Black history. You see it, you hear it. I have a dream. You feel it. Our history, they wiped it out, they disregard it. They don’t acknowledge it. We hurt. We are better than this as Americans. Those 10 people who died were the best of Americans. We overcome you got an acceptance of reality
And let it make you stronger, give you resistance. We stand together. They weren’t gonna allow me to play. And our coach says, well, if it doesn’t play, then you know, the team’s not gonna play. We celebrate, we are strong as a community. Our culture always stands out.
I’m proud of our people. This is the legacy of Buffalo’s Black history. Thank you for joining us for this two on your side. Special. I’m Claudine Ewing over the next hour, we are gonna look at the legacy of Buffalo’s Black history, the adversity,
The challenges that lie ahead and even some of the great things that are happening. But first, let’s go back to where it all began. Pete Gallivan introduces us to the pioneers of Buffalo’s Black history. America. It is to thee. Thou boasted land of liberty. It is to thee. I raise my song.
Thou land of blood and crime and wrong. Those are the words of a Buffalo Barber named James Monroe Whitfield, who in 1853 became Buffalo’s first published black author. His poem America took the Nation to task over the issue of slavery. Just a few years before that another Queen City Barber
Was bringing his anti slavery message to the stage. In 1845 David Paul Brown’s production took the stage at the old Eagle Street theater. Making Brown our first black playwright. Yes. A number of African Americans wrote their own History Breaking Buffalo’s Color Barrier. Well, I think it takes kind of a pioneering spirit
To um you know, to go out and not conquer necessarily but to overcome barriers and obstacles. But as historian, Doctor Barbara Neg Gold points out that while some were making history, others were writing her story, one such groundbreaking woman was Eva Bateman Knowles, who in 1936 became the first African American woman
To be trained in Buffalo as a nurse. In fact, a number of years ago in an interview, MS Knowles told to on your side how it all came to be. I applied on a dare and the hospital was Buffalo City Hospital, which today is EC MC.
Now she knew at that point in time that black women’s career choices were very limited. And that very often in looking at her parents and her mother, in particular, that black women had to look forward to jobs in housekeeping, you know, cooking and she didn’t want those kinds of jobs.
She wanted to have something else different. She knew being a very bright woman that there are other things that she could do. And so she decided she’d take the dare and she’d go and apply. And then she did, she got in and boy, did she make the most of that opportunity?
She became a registered nurse, then a nursing educator and ultimately director of nursing at Buffalo’s world renowned Roswell Park. Did she look at herself as a pioneer? I think she probably did. And a reason I say that is that she kept every single piece of um correspondence
Of certificates that she earned from high school. She was really involved in the Red Cross and she was involved all her life, but she kept all of those things. So when um she did finally retire, you know, she lived until she was 96
She donated all of those materials to the University of Buffalo Archives, which has them now. So she had a sense of her own history and what she wanted to leave to make sure that people didn’t forget her. She also became an author celebrating other notable Black Buffalos from Aretha Franklin
Who lived here until she was eight and even sang in the choir at Friendship Baptist Church to Jazz Great Grover Washington Jr. Her main point in documenting these greats in her book, Buffalo’s Blacks, Talking Proud is to accentuate how she too lived her life. Look for other jobs to do.
And if you qualify for something, do it, the words that echo through the actions of Knowles and so many others that fought so hard for equal opportunities, the fight it is something people living along Humboldt Parkway know all too well, decades ago, this expressway was built basically ripping apart a neighborhood
As Nate Benson tells us now, people living here are talking about restoring it and what changes lie ahead in post war America expressways were the desired infrastructure projects for state and federal planners between the late 1940 s through the 50 S and six s,
Thousands of miles of multi lane highways were built sometimes near urban centers, sometimes through them. Buffalo was no different than the rest of the country. Planners believe they needed to move people in and out of the city as quickly as possible. The first mention of the Kensington Expressway by the
State Department of Public Works was in 1946. And from the very beginning, the Humboldt Parkway was the targeted destination for the expressway, a vibrant neighborhood and part of Frederick Law. Olmstead’s Parkway system in the Queen City, Brother Clifford Bell and Terrence Robinson have lived in the neighborhoods
Adjacent to the Kensington Expressway for most of their lives, including before it was built. It was a great community. People lived in there and bought things in there and served in there. And it was, it was, it was, it did well, it was doing well a park like setting where we
Play touch football where we walked down where you had a little respite. And even when you weren’t on it, it was the parkway in the early 19 fifties. The Humboldt Parkway was a diverse melting pot of ethnic groups. The area we moved into was predominantly German. It it was a multicultural, diverse neighborhood.
