the timeline of Buffalo black history, 1900-1950. The World’s Fair becomes a critical moment in the history of civil rights, thanks to Mary Talbert, who organizes protests over offensive displays featuring PAN AMERICAN racist depictions. Talbert, James EXPOSITION Ross, and W. E. B. Du Bois work to present the Negro Exhibition, the first time an exhibition of African
1901 PROTESTS American literary and photo works is assembled.
Du Bois and Talbert organize a conference on the state of the black movement. Activists from around the country gather in Buffalo and Fort Erie to create a NIAGARA manifesto demanding their basic MOVEMENT human rights. A few years later, in 1909, many present at the Niagara FOUNDED Movement convention found a
1905 new organization founded on their principles: the NAACP.
Ann Montgomery starts an ice cream parlor on Michigan Street, expands with a billiard hall, and finally opens the Little Harlem Hotel. The hotel’s music club LITTLE hosts legendary jazz musicians HARLEM including Cab Calloway and Ella Fitzgerald. The club becomes one OPENS of the first places lesbians and
1910 gays could go, and it hosts the city’s first drag shows.
Buffalo’s armory is converted into the city’s first sports and entertainment complex. The venue hosts boxing tournaments, BROADWAY lacrosse matches, 6-day bike races, hockey, and political rallies. AUDITORIUM It is an anchor in the Michigan Street neighborhood and attracts OPENS diverse audiences from around 1910 the city. The building currently houses the city’s snow plows. Racism in the musician’s union and local hotels gives rise to Local 533, a collective voice for black musicians. They establish a storefront on Broadway for union meetings, with an COLORED after hours jazz club on the second floor. The club remains to this day. MUSICIANS The first floor is a museum, while CLUB the second floor is used for music 1918 lessons and jazz shows. FOUNDED
More than just a club, the Michigan St YMCA becomes the heart of the Michigan St community. The building houses a cafeteria, gymnasium, swimming pool, barber shop, tailor shop, library; and classrooms, locker COLORED rooms, and dormitory rooms for 70 YMCA people. It is designed by John Brent, Buffalo’s first black architect. OPENS 1926
In the early 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan is active in Buffalo, but conflict emerges when recently elected Mayor Francis Schwab promises to repeal prohibition. Edward Obertean, a police spy, exposes a list of more than 2,000 KKK members and backlash ensues. He is murdered at the hands of national EXPOSED klan leaders. 1924
With funding from the Works Progress Administration (WPA), War Memorial Stadium in built. A new black business district emerges on Jefferson Avenue in the surrounding WAR blocks. “The Old Rock Pile” becomes MEMORIAL home to the Buffalo Bills, Buffalo Bisons, and site of the film, The STADIUM Natural.
OPENS 1937 Buffalo invests in public housing with another WPA project. Willert Court, designed by Frederick C. Backus, is one of the first public housing programs created WILLERT specifically for African Americans. It becomes an important center COURT for black life in Buffalo, as the BUILT community extends into the East 1939 Side. The building is currently abandoned and in danger of demolition.
Eva Noles is the first African American woman to be a registered nurse in Buffalo. She graduates at the top of her class and is hired by Roswell Park Cancer EVA NOLES Research Institute. She founds Nurses Week, and is heavily GRADUATES involved in community activism. 1940
Leeland Jones, Jr. becomes the first African American on the University of Buffalo football team. He faces discrimination LEELAND while travelling, having to stay at separate hotels from white JONES players. In 1949, Jones is elected county supervisor, the first ATTENDS black to hold political office in 1941 UB Buffalo. He organizes the March of Mothers, a protest of school inequality, and enacts policies supporting the black community.
Reverend C.L. Franklin moves to Buffalo to serve as pastor of the Friendship Baptist Church. His daughter, Aretha, begins her ARETHA career singing at the church, before moving to Detroit and FRANKLIN becoming an icon in the Civil MOVES TO Rights movement.
1944 BUFFALO 1950-2000
BUFFALO IN THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
he second half of the 20th Century brought dramatic change to Buffalo’s Tblack community. This was a reflection of Buffalo’s economic decline and policies impacting the city during the civil right movement era.
Buffalo’s industries were amongst the largest in the United States. The city was the 3rd largest steel producer, the 2nd largest railroad center, and the largest in flour milling. Steel and iron plants employed 30,000 workers alone.
