Lois Fernandez (1936 – August 13, 2017) was a political and cultural activist, best known for founding the Odunde Festival in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The festival celebrates African and African-American heritage. It has continued for more than forty years, expanding from one block long to a dozen, and drawing as many as 500,000 people to South Philadelphia.
Fernandez' contributions were publicly applauded in the 2000 Congressional record: proceedings and debates of the Congress by the Hon. Robert A. Brady. She was publicly recognized during Women's History Month, March 2009, by the General Assembly of Pennsylvania. Her memoir Recollections (part one) was published in 2016.
Life
Lois Fernandez was one of 10 children. Her mother was the first black woman to serve as a Democratic party committeewoman in Philadelphia. Her family was high Episcopalian. Lois attended South Philadelphia High School for Girls.
Her first paying job was as a clerk typist at the Philadelphia Quartermaster Depot. The Black Power movement was becoming influential, and Fernandez was an active worker for civil rights and social justice. One outward indicator of her pride in being African was that she cut her hair and let it grow out naturally in an Afro. It was a radical choice at that time, causing her to be ostracized by some of her co-workers.
Fernandez lived in the South Street area of Philadelphia, one of the oldest communities of free African-Americans in the United States, dating back to the 17th century. W. E. B. Du Bois described the area of the Seventh Ward in his ground-breaking sociological work, The Philadelphia Negro (1890), recognizing its distinct black identity. In 1963, Fernandez bought her own house on Fernon Street.
In 1966, Lois Fernandez, her sister Sylvia Green, her cousin Gerri Fernandez, and her friend Ruth Arthur opened a boutique, the Uhuru Hut, at 500 South 23rd Street. They felt that a store focused on Afrocentric clothes, jewelry and fine art would complement consciousness raising and increased black cultural awareness. At the same time, she and Ruth Arthur began to think about possibilities for some sort of neighborhood gathering in the area.
In 1967, Lois Fernandez bore a son as a single mother. She brought forward a lawsuit in federal court and was ultimately successful in having the designation “illegitimate” removed from Pennsylvania birth certificates.
By the 1970s, Fernandez was employed by the Department of Public Welfare. She worked with street gangs in South Philadelphia to decrease violence in the community. Throughout her career she held various positions with the Philadelphia Department of Human Services, including social worker, foster care placement officer, gang prevention worker and parent counselor.
She believed in lifelong learning, and earned an associate degree in applied science from the Community College of Philadelphia, and a master's in urban education from Antioch University. She also earned parent education certification at St. Louis University, certification for AIDS training from the AIDS Activities Coordinating Office, and certification in arts management from the University of Massachusetts. She became an adjunct faculty member at Lincoln University in their master's degree program in human services.
In the 1990s, she noticed the need for senior housing in her neighborhood. She worked with city and state officials and developers to rally support and raise funding. Osun Village, a four-story complex for low-income seniors, opened in South Philadelphia on December 13, 2010. Anna C. Verna, president of the City Council credited Fernandez, stating "This would never, never have become reality without the constant, constant persistence of Lois Fernandez."
Fernandez struggled with ill health during her life. She suffered from rheumatic fever as a child. Later in life she fought rheumatoid arthritis and breast cancer. After hip and knee replacements she had to use a motorized scooter for mobility.
Forming Odunde
Fernandez had met Nigerian practitioners of the Yoruba religion as early as 1963. In January 1972, Fernandez traveled to Oshogbo, Nigeria, West Africa, where she was inspired by the Oshun Festival of the Yoruba people. She visited the Osun River with Nigerian artist Twins Seven-Seven as part of a local celebration honoring Oshun, and thought that something similar could be done with Philadelphia's rivers.