A LOOK BACK INTO  BUFFALO’S HISTORY (Continued from last month)

Buffalo was also enjoying inner growth as well with the advent of new technologies such as street cars giving its residents access to parts of the city they normally would never venture out to. Although the city at the time was beginning to show signs of ethnic segregation within its separate district, these streetcars created a sense of accessibility for too many of the city’s residents. During the early 1900s people never really ventured outside of their surroundings and neighborhoods due to the lack of transportation but this all changed once the city of Buffalo began adopting public transportation streetcars as a cheap transportation alternative. These streetcars crisscrossed the city and were powered by the same electrical source Nikola Tesla was using at the Pan-American Exposition. The Exposition was a World’s Fair held in Buffalo, from May 1 through November 2, 1901. The fair occupied 350 acres (0.55 sq. mi) of land on the western edge of what is now Delaware Park, extending from Delaware Avenue to Elmwood Avenue and northward to Great Arrow Avenue.

Streetcars helped people move about with people moving around the city, and business began to pick up, especially downtown as the city’s business and commercial center began to take shape, however, it was the advent and the manipulation of electricity that would help the city gain its audience. Buffalo was booming. The industry was taking shape. People were moving about and the Pan-American Exposition was seen as a success as it brought in many outsiders to the new City of Lights. One of the most interesting exhibits displayed during the Pan American Exposition was the African Village in which sixty-two people representing over thirty African tribes were brought to Buffalo and displayed alongside their weapons, handicrafts, songs, dances, and witchcraft.  There has always been a question of the authenticity of the African tribesmen, and although that is an important question that should be explored further, the representation of the African village in the backdrop of the progressive and forward-thinking Pan-American Exposition is telling. The Pan American Exposition’s theme of human progress from savage to civilized used the African village as a representation of the savagery, untamed man, and this exhibit, for all of its popularity at the time, would go a long way to reinforcing negative attitudes and stereotypes against African Americans.

It was also the site of a very tragic and unfortunate historical event the assassination of President William McKinley. He was originally supposed to be at the opening of the exposition in May 1901, but due to his wife’s illness, delayed the Buffalo.  President McKinley arrived in Buffalo in September and on the afternoon of September 6, Leon Czolgosz, a budding anarchist, shot President McKinley twice in the stomach, fatally injuring the president. Ironically, it was an African American man by the name of James Benjamin Parker who tackled and knocked the gun out of Czolgosz’s hand during his attack on the President. The President would survive for over a week before succumbing to his wounds on September 14th.  In this instant, Buffalo New York, a place filled with pride and joy, would sadly forever be linked to such a tragic event. Two months after the assassination, the Temple of Music along with many other buildings that housed the many exhibits of the summer Fair were demolished. Buffalo had hoped the exposition would positively promote the city, however, with the fallout and aftermath of President McKinley’s death, the city would forever bear the shame. — to be continued….