The African American Festival Parade

Sojourner’s Truth Staff

Gotta love a parade!

Especially when you haven’t seen one in a while. And that was certainly the case until last Saturday, July 24, when the annual African American Festival Parade returned to Toledo after a hiatus forced upon the community and the world, for that fact, by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The pandemic forced the cancellation of the 2020 festival and parade and earlier in 2021, Suzette Cowell, CEO and treasurer of Toledo Urban Federal Credit Union, feared that 2021 might not see such festivities either.

An early morning rain did nothing to drown those fears.  At dawn, the parade that was scheduled to start at 10 a.m. appeared to be in some danger of actually happening on that timetable but by 9:00 a.m., the skies were clearing and by 10, the paraders were lined up at the corner of Dorr and Detroit and ready to start marching and dancing and singing and tossing candies to the young onlookers and handing out information to the older ones.

Elected officials, folks who want to be elected officials, community agencies, Corvettes, motorized tricycles, government offices, schools, dance teams, heath agencies – so many parts of the community turned out to march and hear the cheers of hundreds of onlookers.

The rain did not come again to spoil the parade!