(WBBM NEWSRADIO) – The Bud Billiken Parade that has rolled through Chicago’s South Side for nearly 100 years serves as a sign, alas, that summer is coming to an end.
But it’s also long been a way of getting children enthused about the coming school year.
“It’s a great way to say, ‘Let’s celebrate -- let’s celebrate everything that we’ve all been working hard for this year and get excited about it,’” says Myiti Sengstacke-Rice, president and CEO of Chicago Defender Charities, the organization that produces the event.
This year's parade -- the 94th -- kicks off at 10 a.m. Saturday (Aug. 12) at 39th and King Drive. More than 200 performance teams, floats and vehicles with dignitaries will travel south along King and into Washington Park to Garfield Avenue, where, at the end, young people will receive back-to-school supplies and have a celebratory meal.
Some 300,000 people are expected to attend in-person, says Rice, but many more viewers will watch ABC 7's live broadcast of the event.
The Bud Billiken Parade started more modestly in the late-1920s, when Robert Sengstacke Abbott, a lawyer and founder of the Chicago Defender, organized a parade to honor the young carriers who distributed the newspaper. The newsboys would ride their decorated bicycles and encourage others in the community to join in.
"He was teaching them, really, entrepreneurship, and what I love is I run into people today who are judges, lawyers, business owners who say, ‘I used to sell the Chicago Defender," says Sengstacke-Rice, the publisher's great grandniece.
The name Bud Billiken refers to a guardian-angel character whose name was signed to a regular Defender column for young people. Robert S. Abbott was a proponent of education, Rice notes, but the parade's broader back-to-school theme wouldn't emerge until the 1980s, when the event began being televised.
Today, it is considered the largest African-American parade in the United States. Sengstacke-Rice said the event, which has drawn a variety of celebrities and noted politicians over the years, relies on the generosity of corporate sponsors. Its support of young people is a year-round effort.
“It’s a staple, it’s part of our culture, and the community keeps us going," she said.
The 2023 Bud Billiken Parade will honor the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who recently announced plans to step down as the head of the civil-rights organization Rainbow PUSH. Grammy-winning poet J. Ivy, a Chicago native, is this year's grand marshal.
For more information about the parade, go to budbillikenparade.org.
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