But post war expansion of the suburbs ignited an exodus of Buffalo proper in the early 19 fifties as well. My first grade class was maybe 85 90% white and then by the time of eighth grade, it was probably 80% African American black boom transitioned in 56 years in February 1954.
A bold announcement by New York State detailed plans for a Kensington expressway, a multi lane highway that would allow for tens of thousands of vehicles to get in and out of the city. Why are they going to do that? And almost immediately after the plan was announced, folks that knew about this development
Got a chance to sell their property and move out so that we began to buy in and found out after the fact that there was going to be an express, we put them there. Despite some opposition to the plans. In 1954 the city unanimously approved the state’s
Plan by 1950 seven demolitions of homes along the parkway began and construction of the expressway lasted until 19 71/630 homes were torn down and the Olmstead Parkway system was altered forever. It’s changed the whole atmosphere in the community because we lost the potential for
Growth because a lot of the people that were spending money and had money 70 years after the initial plans for the Kensington were introduced by the state. Another project is being proposed aimed at reconnecting the Humboldt neighborhood that the highway tore up. The plans have the community divided.
But the billion dollar plan to cap and tunnel 4100 ft of the expressway will add 11 new acres of green space while maintaining current traffic levels in and out of the city. And even though there are supporters and detractors, no one can deny. It’s a far cry from what was here before.
And when I can think of all of the people that grew up here, people that were uh Buffalo it uh and they wiped it out while there is uncertainty among the 33. There is a story of success here at Freedom Park. As Rob hacker tells us what was formerly known
As Broderick Park is paying tribute to Buffalo’s Black history driving by and seeing our name up on, on, on the sign for the park. We took some pride in that Michael Broderick doesn’t remember the first time his family was approached about renaming Broderick Park. But he does remember the last
The park is named after his great grandfather, a founder of the West Side rowing club. You know, as proud as we were and as proud as we are. It being named after my great grandfather, we realized it was time, time to recognize the park’s deep connection to the underground railroad.
When they looked across that river, they saw freedom. Christopher Lawson is part of the group friends of Broderick Park members of which have been caretakers. Come on. Are we going to go walk into the museum very quickly? Like George Johnson, the group’s executive director. This is a very small version of
Something yet to come. It’s a museum about what came long before the name Broderick. We really consider this a sacred ground and the many African Americans escaping slavery in the South who ended up in Buffalo seeking freedom to Canada. A story of hope and tragedy.
Some people tried to swim over. Some people tried to swim over on logs. A lot of people didn’t, didn’t make it as they tried to cross to the other side. Freedom seekers swept away the number of whom isn’t truly known. According to Lawson, given the secret network that got them there.
They didn’t want people to know what paths enslaved people were taking to freedom, what time they could escape and many did along the entire Niagara River. It’s estimated that tens of thousands of enslaved African Americans made it to freedom. Many of whom were shuttled across in the Black Rock ferry at Broderick Park.
Over the years, these stories have been added to the park, just not its name. This is just an example of who Buffalo really is. Until the Broderick family would say, you know, we agree with Freedom Park on October 31st 2023 the Buffalo Common Council signed off
On a new name Freedom Park and it’s so significant Niagara District council member David Rivera helped make it happen. We want people to know that this is part of the underground railroad that this was the terminus and what occurred here on this hollowed ground. We’re not trying to erase history.
History is what it is. You can’t take it away. We just want to make sure it’s recognized. This is an important area to the African American population and the American story as a whole. As for Christopher Lawson again, and the friends of now Freedom Park, they say
They will continue caring for the park’s entire history. New signage is planned and a plaque Commemorating the Broderick families. We want people to know about this area. So we want to spread the word. We want the key is to educate people of what happened in the past
So that we can have a better future. And again, we just want to support it and support them recognition that what happened in the past is just as important as the future ahead. Honoring black icons through art. It’s an amazing public piece of art and monuments.
Anything we did, we didn’t get credit for it. That’s what this monument here is all about when the legacy Buffalo’s Black history returns. Welcome back first. It is something to celebrate during Black History Month. A woman breaking barriers over the airwaves 0.5 and 1080 W UFO. The real big
I am the first afroamerican woman to own a radio station in all of Western New York, Southern Ontario. Sheila Brown is the owner and president, Vision Multimedia Group, owner of W UFO Radio 96.5 FM and 1080 AM. In 1986 she started at the station as a commission only sales person.