Buffalo’s black population continued to expanded significantly during the second wave of the Great Migration. Many came to work at Buffalo’s manufacturing factories, such as Bethlehem Steel, Republic Steel, and Photographer Milton Rogovin documented the working class at Bethlehem Steel Ford Motor Company. Many individuals and groups furthered civil rights in Buffalo. Policymakers such as Arthur Eve and George Arthur fought for affirmative action, housing, and school equity initiatives. More radical groups such as BUILD, SNCC, the Black Panther Party, Revolutionary Action Movement, and the National Committee to Combat Fascism sought revolutionary change.
The arts flourished during the civil rights era. Venues such as the Apollo Theater, Buffalo’s black residential areas expanded from Langston Hughes Center, and African Michigan Street to other neighborhoods of the American Cultural Center became important East Side. A major black economic corridor cultural spaces. Meanwhile, Buffalo’s artists emerged on Jefferson Ave, anchored by War of note during this time include Lucile Memorial Stadium, with beloved institutions such Clifton, Ishmael Reed, Rick James, and as Scottie’s Steakhouse, Get & Split, Wings N’ Grover Washington. Things, and Burgerland. By 2000, Buffalo’s industries would be Growing racial tension emerged between Polish mostly gone. The impacts would be felt and German residents and the newly arrived especially hard in Buffalo’s East Side. Still, African American population. In 1956, a racial Buffalo’s black community continued to fight incident at Crystal Beach resulted in 9 arrests and for change. These are a few key moments in 6 hospitalizations. It also led to a termination of the timeline of Buffalo black history, 1950- the amusement park’s boat service. 2000.
This tension and racism, combined with the construction of highways, led to Buffalo’s sprawling suburbs. Between 1950 and 1960 over 80,000 white Buffalonians - close to twenty percent of the population - moved out of the city.
In 1967, during the height of the civil rights movement, race riots broke out on Jefferson Avenue. This is examined in Doug Ruffin’s 67:Buffalo Uprising documentary.
Doug Ruffin’s 67:Buffalo Uprising documentary Pioneering restauranteur John Young makes his mark opening Wings N’ Things, the first chicken JOHN YOUNG wing shop in Buffalo, NY. Young’s restaurant is visited by celebrities SERVES including Cookie Gilchrist, Rick James, and Joe Tex. Late in life BUFFALO’S Young noted, “It hurts me so bad that other people take the credit”. 1961 ORIGINAL WINGS
Mack Luchey meets his wife Doris Banks at Audrey and Del’s, the city’s first African-American record store. They soon start their own store and marry in 1962. Over DORIS the years, Doris Records is visited RECORDS by traveling stars including Mary J. Blige, Lil’ Kim, Ice Cube and OPENS Kool Moe Dee. The shop is still
1962 in operation as the city’s oldest record shop.
Arthur Hardwick and Shirley Chisholm, both state legislators, meet in Albany. Hardwick becomes the first African American to represent Western New York in the HARDWICK State Assembly. Chisholm was the MEETS first Black woman elected to the US Congress. In 1972, Chisholm CHISOLM becomes the first African-
1965 American candidate to run for President of the United States.
The Buffalo Challenger is founded by Arthur Eve, Calvin Kimbrough, and John Moore. In the early days, it is assembled out of people’s BUFFALO homes. In 1979, Al-Nisa Banks starts as a volunteer, and soon CHALLENGER moves up to become editor, and eventually owner. The paper IS FOUNDED continues its legacy of providing
1963 a platform to address issues impacting the black community. In 1960, Arlester “Dyke” Christian starts playing bass in a Buffalo band, Carl LaRue and his Crew. He soon forms Dyke & The Blazers, playing in local clubs, and authoring a hit song “Funky Broadway”, about Broadway Street in Buffalo. DYKE & THE Some historians have called “Funky Broadway” the first funk song, a sound BLAZERS FORM attributed to James Brown. His music is later sampled by Tupac Shakur and 1965 Stetsasonic.
With little political background, Arthur Eve is elected to the State Assembly. He serves 36 years, working for affirmative action, education, and health care. In 1978, Eve is elected the first African ARTHUR O. American to win the Democratic Party nomination for Mayor of Buffalo. He EVE IS loses to Jimmy Griffin, who runs on promoting racial fears. ELECTED 1966
Riots break out along Niagara Street and spread to Jefferson Avenue with protesters demanding civil rights. Most businesses on Jefferson close, with exception of Martin Sostre’s Afro Asian RACE RIOTS Bookstore. Sostre hosts community meetings, coming under scrutiny of the & MARTIN Buffalo police. His shop is raided, and an all-white jury sentence him to 41 years SOSTRE
in prison. During Sostre’s time in jail 1967 he becomes a champion for prisoner’s rights and wins several landmark cases.
