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March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

Sixty-one years ago on August 28, 1963, more than 250,000 people gathered for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Jazz musicians were the vanguard of the movement for freedom and civil rights, a fact acknowledged by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the 1964 Berlin Jazz Festival.

Long before Beyoncé was born, tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins recorded “The Freedom Suite” which featured Oscar Pettiford on bass and Max Roach on drums.

Thousands of people from across the country arrived in Washington, DC on the “Freedom Train,” a special fleet of trains chartered by A. Philip Randolph, organizer of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.

From Louis Armstrong’s “Black and Blue” to Charles Mingus’ “Fables of Faubus,” jazz musicians talked the talk and walked the walk. Trumpeter Lee Morgan and Max Roach were among the musicians on board the Freedom Train from New York City to the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

Community Art Festival

West Philly’s Main Street, 52nd Street, is a historic cultural and commercial corridor. In its heyday, banks, movie theaters, restaurants, bakeries, shoe stores, dress shops, night clubs, jazz venues and other businesses lined “the Strip” from Arch Street to Baltimore Avenue.

The African Cultural Art Forum, Urban Art Gallery, Family Survival and 52nd St Cultural Art Corridor Coalition will present Community Art Day x Urban Art Fest 52 on Saturday, August 17, 2024. The event will be held on the five-block stretch of 52nd Street from Walnut St. to Spruce St. that was the heart of the Strip back in the day.

The family-friendly block party will feature African art, workshops, fashion show, guest speakers, live performances, including jazz, funk and soul, and a virtual reality game by XVR Lounge.

Zen S, marketing and operations specialist for the African Cultural Art Forum, said:

Community Art Day is a collaboration of businesses on the corridor that want 52nd Street to thrive. Basically, it’s us making noise. We are here. We support each other. We also give back to the community to show the culture and respect that the community values. We want the same thing that Mayor Cherelle Parker wants: a cleaner, greener and safer 52nd Street.

Community Art Day x Urban Art Fest 52 is free and open to the public.