CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- South Side residents celebrated another year of community Saturday as the annual Bud Billiken Parade took off on Martin Luther King Drive.
The first Bud Billiken Parade kicked off in Bronzeville in 1929 as a celebration of Black culture. Now, 94 years later, it's still going, and so are its residents, like Marcia Arrington.
"We've been coming to the Bud Billiken since the 1950's and this is a must for us," she said.
Her husband Thomas said it's the culture and history of the parade that keep him coming back every year.
"I get the same goose bumps now that I did 50 years ago, actually it was more like 60 years, but to see the young people and the amount of work they put in and the creativity of everyone here, its exhilarating."
For Mae Patten, who's also a 50- year Bud Billiken veteran, the parade is about community and Black joy.
"It's something that we blacks come out to enjoy.-just be blessed, happy, and joy," she said. "Family, friends, come to the aid of each and every individual, because we all need somebody."
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