And then I rose to the sales manager in three years. But then October 1998 I said, you know what my time is up after 14 years of working in the industry. And um but when I left,
I turned to the station and I said, don’t worry, baby, I’m gonna come back and buy you. The station was on La Salle Avenue for years. She stayed away but all the while she was drawing up a plan, she returned as a sales manager with her ad agency.
Fast forward. She became interim general manager. She got investors to buy into the station. If I was going to have a eight in the community, I’m gonna be the first woman owner to own a radio station. I need to be more visible. 2013,
She moved the station close to downtown Buffalo on Broadway next to the colored musicians club in the African American Heritage Corridor. This building that was completely in disrepair became what you see now, what is it like to be a female owner of a radio station in the State of New York?
It’s not always easy, right? Um A lot of ad agencies is always looking for numbers and where you’re not showing up here, which we have a, we have a historical station where we have like 34 generation of people. Just listen. I mean, you know, for yourself, your mom worked here.
The station has a museum to display its rich history. We do chores right now on the collectives and we let students come in, they don’t know what a 45 is. They don’t know what an eight track tape is, they don’t know right
Soon this history will be in the W UFO Black Radio Collectives Museum, Sheila Brown, a local radio pioneer. Next, we’re going to continue to celebrate Buffalo’s Black history and the legacy and legends when it comes to the vibrant art scene. Kelly does introduces us to Julia Bottoms who is really celebrating Buffalo icons.
We’re at the Freedom Wall. Basically, it’s an amazing public piece of art that really kind of talks about the history of not only national Black figures but also local figures, which is something that I think really makes it special for Buffalo. We caught up with artist Julia Bottoms at the quarter of Michigan
And East Ferry where she helped create the Freedom Wall in 2017. And I think for Black History Month, it’s especially significant because we think of the really big names like Rosa Parks and Doctor King, which are on the wall. But it’s important also to honor the local
Legends as well like Arthur Reeve and Massa Doyle. And just all the amazing people that have helped to contribute to Buffalo Bottoms has contributed immensely to Buffalo’s public art scene with murals across the city. Museums are wonderful, of course, but I think this should always be a part of it that’s
Available to everybody and for people to kind of walk in and feel at home. Um I think that’s a reservation a lot of times for people that can be intimidated by the idea of walking into a space that’s like traditional
And you kind of miss out in that sense. So I think public art is a great, great kind of branch to help people get excited about art and even when it’s in communities kind of claim it for yourself.
Her next big splash will be made at a museum, the Buffalo A KG. Next month, I feel really fortunate. There’s been so many organizations that have really just stepped into my corner and said, we trust you, we support you, we believe in your vision. Um Even with an exhibition that is opening next
Month on the eighth at the Buffalo A KG. Uh you know, they really trusted me and Tiffany Gaines and Jillian Hainsworth, who are my co creators on this uh to just be able to really do our own thing. She’s also working on a new sculpture to honor Shirley Chisholm’s legacy.
It’s gonna end up going right at her final resting place in forest lawn. Um What’s been amazing about that is just having ventured into sculpture. That was really my first time doing a sculpture of that scale and to just be trusted and to,
You know, really do all this research on Shirley and get to know, you know, what her, not only what her contribution was but how she has this connection to Buffalo, I think really helped me connect with the work itself and I’m really excited to have it move into that next phase.
And while bottom says a lot of attention is paid to the figures and icons on this wall. I want to remind the community that Black history is American history and it’s, you know, part of all of our shared stories. So my big encouragement to educators and just to
The community in general is to really reframe the idea of Black history and take it out of just a single month. Think about, you know, who are these figures, even if you only cover one a month with your kids. It’s really important to acknowledge that shared history.
And I’m actually working on a children’s book that eventually I’m hoping I can provide for free to a lot of places to kind of work on that and go month by month and say, you know, even if it’s just one figure, it’s part of our shared story
From the freedom wall to the Buffalo Naval Park legends are being remembered. Scott Levin sits down with two black veterans who fought for our freedom right here. Renal. Basham is now 90 years old, a friendly and likable man who loves to talk and tell a joke.
