About Rondo

The Rondo Mission:

Rondo Avenue Inc is dedicated to preserving, conserving and accurately interpreting the contributions of African Americans in and around the Rondo Community.

The Rondo Vision:

Rondo Avenue Inc. is to celebrate the rich history and contributions of the African Americans community to the City of Saint Paul; and to reconnect and transmit the “Rondo Culture, Values and Lifestyle”: to our future generations.

Rondo Avenue Inc. and the Rondo Days Festival

In 1982, Marvin “Roger” Anderson and Floyd Smaller came up with an idea to bring back a sense of community, stability, and neighborhood values of the old Rondo community. It was their intent to create an organization dedicated to sharing the contributions of African Americans and the rich cultural history of the Rondo community to the City of Saint Paul, and the great State of Minnesota; and to bring people together to celebrate the positive growth and diversity of our beloved Rondo community

It was their hard work and dedication to the memory of the Rondo community that resulted in the formation of the “Rondo Avenue Inc.” organization and the Rondo Days Festival. The Rondo Days Festival is the largest African-American celebration throughout the great State of Minnesota. It celebrates the best and brightest of Minnesota’s African-American stories, achievements and culture. It reunites a dispersed people, welcomes new neighbors and encourages everyone to be mindful of the extent to which neighborhoods nourish our souls.

Today, Rondo Avenue Inc. is a community based 501(c) 3 organization that sponsors a number of community events and workshops. Rondo Avenue, Inc. seeks to preserve its rich heritage for future generations while it rebuilds and strengthens its present community relationships and educates its youth on the history of our community.

The Rondo Avenue Inc. Board of Directors is made up of a dedicated group of individuals that volunteer their time, energy and talents to the future development of the Rondo Avenue Inc, organization, the Rondo Days Festival, and to community programs and services that embrace, promote and celebrate the Rondo legacy as a whole.

History of Rondo Community

The Rondo Community was the heart of St. Paul's largest African-American neighborhood. African-Americans whose families had lived in Minnesota for decades and others who were just arriving from the South, Chicago and St. Louis, made up this vibrant community that was in many ways independent of the white society around it. It was a place where you left your doors open - day or night. It was a place where you could scold your neighbor’s child – and quite frankly, parents expected it, and depended on it, because paramount was the raising of the child which everyone in those days knew took a community. It was a place where people took you in and looked after you - whether you needed a job, a meal or a place to stay.

In the late 1940’s murmurings about a "Freeway" began. Many had heard of "Causeways" and "Expressways," but this "freeway", had a different ring and feeling to it all together. As it played out, the worst of fears were to be realized and there was nothing more to do or say but move -- just like blacks had done – for generations before.

The construction of I-94 in the 1960s shattered a tight-knit community and displaced thousands of African-Americans into a racially segregated city, and a discriminatory housing market, that we weren’t ready for and that wasn’t ready for us. When all was said and done, Rondo was gone – and the music and energy of the community along with it.