The History of AALP

Supported by the Toledo Rotary

Officially unveiled on October 16, 2004, The African American Legacy Project [The AALP] is a 501(c) 3 organization created to serve as a vehicle for raising the historical and present cognizance levels of African Americans. The AALP also serves as a resource and repository for historic, current, and cultural inquiry.

Stated differently, The African American Legacy Project was established to capture the history of Northwest Ohio’s African American communities.
Over the last several years, The AALP has grown substantially, our efforts to documents the African American experience has been met with overwhelming community support.

According to Dr. John Fleming, Vice President of the Cincinnati Museum Center, who has served pro bono as a consultant for The African American Legacy Project, “We take pride in our history because our history reflects our values. If we don’t preserve our history, then who will?”

We are partners with the University of Toledo, Bowling Green State University, the Toledo Lucas County Public Library and – most recently – have established a working agreement with Owens Community College. Most recently, we have entered discussions with the Toledo Museum of Art.

The technical support and professional experiences resulting from these institutions collaborations is vital to growing, sustaining, and securing forever the history of African Americans from this community.

According to Mr. Robert Smith, the project’s founding director, “There is so much we don’t know about ourselves and each other. The African American Legacy Project is the mechanism to begin to rebuild a community esprit’ and simultaneously begin to share important histories with succeeding generations.”

100 Grandmothers

Grandmothers are often the moral barometers of a family. They are spiritual, and inspirational leaders and quite often are the single person whom each family member seeks council and entrusts their deepest secrets. In our own experience, grandmothers are the heartbeat of the African American culture.

Need: It is critically important for the African American community to begin to find develop mechanisms to begin to resurrect, reclaim, and recover core community values and there is a need to assemble and deliver a cadre of respected voices to impact the current community landscape.

100 Grandmothers will speak to community about those things that youth and others will have an opportunity to be exposed to traditions that historically aided in producing better citizens.

If you would like to be interviewed or know that special grandmother that we should interview please email us at: info@africanamericanlegacy.org; or call us at 419-720-4369