In its heyday, Seventh Avenue was a bustling business and entertainment district, at the core of the black community in Columbus.
During the Jim Crow era, Seventh Avenue”s Queen City Hotel played host to music greats Bobby Blue Bland, B.B. King, Fats Domino, Duke Ellington and Little Richard.
At the time, the historic hotel — built in 1909 by farmer Robert Walker and bought by black entrepreneur Ed Bush — was the only place in the area black entertainers could stay while making the rounds on the music circuit.
Last year, the crumbling remnants of the hotel were torn down from the lot where the building stood for nearly a century.
But over the weekend, the area around Seventh Avenue North and 15th Street North came to life again, as thousands poured into the area for the Seventh Avenue Heritage Festival. The festival — now in its 27th year — celebrates the area”s rich history and offers family events, food and, of course, live music.
Festival organizer Kabir Karriem estimates more than 15,000 people filled the streets for this year”s events.
“It was the biggest one we ever had. We knew we were going to have a big crowd, but we did not know it was going to be as big as it was,” said Karriem, who admits Grammy Award-nominated and American Music Award-winning headliners K-Ci and JoJo greatly contributed to the turnout.
“I got there just in time to see K-Ci and JoJo, so I was all right,” exclaimed Victoria McGee, a student at East Mississippi Community College.
McGee, 22, of Starkville, made her way to Seventh Avenue at about 8:15 Saturday night, just as K-Ci and JoJo were taking the stage to perform well-known hits “All My Life,” “How Do You Feel” and other signature songs.
McGee wasn”t the only one excited about the big names performing in the Friendly City; one member of the audience threw her bra toward the duo. Others were happy to catch towels JoJo used to wipe his face during the concert.
Chart toppers
K-Ci and JoJo are best known for hits during the late ”90s and 2001; before launching their career as a duo, the two were members of the group Jodeci.
The chart-topping R&B group — known for hits “Forever My Lady” and “Come and Talk to Me” — were active from 1990-1996, serving as a bad-boy foil to the clean-cut Boys II Men (“The End of The Road;” 1992).
“It was awesome,” McGee said of the concert and festival. “They should have more festivals like that.”
McGee plans to attend the festival again next year and is excited to see who”ll perform.
Vanessa Carter, who also worked to bring Grammy-nominated singer Tank and “American Idol” winner Fantasia to Columbus in May, said K-Ci and JoJo were excited to be so well received the Friendly City. (K-Ci and JoJo, who are brothers, are cousins of Fantasia, Carter noted.)
While Karriem and other event organizers are taking a break before they begin planning for next year”s festival, bigger and better is the order of the day.
“We really pride ourselves on bringing the best performers to Columbus,” said Karriem, who has watched the festival flourish since his childhood.
Looking back
“I remember as a little boy, they would pull up a little flat-bed truck and play some music, and that was the Seventh Avenue Heritage Festival,” he said.
Karriem took the helm of the event in 2004, as a way to keep the history of Seventh Avenue alive and hopefully draw business to the area to revive it.
“The event is my way of keeping the heritage of Seventh Avenue,” Karriem said.
“There”s hardly (any) business in the area now, but … maybe we can help local government revamp that area.”
In 2007, Seventh Avenue welcomed back Bobby Blue Bland, who stayed at Queen City Hotel when facilities supposedly were “separate but equal,” as mandated by what came to be known as Jim Crow laws.
“There was nowhere else for them to stay during the era of Jim Crow,” Karriem said. “(Bobby Blue Bland) actually remembered staying at the Queen City Hotel.”
Time and money
According to Karriem, this year”s festival cost more than $20,000 and immeasurable amounts of sweat equity.
“We couldn”t have done it without the sponsors. … It”s very hard putting events on like this, but we couldn”t have made it happen without the sponsors and the community,” said Karriem, reiterating the importance of community members attending events like the Seventh Avenue Heritage Festival, Townsend Park Festival, Roast-n-Boast, Juneteenth and the Market Street Festival.
“It takes a lot of work, and they”re only successful if people attend them,” he said.
”Party with a purpose”
Entertainment wasn”t the only aim of this year”s event, as Karriem”s goal was to make the festival a “party with a purpose.”
This year, the Seventh Avenue Festival held a holiday food drive; canned foods and other non-perishable items will be delivered to Stephen Chapel Baptist Church for distribution.
Heritage Awards also were given for the first time this year; in the past, awards were given only to extraordinary women.
“This is the first year for the Heritage Awards, and we”re real proud of them,” said Karriem, noting the awards were given to people who “have shown extraordinary community service.”
Heritage Awards went to Vanessa Carter, owner of Carter Funeral Home; Bobby Holiday, program director and disc jockey for Cumulus Broadcasting”s” Mix 106; and Billy Wayne White, a longtime volunteer youth athletics coach.
Homecoming
People came from as Atlanta, Ga. Chicago, California, Florida and Alabama to attend the festival, Karriem said: “They were from everywhere, all across the country.
“The Seventh Avenue Fest is sort of a homecoming for people who went to school in Columbus. They come back and celebrate Seventh Avenue,” Karriem added.
“We call it the fastest-growing block party in Mississippi, which it is. We”re not gonna move it out of the neighborhood no matter how big it grows, and we”re not going to charge for it.”
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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