(BLACK PR WIRE) -- Buffalo, New York is one of the stops on Black Digital Network's Black City Tour. Home to world class architecture and diverse cultural events and festivals, Buffalo boasts a significant African American presence fueled by the likes of Underground Railroad conductor Harriet Tubman, black frontiersman Joseph Hodges and abolitionist William Wells Brown. Writer Ishmael Reed and music icon Rick James both hail from Buffalo and "Queen of Soul" Aretha Franklin spent time here singing in the Buffalo church choir where her father served as pastor. Furthermore Buffalo's current and 58th mayor is African American Byron W. Brown.

From nearby Niagara Falls to the gateway of the Underground Railroad where runaway slaves once crossed the Niagara River to access freedom in Canada, Buffalo New York is one of the best cities in America to experience the power of African American history and is a quilt of American experience. Leading the way in forward thinking policy, Buffalo has hosted the likes of Frederick Douglas, W.E.B. Dubois and Booker T. Washington in their heydays. This fascinating city has always been at the forefront of civil rights.

Reverend Jesse Edward Nash, a great civil rights leader and minister, arrived in Buffalo at the age of 24 in 1892 to pastor the prominent Michigan Street Baptist Church now an official historic site. Nash helped plan the Niagara Movement which directly contributed to the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

The "Colored Musicians Club" was once a hotspot for visiting jazz musicians including Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. Today African Americans make up around 37 percent of Buffalo's population while people of color make up nearly 50 percent. African American cultural and heritage festivals take center stage almost every weekend throughout the summer and every December a weeklong Kwanzaa celebration brings together the African American community for one of the only celebrations of its kind in the nation.

There are so many remarkable cities in this nation, all with their own intriguing story to tell. Buffalo, New York has too many stories for us to recount here. From stops on the Underground Railroad to inspiring some of the most renowned African Americans who ever lived, Buffalo is a city not to be missed.