But his favorite subject is the African American veterans monument right here on Buffalo’s waterfront Renal is considered part of the greatest generation, a veteran who visited 12 countries and saw three tours in Vietnam and was involved in the Korean War as well
As we sat for this interview during a chilly February day along the waterfront. Renal was proud to tell me he’s also a recipient of the bronze star. That’s about being in the wrong place at the wrong time, knowing how to duck and hide. That was the battle of
Quare one. The bigger bouts of Vietnam. I asked him what it was like to see combat in one of the deadliest wars ever. Scary as hell. Excuse my French. Anyone that says they’re in their carbon is scared. Hey, don’t believe them. The idea is not to fight the enemy but keep the
Guys around you alive so we can all go home. What was it like to be? It’s Black History Month right now. What was it like to be an African American fighting for our country? You have mixed emotions because they lie, they say different things.
Start with the first lie that you’re gonna get your freedom and you never get your freedom. Neither do you get the 40 acres or darn sure. Don’t get the mule. Tell me about that. Well, like I said, there’s nothing that you can be angry about. You got accepted the reality
And let it make you stronger, give you resistance. Tell me about the contributions that African Americans have made to the military. But I would have to say that it was all started with World War One, but we weren’t decorated by the United States. We were decorated by France and England
Because we weren’t allowed to get decorations. Nor did we want to be recognized. World War Two. They put a ceiling on the amount of decorations which we could receive of African Americans. We were written out of history. They didn’t count anything we did, we didn’t get credit for it.
That’s what this monument here is all about is trying to give it the honor that we were denied for the service that we gave here. This monument, Renal says means everything to him. Finally, the recognition African Americans deserve. This is a national monument. We got people in California, Alabama everywhere.
Robin Hodges is a navy veteran who served more than two decades. She is now the Chief Operations and impact Officer for the monument. If it were not for veterans, all veterans, but especially because we stand here today at the African American Veterans monument, African American veterans
That we would not be able to do the things that we do today. I’m very proud to have served my country. The monument shows that we know that we have a history. We want to share it with everybody and we believe in racial equity.
Everybody has a story to tell. Everyone’s story should be told. Not just a certain few, the tall black pillars, each represent one of the 12 wars that African Americans fought in from the revolutionary war to Afghanistan wars. He hopes the youth of this country learn about right here with a hands on experience.
We are somebody we should be reckoned with. We should be appreciated and we should be thanked because we built this country. Everything is primarily built by slave labor and as the temperatures continued to drop. And just before we left each other, we stumbled upon RALs brick one last time. What do you think?
I think it was a terrible journey, but a learning journey. I got everything I got everything I asked for and more. My parents would be careful what you ask for. You may get it and I got that more.
But like I said, the main thing is I came home, I still had my family. Everybody was intact from the legends on the football field to the hockey rink. Now James will go after it. He has, it pushes it too far ahead.
We introduce you to the sports icons who paved the way for a better tomorrow. I was the first black to play for the Chatham Junior Maroons. When the legacy Buffalo’s Black history continues, we know that Buffalo is a sports town.
So how can we not recognize those who have contributed to Buffalo’s Black legacy in sports? The Buffalo Bills are so much a part of this community creating a legacy in Western New York and beyond celebrating some players is Black history. The legendary Bruce Smith, the NF L’s all time sack leader,
A first ballot hall of Famer and huge key to the Bills run to four trade Super Bowls. In the early nineties, James Starks of Niagara Falls went to UB, became a shining star there and then to the NFL where he played with the Green Bay Packers and won a Super Bowl in basketball.
Bob Lanier, a Bennett high grad then went to Saint Bonaventure where he led the Bonnie to the final four. He was the NB A’s top overall pick in 1970 an eight time all star and is enshrined in the basketball Hall of Fame
In hockey Willie o’ree is known for breaking the NH L’s color barrier back in 1958 but he was of Canadian descent. Val James was the first African American player in the NHL with the Sabers in 1981. And Tony mckechnie who was born in Montreal started his career with the Sabers in 1978
And became the first black player in NHL history to score 40 goals in a season that was in 1987 88 with the Saint Louis Blues. Those weren’t the only icons breaking barriers. Jonathan Acosta tells us about a local college hockey coach who made an impact on and off the ice. Early weekday mornings,
You’ll find the University of Buffalo hockey team practicing at Northtown Center in Amherst. Hockey at UB is a club sport, a remaining part of the legacy of Ed Wright. It’s really cool to walk around the rink and just know that you’re part of a founding part of history.
