John Thomas, Parade Founder

“…The idea of the first parade was conceived while I was serving my tenure as the first African American to teach high school history in the Newark, New Jersey Public School System. The idea occurred in Room 411 at Central High School, when we were discussing how various ethnic groups in the United States celebrated their heritage. After previewing St. Patrick’s Day (Irish Americans), Columbus Day (Italian Americans), Pulaski Day (Polish Americans) and DeKalb Day (German Americans), one of my African American students remarked “Mr T., we don’t have a day!” From this sincere declaration by that youngster, arose a dynamic concept that gave birth to our first parade.

Because I felt this concept should be identified with the early history of the United States, I suggested to the small group, which took up this parade challenge, that we call this initial celebration “The Crispus Attucks Parade.” This event would honor the first American to die at the Boston Massacre (March 5, 1770), who happened to be an African American. Consequently, our early African American parades were held on the Sunday nearest March 5th.

The “Spirit of 66” produced outstanding early parades which were supported by the African American community throughout New Jersey and other regions of the Northeast. Eventually, the Newark Board of Education, the City of Newark and several other New Jersey municipalities made March 5th a legal holiday! All of this changed after the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The Crispus Attucks Society, Inc, which sponsored the early celebrations, renamed the event the “Attucks-King Memorial Parade” and Dr. King’s birthday on January 15th logically replaced Crispus Attucks Day as a holiday honoring an African American hero.

During the early 1970’s the Attucks-King Parade celebrations dwindled qualitatively and quantitatively to the point where for a few years there wasn’t any large-scale parade conducted by African Americans in New Jersey. However, approximately twenty years ago, some energetic community activists, revived the concept. Since 1993, our present leader, Donald Bernard, Sr., has enhanced this effort into a concerted African American celebration through the dynamic African American Heritage Parade Committee, Inc. For this, Don, your committee and its numerous supporters, I salute you!..”