With help from Saul Alinsky, BUILD brings grassroots power to Buffalo’s black community. The organization gets its start with the publication of “Black Paper No. 1”, which concludes more parental involvement in the schools is BUILD IS needed for black children to succeed. In 1969, BUILD establishes a school FOUNDED teaching a black-centric curriculum. It is the first public school to run a free 1967 breakfast program and features a high degree of parental involvement. The school is still in operation today. Clifton authors several collections of poetry, a memoir, and more than sixteen books for children, written expressly for an African- LUCILLE American audience. Her honors include an Emmy Award, a CLIFTON Lannan Literary Award, and two PUBLISHES fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. Her work 1969 FIRST BOOK is remembered for addressing political topics including race, power, sexuality, pride, and freedom.
More than 1,200 largely-black inmates of Attica State Prison stage a rebellion. 42 staff are taken hostage and, after 4 days, Governor Rockefeller sends in ATTICA STATE 400 state police, resulting in 39 PRISON deaths and numerous injuries. The trial takes place in Buffalo, with UPRISING many demonstrations outside the 1971 Courthouse, at Niagara Square. The uprising becomes one of the most significant flashpoints of the Prisoners’ Rights Movement.
Buffalo saxophonist Grover Washington releases his first major album “Inner City Blues”. He wins a Grammy Award for his 1980 GROVER album “Winelight” and another for his collaboration with singer Bill WASHINGTON Withers on the song “Just the Two RELEASES of Us”, in 1981.
1972 ALBUM
Started in 1976 by BUILD, Juneteenth is founded as a culturally-relevant alternative to the country’s Bicentennial JUNETEENTH Celebration. The festival celebrates black culture and CELEBRATION emancipation from slavery. Today, Juneteenth Buffalo ranks as the FOUNDED third largest in the world, and
1976 features hundreds of events, vendors, and festivities. In the 1970s, community leaders come together to challenge inadequate schooling – among them Arthur Eve and George Arthur. They bring a charge against the Buffalo Board of Education that blacks lacked equal opportunity. ARTHUR VS. Judge John Curtin, a Buffalo native and federal judge, is called to arbitrate NYQUIST in the case. Curtin rules in favor of DECISION the activists, leading to the creation 1976 of magnet schools and mandatory bussing.
The Parade, also known as Humboldt Park, is renamed in memory of Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr. The renaming is delayed by one year due to racism within the city council. In 1983, an eight foot bronze bust of Dr. King is placed in the park. Its sculptor, John Wilson, MLK PARK IS intended the work as an interpretation RENAMED rather than a life-like representation.
Some continue to take offense by the 1977 modernist design.
Lorna Hill establishes a theater space with an emphasis on modern performance. The theater serves as a vehicle for African American performers, theater crafts people, UJIMA and administrators. Hill is a playwright and poet who is best known for the THEATER IS play Yalla Bitch that was performed as FOUNDED part of the first International Women
Playwrights Conference. The theater is 1978 still in operation today.
After enlisting in the Navy at the age of 15, James decides it isn’t for him and goes AWOL, seeking asylum in Canada. After playing backup in several bands, James starts his solo career in 1973. “Come Get It!” and “Street Songs” go RICK JAMES platinum, but it is “Super Freak” that RECORDS makes Rick James a household name. Heavy drug use, legal trouble, and SUPERFREAK prison time follow him throughout his 1981 life. James leaves an indelible impact on Buffalo music, and the rap and R&B world for generations to come. 2000-PRESENT
CONNECTING OUR BLACK HISTORY TO THE PRESENT
y the turn of the 20th Century, Buffalo’s economic decline had taken its toll. Buffalo’s Bformer industrial economy had largely turned to low-paying service jobs. Those hardest hit were people of color.
Buffalo’s white population fled to the suburbs, leaving vast areas of the East Side with population loss. The city is currently ranked as one of the most segregated cities, with 85% of its black population residing east of Main Street.
Disinvestment is visibly apparent. Neighborhoods west of Main Street, where the population is majority white, are affluent. Neighborhoods east of Main Street have seen continued decline.