Hockey at UB used to be an NCAA varsity sport where Ed Wright’s legacy was also part of history. Wright grew up in Chatham, Ontario playing multiple sports. Chatham was the greatest place in the world to grow up. A love for baseball, five, all Ontario championship baseball team and a love for hockey.
Hockey months, we were out there playing hockey, you know, pretending to play our heroes, obstacles, but financial being as poor as I was at hockey, it was the service clubs that, uh, made sure that I had skates and societal one incident.
You know, when Pete, we were, they, we were coming into the rink and, uh, they weren’t gonna allow me to play and our coach as well. If it doesn’t play, then, you know, the team’s not gonna play. Not enough though to hold right back from excelling at the sport.
I was the first back to play for the Chatham Junior Maroons. Wright’s play on the ice landed him a scholarship at Boston University where he went on to score 29 goals. I had skill, I had talent and I had the opportunity to expose it and for it to be recognized rather than just
The color of my skin. And that was the mentality he took from the ice to the bench. When in 1970 recently graduated, he took the job at UB, becoming the first black head hockey coach in NCAA history for all the years I coached.
I was unaware of the fact that I was the only one in the country, his players unaware as well. It was something that never really crossed my mind. Tony Murci played for Wright in the seventies, certainly a young coach, but he was an old school coach,
A coach who was tough on his players when you’re giving them the tough lessons that it’s because you, you care for them, you love them players who had their coaches back as you know, coach Ed Wright, they started yelling. Coach Ed White as far as I’m concerned, that’s fighting, fighting words.
And that’s my coach. You’re not gonna disrespect him in any way. So I turned and confronted and I remember him taking me by the shoulder and saying, Tony, your battle’s not up there. It’s out on the ice and I never forgot that he didn’t bother him a bit. Those cheap shot comments.
Wright just continued powering along you. You dealt with those intimidating factors. This superficial thing called color. He went on to coach at Buffalo for 12 seasons, compiling 138 wins and posting six winning seasons before later on becoming the first black scout in NHL history. His total time at UB spanned 40 years
Years including creating the university’s recreation and intramural program. His legacy and impact commemorated by a donation from his former player Murchie to have the triple gym at alumni Arena named after the historic head coach. The feeling is a great feeling. It’s a feeling of love. It’s a feeling of light.
It’s a feeling of warmth, immortality. I want people that didn’t know him or didn’t play for him to, to realize, uh, you know, this is a great man and you know, I’ll never forget him. Wright’s impact extending to coaches now following in his footsteps like Seth Van
Voorhees who met Wright at his UB Hall of Fame induction. It gives you hope as a as, as a player of color, coach of color. You, you look to Ed Wright as Ed Wright sit on that bench and I stand on that bench. I want other people to see like
You too can do that. You know, as Wright’s legacy lives in the players and coaches that have come after him. He reflects on the two words that summarize his journey, opportunity and respect and, uh, hey, its, uh, I guess that’s who I am, you know,
And uh you know, take what you have and do the best you can with it ahead from the Underground Railroad Heritage Center. But this is our escape gallery. And here we share specific stories of freedom seekers to the classroom and dance floor, how Black history is being taught year round in our community.
That and more when the legacy of Buffalo’s Black history returns in Niagara Falls at the Underground Railroad Heritage Center. Stories like Harriet Tubman are being told by the staffers, Mary Alice Demmler spoke with them. My grandmother Inez Dorsey is a direct descendant of famous underground railroad freedom seeker Josiah
Henson for Niagara Falls native Saladin Allah, the story of the underground railroad is personal. So Josiah Henson is the central figure that Harriet Beecher Stowe used as a model in her famous 19th century novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. That story details Henson’s harrowing 41 day journey from
Slavery in Kentucky to Freedom’s door at Niagara Falls. It’s a story Saladin learned early on from his father long before he could have envisioned the decade long effort to design and build a world class heritage museum on the site of the restored 1863 US Customs House. Tell me about
This. So this is our escape gallery. And here we share specific stories of freedom seekers who crossed over to the Canadian side today. Saladin serves as the director of community engagement at the Underground Railroad Heritage Center in Niagara Falls. He says, telling his own family story brings a certain sense of pride
And a sense of responsibility of not only carrying on that legacy and sharing it with the next generations, but even taking it further, especially connecting uh the stories that we talk about and the consequences of slavery today and what people go through in this country today, Josiah Jackson is also a Falls native.
