Marcia Warren and Marsheba Bond have made a tradition of attending the West Akron annual parade, and they were back again Saturday for its 50th occurrence as part of a larger Juneteenth celebration across the city’s west side.
This time, Warren was watching her great-grandson — and Bond, her grandson — march with the Buchtel Community Learning Center’s high school football team.
“I was in the parade in high school, 1973,” Warren said. “I’ve been coming back ever since — I missed a few years there, but since 1980.”
After all these years, Bond thinks the parade demonstrates Akron’s cohesiveness.
“This is a community thing, and Akron is big on community. There’s each side — the south side, the west side — but it’s still one big community,” she said. “Akronites love Akron; we always support one another.”
The parade stepped off from Buchtel CLC, one of the Akron Public Schools physically rebuilt in 2012 as part of Imagine Akron Community Learning Centers, but still the alma mater of Warren and Bond.
See more photos from Saturday’s Juneteenth celebration at the Akron Urban League.
The parade was organized by Village Keepers of Ohio Inc., Buchtel PTA and Summit County Historical Society and featured community groups of all ages and affiliations.
Kim Murray, part of Akron East Peewees Youth Football and Cheer, said that her cheer group of kids from 5 to 12 years old has been practicing for the parade for three weeks.
“[The parade] gives us a chance to celebrate our community. This is specific for our culture, and so it gives us a chance to showcase that within our culture,” Murray said. “We had a couple years where we did not have cheerleaders, so we are in the rebuilding stage. Last year we only had seven girls, and this year we have 35.”
For the group Born to Dance 330, the parade is a great opportunity to get kids and young adults involved in the community, said Micah Smith, founder of the group.
“We’re just going to be dancing, doing a little hip hop,” Smith said. “It actually means a lot, it being a Juneteenth parade — just recognizing our culture, getting the kids in the community, teaching them how to serve, how to help and enjoy themselves in our community.”
METRO workers stump to make Juneteenth a recognized holiday
Among other organizations at the parade was Transport Workers Union Local 1, representing drivers and workers at Akron METRO — the group is planning a strike vote on June 30. Wayne Cole, the president of Local 1, said the group is fighting for Juneteenth to be recognized as a holiday for Akron METRO workers.
“We want Juneteenth recognized, but we’re also supporting the community,” Cole said. “It took [METRO RTA] 35 years to recognize Martin Luther King [Jr. Day]. We’re not going to wait another 35 years.”
The parade was also an opportunity for Jasmine Falconer, vice president of the Akron NAACP’s Youth Council, to get her message out.
“There’s a lot of youth in this community, there’s a lot of youth in the world, that go silent because they don’t think anybody’s listening. We’re here to show them that … we can make the change in the community,” Falconer said. “We’ve come so far along, especially as Black American children, and now we have even further that we can go.”
Halfway through the route, which ran along Copley Road from Buchtel CLC to the John Brown House, there was a table of three judges, including Shayanna Bratcher. A member of the marching band and flag team at Buchtel CLC from eighth to twelfth grade, Bratcher reached out to a contact on the parade’s planning commission to see if she could get involved.
“It’s so refreshing to come back. Being a judge, you get a chance to appreciate people for their art,” Bratcher said. “I loved everyone that came out to support and watch the parade.”
This was the second year that the parade ended at the historic John Brown House, managed by the Summit County Historical Society. Attendees were encouraged to visit the exhibit featuring abolitionist John Brown, who rented the Akron house and whose 1859 raid on an armory in Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, is considered by historians to be one of the primary catalysts of the Civil War.
For Leianne Neff Heppner, president and CEO of the historical society, the parade is an opportunity to remember the significance of the region, which has been called a “hotbed of abolitionism.”
“It’s great to have people recognize that this property is here for them, and that the historical society represents John Brown’s legacy of freedom,” Heppner said. “What’s really awesome is to see the different ages of people participating. … It’s a wonderful opportunity to give the children a chance to see how the adults in the region want them to be successful.”
