Rebirth of the African American Heritage Festival

We want to bring back to our community some African American culture and history while bringing vendors and entertainment. The first festival occurred on Saturday, August 27, 1994 at Garfield Park, Altoona as a result of an idea given by William Lightner, Harriett Gaston & the Blair County African American Heritage Project.  The following year, Penn State Altoona hosted the event.  In 2002, the festival’s date was moved to the Saturday after the 4th Friday in July due to changes in the Penn State calendar for the start of their fall semester classes.  Past festivals have been graced with the presence of His Majesty King Kigeli, V of Rawanda (who was deposed in 1961), the Dixie Hummingbirds, Otis Clay, members of the Negro Baseball League, Southside Steppers of York, PA, Pittsburgh Dance Ensemble/ Ibeji Drum Ensemble, Chris Bell & 100% Blues, Lady A and Destiny, Tommy Ford, Kenny Davis, Code: Blue, Dr. David Bradley, Dr. David Switala, and many others.  We were also able to host the first Altoona Idol competition.  We thank Rev. Paul Johnson and Cummins McNitt and other community people for their vision in creating this organization and we thank Keith Mallett for allowing the Project to use his artwork, entitled “The African Americans”, as our logo. We are looking to make this rebirth bigger than past festivals with possibly bringing in well named African American artist for entertainment, to show the Railroaders Memorial Museum as a community landmark with a lot of information and education on our areas African Americans who worked on the railroad, and also to bring the community back with unity and education.