She was still a high school student when she started as a volunteer here. Now as a visitor experience specialist, she speaks with people from all over the country and the world, bringing the Underground Railroad story to life. And she admits she sometimes gets emotional when visitors share their own freedom stories.
You never realize who you’re going to encounter. And we’ve oftentimes ended our tours with giving each other hugs. They see how you could be from a different type of world, a different country. But our stories always combine and always unite as one. Charlyn Rivera brings her own life.
Experience and perspective to the Heritage Center. I was born and raised in Puerto Rico. But um 13 years ago, I came to Buffalo. The Niagara University Junior says her family’s story is yet another example of what defines the American experience for many,
The quest for a better life and the bonding struggle that builds community and creates opportunities for all. So I feel like this museum actually serves as a reminder every day that we could do it. And if we do it as a community, if we do it together, then you can definitely,
You know, see progress and see changes. I am actually evidence of that resilience of a people who have soon joined in this country and that are successfully living and sharing that history. Today, we’re in the African American Heritage Corridor. There’s the Colored Musicians Club, the Michigan Street Baptist Church,
Even the Nash houses nearby when it comes to Black history. It’s not just being taught in the month of February in Buffalo public schools, but year round. And it’s thanks to one woman as Alexandra Rios Melvill shows us. It’s not every day Buffalo public school students are dancing to hip hop,
But it is every day students at this district are learning about black history. Black history is American history because the contributions of Black people to this country is what make us one of the wealthiest countries, the wealthiest country in the world. Doctor Fatima Morell is an associate superintendent of culturally
And linguistically responsive initiatives for Buffalo public schools. She created a curriculum for the district called The Emancipation that promotes equity. You see lessons with John Lewis and the civil rights movement and uh the children’s March and um the student nonviolent coordinating committee, the curriculum not only teaches Black history,
But also the history of Latino and indigenous communities. We try and um in that curriculum itself show our students that they can be positive leaders for change and, and, and social justice and advocate for their own justice. During the month of February, the created learning material that just highlight Black history itself.
Our students are real, really benefit high impact arts programming and infusion and curriculum. So it keeps them engaged, but they’re also learning about who they are as, as young people and how other people who may not look like them are positioned in this world and are making contributions.
The district keeps their students engaged by doing events like this one at the Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts, a Black History Month performance by students a true tribute to hip hop. We know that our young people and even some of our older people
Really love the hip hop legacy and the story of hip hop. And also we use a lot of hip hop hop lyrics in our teaching of literacy development. The district makes sure all students see themselves in the curriculum and to see themselves in extended learning opportunities that they otherwise would not
Get if we were not focused as a district on equity for our students. When you think of blacks in science, you rarely think of black women but advancement is happening. Let’s go inside Buffalo Water. Elijah Wolf is a chemist and chemical hygiene Officer at Buffalo Water.
It’s where she helps to analyze water quality at each stage of the water treatment process and everything is documented as logs are prepared for agencies to review her interest started while working at an environmental lab. It’s different when you are the only person that you see that looks like you in your position.
Wolf is believed to be just the second black to hold that title in the department. That’s where I kind of started my interest. Um Chemistry was like al always challenging for me. So that was the one thing I didn’t get. So I was determined to master it. So it’s like
This is the hardest thing for me. Everything else bored me. So I always found having a challenging job and something that I had to like overpower was always gonna be the best thing for me because I was always gonna be learning.
I was always gonna be trying my best. It gives me a sense of purpose. Like I know I come to work every day and I’m responsible for the safety of the water, for the whole community. And I think it’s nice that
I’m able to go out and tell people what I do for work and people that look like me or younger girls that look like me and black women that look like me are able to say like, oh I’ve never even thought that was a job and
And can aspire to do the same thing or even go higher and above that and do more. Still to come filling your soul, creating a community. How chefs and musicians are celebrating black history. When the legacy Buffalo’s Black history continues.