As the Partnership For The Public Good points out in their report, A City Divided: A Brief History of Segregation in Buffalo, it was not by accident. Buffalo’s current inequities are the result of decades of discriminatory policies. Despite Buffalo’s revitalization, the city remains entrenched in its historical mistakes. For those living in East Buffalo, quality of life is significantly diminished. Graduation rates and life expectancy is lower, public transportation more difficult, and there is less access to health food. Meanwhile, pollution and law enforcement is higher.
Policies have tried to change these negative outcomes. Numerous community based organizations have arisen to help tackle issues related to systemic racism. Comer v. Cisneros (1989), resulted in the formation of Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME), a nonprofit that monitors housing discrimination. Buffalo stands at a crossroads. Like many American cities, it is trying to find a way to A more recent issue has become gentrification, build a better future for its black population a word not commonly associated with Buffalo. As but, for now, the struggle continues. These city living has seen increased demand, housing are a few key moments in the timeline of values in downtown, the waterfront, and the Buffalo black history, 2000-present. Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus have risen sharply.
SUPPORT AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY & BLACK OWNED BUSINESS
Curious to learn more about African American history in Buffalo? Check out our Google map and explore how to support current black owned business in Buffalo. If you think we missed something, be sure to let us know!
Check out the interactive Google Map and support Buffalo black businesses. Democrat Byron Brown wins a four-way mayoral race, becoming the first black man elected as Mayor of Buffalo. He runs on the promise of bringing economic BRYON BROWN change to the city of Buffalo, and he enacts policies promoting ELECTED development, including the MAYOR Seneca Casino and development of the Buffalo waterfront. 2005
In 1963, Coles opens his own firm, which he managed until late in life. His buildings of note include the JFK Recreation Center, his award-winning home MERRIWEATHER at 321 Humboldt Parkway and the Merriweather Library, which LIBRARY OPENS marries the circular design of traditional African villages with modernism. Coles breaks racial
2006 and design barriers, is a champion for more minority representation in the design field, and is actively involved in advancing civil rights.
Buffalo rapper Westside Gunn founds the supergroup that put the city again on the musical map. The hip hop collective and independent record label feature GRISELDA their hometown prominently in their music and videos. The group FORMS perfects its street rap sound, echoing the boom bap of previous supergroups like Wu Tang. The 2012 group gives back to Buffalo and many of their songs reflect social issues.
Lillion Batchelor’s Buffalo Quarters Historical Society makes significant changes to Broederick Park, the former site of Black BROEDERICK Rock Ferry. The group puts in $4 million worth of improvements, PARK including landscape design, a reflective garden, and historical RENOVATED signage acknowledging the site’s
2016 significance in the underground railroad. Activist Alexander Wright establishes a food co-op to addressing the lack of access to healthy food options on Buffalo’s East Side. It soon turns into a full fledged operation, sourcing AFRICAN produce from local farms and making HERITAGE fresh fruit and veggies available and affordable to those who need it. FOOD CO-OP
FOUNDED 2016
Amid growing cries of rising rents, activists take action in fighting the forces of gentrification. Led by Open Buffalo and India Walton, a nurse at Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, the FRUIT BELT group begins organizing community residents. They beat developers at LAND TRUST their own game by buying up the neighborhood’s vacant lots. The BEGINS
intention is not to resell them, but to 2017 hold them in a land trust that leases them out at rates existing residents could afford.
A large mural featuring portraits of 28 black activists is commissioned by the Albright-Knox. When residents object to the project’s exclusion of artists from the black community, THE three African-American artists, John Baker, Julia Douglas, and Edreys FREEDOM WALL Wajed, are added. The project serves IS PAINTED as a connection point between the
Bethel AME church to the Michigan 2017 Street Corridor.
Buffalo Common Council passes a law mandating police officers intercede when they believe excessive force is being used. The bill comes as a result of the determination of Cariol Horne, who was fired when she intervened CARIOL’S LAW in an arrest with one of her fellow officers. She was terminated just a IS PASSED year short of serving the necessary 20 years to qualify for a full police pension. 2020 BUFFALO BLACK HISTORY TOURS & FIELD TRIPS
Buffalo Bike Tours offers private tours of Buffalo black history. We promise that our tours will provide a new side of Buffalo you’ve never known – even if you’re from here!
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Our field trips are designed to meet NYS Social Studies Common Core standards and provide students with a deeper understanding of our history. Give your students relevant experiences and engage them with critical, meaningful issues.
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BUFFALOBIKETOURS.COM [email protected] (716) 328-8432