Fresno Hosts Tower District Mardi Gras and Weeklong Black History Events

The Tower District Mardi Gras Parade marched through Fresno at 1 p.m. Sunday, drawing an estimated 2,000 attendees and featuring reported participants from local activist group Fresno Resistance alongside indigenous dancers. Parade organizers have not published a detailed staging plan or route in available event notices, and the attendance figure appears on the Fresno area events calendar as a typical turnout.

Fresno State staged a campus slate to coincide with the parade and Black History Month programming. The university opened its celebration Feb. 2 in the Memorial Gardens from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., with food from the FURY food truck, games and giveaways presented by the Cross Cultural and Gender Center in collaboration with the Black Student Success Initiative.

A series of Fresno State events runs through the month. Early-week programming includes “Meet Your Pueblo” on Feb. 10 at noon in the Thomas Building, hosted by African American Programs and Services with Latino and Latina Programs and Services, and “Hearts and Crafts Valentine’s Day card making” on Feb. 11 at 2 p.m. in Fresno State Library Room 3212 with African American Programs and Services and LGBTQ+ Programs. CineCulture screens the documentary “Sing Your Song” on Feb. 13 at 5:15 p.m. in the Peters Educational Center Auditorium.

The campus exhibit “A Century of Black History Commemorations” opens Feb. 9 and runs through Feb. 27 in the Dean’s Gallery, Music Building Room 186, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Later campus events include the author presentation “Party at the Ballot Box: Mobilizing Black Women Voters” on Feb. 23 at noon in Fresno State Library Room 2206 with Melissa R. Michelson and Sarah V. Hayes, the Black Fly Market on Feb. 26 from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Memorial Gardens to showcase local vendors, and the Richard “Dick” Keyes Sr. Leadership in Education Forum on Feb. 28 from noon to 3 p.m. in the Leon S. Peters Ellipse Gallery to close Fresno State’s monthlong programming.

Community organizing and civic-rights programming run alongside cultural events. National Today reports a community meeting scheduled Feb. 17 at Big Red Church that will include a “Know Your Rights” presentation about ICE activity, and frames the week as including voter mobilization efforts as well as educational programming. The Party at the Ballot Box author event underscores campus engagement with voting rights and civic participation.

The university context echoes historical perspective: “Originally starting in 1926, a group, known today as the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, sponsored a week of celebrating African American achievements. This week was meant to fall in line with Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass’s birthdays, and has since then turned into the entire month of February.” Local event data give scale to the Mardi Gras turnout, the Fresno area events calendar lists the Tower District Mardi Gras Parade attendance at 2,000 and cites a broader annual total attendees figure of 1.3+ million for 2019; comparable local draws include World Ag Expo at 100,000 and the Big Fresno Fair at 600,000.

Logistics and public-safety details remain incomplete in available notices: the Big Red Church street address is not provided in published listings, and parade permitting, street-closure information and accessibility plans were not listed in the event extracts. Fresno State readers seeking university event details can contact Campus News at campusnews@csufresno.edu, 5200 N. Barton, Fresno, CA 93740, or 559.278.2795.

National Today’s event roundup also included two quotes about San Francisco that are unrelated to Fresno programming: “We must not let individuals continue to damage private property in San Francisco.”, Robert Jenkins, San Francisco resident (San Francisco Chronicle), and “Fifty years is such an accomplishment in San Francisco, especially with the way the city has changed over the years.”, Gordon Edgar, grocery employee (Instagram).