Eclipse 2024 Niagara Heritage Tour Origins

Why a Trip to Niagara Falls?

In 2017 E.B.Lewis, internationally acclaimed children's book illustrator and fine artist, was commissioned  to do the interior commemorative artwork of Harriet Tubman for the Niagara Falls Heritage  Museum. I have been E.B. Lewis’s colleague and friend for many years. 

I mentioned to Mr. Lewis that the TPEP program, which I mentored youth in mobile app development, created a 2017 Eclipse app, which has since been updated (GAE2024) in preparation for the 2024 Great American Eclipse on April 8, 2024, in Niagara Falls! 

E.B and I immediately saw the historical importance and precedent of hosting a contingent of people to participate in a journey to Niagara Falls to visit this historic site of Harriet Tubman’s successful missions to deliver her “passengers” to freedom in the North and Canada.  Mrs. Tubman was a fearless hero of a woman who demonstrated exceptional faith, planning and preparedness in guiding “runaways” over the Niagara bridge to freedom.

In addition, the opportunity to see a total solar eclipse from such a historic location as Niagara Falls will be, for many of us, a once-in-a-lifetime event!

More on the cultural significance of Buffalo/Niagara Falls, New York

Niagara Falls, Ontario was the location of the formation of the Niagara Movement ,  a civil rights group organized by W.E.B. Du Bois and William Monroe Trotter in 1905. 

After being unable to secure meeting accommodation at hotels in Buffalo, New York, the

group of twenty-nine business owners, teachers, and clergy who comprised the initial meeting, gathered at Niagara Falls, Ontario (Canada) from which the group’s name derives.

The fact that our Tour will take place on U.S. soil,  at accommodations in the Buffalo area, attests to how far we have come, by faith, in advancing our rights and entitlement to freedom of assembly and equal access, as Americans.

Itinerary

Saturday, 4/6/2024 – Arrivals

• ·         3pm, check-in to your accommodations at Marriott/Amherst. Check-out April 9th
• ·         Evening.  Attendee Reception at Hotel

Sunday, 4/7/2024 – Tour of Niagara Underground Railroad Heritage Museum, Niagara Falls, Ontario, and other points of interest / Venture on Own

• ·         Evening. Banquet, with special guests, including E.B. Lewis, award winning fine artist and commissioned artist for the Niagara Heritage Museum

Monday, 4/8/2024 - Group Rendezvous for Eclipse viewing. “One of the most appealing spots to enjoy the solar eclipse has to be Niagara Falls. You’ll get one of the best perspectives from the Terrapin Point overlook, where the sun will hang in the sky right over the powerful cascades, with totality at 15:18 Eastern Daylight Time.” – Trips to Discover

• ·         Evening, Farewell Reception at Hotel

Tuesday, 4/9/2024 –  Venture on own, Departures