THE START OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN HERITAGE DAY PARADE IN MANCHESTER IN 2018. THE COURIER HAS LEARNED THE PARADE WILL BE DISCONTINUED.
Funding cut, but memories will remain over its more than 30 years in operation
You name the Black organization, and somehow, someway, they had an involvement with the African American Heritage Day Parade, which had been in existence since Harvey Adams and Doris M. Carson started it all in 1987, but as of 2024, is no more.
THE LATE HARVEY ADAMS, LEFT, IS CREDITED WITH CO-FOUNDING THE PARADE ALONG WITH THE LATE DORIS M. CARSON. CARSON’S DAUGHTER, DORIS CARSON WILLIAMS, IS PICTURED.
The New Pittsburgh Courier has learned exclusively that the collective of people who are in charge of making the mostly-annual parade happen have decided not to move further with it.
“We have had the parade in a variety of venues,” said Richard Morris, one of the three front-facing members of the volunteer committee that puts on the African American Heritage Day Parade, in an exclusive conversation with the Courier, Feb. 19. “We felt at this particular time that it was necessary for us to, (No. 1), begin to support the Juneteenth parade instead of having two parades; the second thing is that we want to create an archive for Black parades in general, historically what they have meant to the community; and then the third project is that we’ll explore bringing HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) bands to perform here in the City of Pittsburgh.”
“BROTHA ASH,” ASHLEY WOODSON, CAPTURED THIS PHOTO OF THE WILKINSBURG BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB’S DRILL TEAM, FROM THE 2009 PARADE.
While the leader of the city’s “Juneteenth Grand Jubilee Parade,” B. Marshall, reminded the Courier that his parade is an homage to the city’s first Black parade, the “Grand Jubilee of Freemen Parade” on April 26, 1870, most living Black Pittsburghers today obviously remember the more than 30 years of the African American Heritage Day Parade, oftentimes storming and stomping down Centre Avenue past the old Civic Arena on its way Downtown.
Historically, Pittsburgh’s parades were celebrated coming down Fifth Avenue, past the old Kaufmann’s department store. But the African American Heritage Day Parade for years was celebrated more at its start, Freedom Corner in the Hill District, and watching the bands, fraternities and sororities, elected officials and Black organizations slope down Centre with the Civic Arena in the background, which seemed to provide the perfect backdrop.
THE AFRICAN AMERICAN HERITAGE DAY PARADE IN 2009 FEATURED DOZENS OF BLACK ORGANIZATIONS. (PHOTO BY ASHLEY WOODSON)
As the years went on, and many Pittsburgh parades made Downtown’s Liberty Avenue its central location, so did the African American Heritage Day Parade. Only in the last 10 years or so did the parade committee decide to put the parade inside communities like the Hill District, Manchester and Homewood.
LOOK! IT’S CHRIS MOORE AND DORIS CARSON WILLIAMS ON THE MIC AT THE 2009 PARADE…(PHOTO BY ASHLEY WOODSON)
Shawn Hicks, Chief Operating Officer for the African American Chamber of Commerce of Western Pennsylvania, who is also one of the three front-facing parade volunteer committee members, told the Courier the parade costs about $13,000 for it to happen. There’s also a lot of legwork involved, from securing permits, to making sure streets are accessible on the date of the parade, to security costs. He said a significant number of funding for the parade has been cut.
PERRY TRADITIONAL ACADEMY PERFORMED IN MANY AFRICAN AMERICAN HERITAGE DAY PARADES. THIS IS FROM 2010.
Morris then told the Courier: “You have to hustle up those dollars every year and some years you do pretty well, some years you do not, and that means that you’re not able to supply all the things that you want to have a first-class parade. We have been lucky in that we have had Highmark, the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh and other people that have supported us throughout our time with the parade and that’s helped us cut down the cost,” he said. Still, “the fundraising is not as great as it once was and in a community like ours, you’re not going to get people to support two parades. Typically, they want to support one or the other, and we believe that at this particular point, supporting Juneteenth (the parade) is better for the community at-large,” Morris said.
THE COURIER’S “BROTHA ASH,” ASHLEY WOODSON, SNAPPED THIS PHOTO AT THE 2009 AFRICAN AMERICAN HERITAGE DAY PARADE.
Morris, who’s been part of the parade volunteer committee for at least 15 years, noted the late Harvey Adams and Doris M. Carson “for what they started” as a primary reason why the committee worked this hard, more than 34 years, to keep the parade going this long.
In fact, in 2009, the Courier’s Ashley Johnson reported that the African American Heritage Day Parade that year honored Adams, who died on Sept. 7, 2009, about a month before the parade. “The African American Heritage Day Parade was started to give young people a sense of pride in their ethnicity,” said Doris Carson Williams, President and CEO of the African American Chamber of Commerce of Western Pennsylvania and chairperson for the parade, in the Courier report. “Parades build self-esteem. When I was younger there was a parade on which seemed to be every weekend (and then it changed). So in the absence of the parades, Harvey Adams decided that there needed to be one and he started (the Heritage Day Parade).”
TY MILLER, DORIS CARSON WILLIAMS, AT THE PARADE.
Doris Carson Williams is the daughter of Doris M. Carson. Adams was an immensely well-known civil rights advocate who served as a police officer, sergeant, and president of the Pittsburgh NAACP. Courier columnist Louis “Hop” Kendrick once described Adams as a person with “nerve” and “conviction” in a Tribune-Review report announcing Adams’ death.
In a city known for bridges that one would think would connect its sides but instead has a reputation for dividing its sides, the African American Heritage Day Parade brought Black Pittsburghers together from all sides of town. And let’s not forget about the Mon Valley, Wilkinsburg, Penn Hills, Monroeville, Bellevue, and other municipalities.
B3N REPRESENTED AT THE 2018 PARADE IN MANCHESTER. (PHOTO BY J.L. MARTELLO)
Hicks and Morris told the Courier they’re adamant about throwing their support behind B. Marshall’s Juneteenth Grand Jubilee Parade, which will be held this year on Saturday, June 15, at 11 a.m. at Freedom Corner in the Hill District. It will make its way down Centre Avenue, before heading to Fifth Avenue, Downtown, past what’s now Target. It ends at Point State Park.
“It’s been growing every year,” B. Marshall told the Courier, Feb. 19. “We need to get more of our younger community to the parade. Our drive now is to get ages 18 to 30 out to watch the parade, and for adults to bring their children and grandchildren to the parade.”
B. Marshall said an announcement is forthcoming about a special parade grand marshal that is sure to draw more young people to come out to watch the parade.
For the record, the last two African American Heritage Day Parades were held in Homewood (2022, 2023), in conjunction with the Harambee Festival. For those who attended those parades, they had no idea they would be part of the final African American Heritage Day Parades. But they were part of history. In a city that’s never been known to have a large Black population, the African American Heritage Day Parade was a true celebration of and for African Americans in Pittsburgh.
“There’s a sense of pride when people say, ‘the parade came down my street, I live on Frankstown Avenue, they stopped in front of me, I saw the kids dancing,’” Morris told the Courier exclusively. “It’s really a sense of pride. You have groups that (participated) that go all the way from the marching groups, to (political organizations) like B-PEP, to fraternities and sororities, Black health workers, health care companies, various societies like the Masons…”
Morris said the African American Heritage Day Parade brought “strength and value to what we (African Americans) are all about.”
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