The Rose is just one of the many black owned restaurants in the city of Buffalo. We know that soul food really brings families together. It’s a tradition our and Barry and spoke with two black owned businesses who want to keep that history alive. Get ready for your soul to be lifted, fried
Fish, steaming fish and grits, corn bread. And you can find all of this at Brothers Restaurant and bar on ICT Street in Buffalo. It takes a passion to do it. So if you’re not doing what out of love, you’re not doing it out of passion,
Then it might reflect in the way your food tastes. Is that what you’re trying to say that you do today? I cook with love all the time. It’s that law belongs with dedication that Anderson uses to serve his community. He left his first kitchen on Hurdle Avenue
And started jotting down recipes at his kitchen table. He later collaborated with his best friend of 34 years creating brothers a destination for soul food time. It takes a lot of dedication. When you’re at home, you might can cook one pan of macaroni.
But here on the restaurant level, you know, can you cook 10 soul food typically associated with blacks in the South is origins traced back to Georgia, Mississippi and Alabama. The traditional dishes are made from scraps and leftovers that were provided to the slaves.
It was often low in quality and nutrition. So they may do with what they had soul food means. Food from the soul. Going back to your grandmother and your aunts in the kitchen, you know, cooking up that meal when it’s taking hours and you just sitting on the couch smelling the food.
Meanwhile, at the Broadway market, Atlanta Brown Young is keeping another tradition alive. Ok. She’s saucing up whole wings with her father’s popular Mumbo sauce as without the sauce, which is good if it’s season correctly. But in the, in the sauce, it’s better.
Young’s father John Young created his own original Mumbo sauce in 1961. In fact, it’s the original Wing sauce in Buffalo. She tells me he planned to open more restaurants before he died. Now she’s keeping his legacy alive. Young spends a few Saturdays selling Wing dinners at
The Broadway Market with help from our family members, Christy and Oia. Why is it so hard to do this? You need a good amount of money to start a good business and keep a good business going. According to recent data, 20% of black Americans start businesses each year and
4% of them survived the start up stage. There were boundaries. I guess you could say that people of color had to deal with that. Other people did not. But that didn’t stop John Young because his sauce blew up making him the king of Wings.
I’m glad that once he got the idea to try it, he did it. I can’t take credit for that but I can, I am glad that I’m able to continue it. What unifies people music. How can it not?
And when you think about it, whether it’s R and B hip hop rock and roll, even the swifties, there’s always some link back to soul music. And so now we wanna celebrate the legends of Buffalo’s black music. The music was our way of communicating
And it was a way to uplift us and eventually it would uplift the entire country music was a major, I guess, builder of the black community as well as for Buffalo. Because a lot of the musicians here got to play with many of the famous groups
And many of them toured with these famous groups. Count Basie’s band was here at least 40 some odd times. Duke Ellington was here a lot too, Marilyn Monroe at the Town Casino now known as the Town Ballroom Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie Camp Calloway, Harry Belafonte and Dopey Dandridge all made stops in the
Place to be Buffalo because of the music scene. When I looked at some of the pictures that you shared, you, I could see people who work with Elvis Presley. What does that say about music and how it can reach all types of people. Our music particularly jazz had a rhythm, had a beat
That you wanted to move to dance, to sing to and uh as they got exposed and people like Elvis kind of exposed it to the white community. It became popular fact, this black man wrote Don’t Be Cruel. All shook up for Elvis. It’s history. You learn at the Buffalo Colored Musicians Club
Which has been around for 89 years. It is currently undergoing a major renovation. It is here where you can truly trace and see history, music, history, black history, it’s really our history. What do you say to these young rappers today? Uh especially the ones that are coming up through Buffalo.
And what do you think about people like Benny, the butcher Griselda is coming to my city. They gonna be because we already know you saw homie, we were kind of demonized music back in the day and when rap came up, it was the same thing.
It was kind of demonized as far as the rest of the world thought of it. And then as time went by, people started to accept it. So I think we accepted it too. You know, because we knew what they went through and they know
What we went through to come from Buffalo small time. And when you can make it on a big stage and be on that list of top talent, you’ve done something. Rick James grew up here and he learned his stuff here. Brian mcknight who’s still out there touring is a drummer with the Beyonce,
You know, uh Joy and she’s been a musical director for Ari Lennox Zi Applebee. She’s a bass player with, uh Lizzo when I get to talk to the youngsters. And I can point to those people as well as the people back in the thirties and the forties let them know with hard work
And persistence. You can get to that point in time. Black history, black music, what does that mean? It lifts you up and that’s how it was with jazz and blues and everything else. And even today, hip hop community change celebration the legacy Buffalo’s Black history is all of our history. I’m Quay
Ewing. Thank you so much for joining us for this two on your side. Special.
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