Jon Lowenstein

THE HEART: SouthSide

What began as the wish of Chicago Defender's founder Robert S. Abbott to organize the many youth who sold the newspaper, mushroomed into what is now the largest parade in the United States.The first Bud Billiken® Parade and Picnic was held August 11, 1929. The parade route ran from 31st and Michigan Boulevard to Washington Park. In the mid-30's the city rerouted the parade to South Parkway because its Michigan route tied up traffic as it went east into Washington Park. Around 1947, it was rerouted back to Michigan due to street repairs on South Parkway. After the street repairs the Bud Billiken® Parade and Picnic returned to South Parkway and has remained there ever since. South Parkway, now named Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive, runs through the African American neighborhood on the City's Southside.Since the Bud Billiken® Parade and Picnic began, more than 50 million children and their families have made the second Saturday in August a day of community and celebration of African American togetherness and just plain fun.The South Side of Chicago’s once proud industrial communities fell onto hard times during the 1970s and 1980s, changing from thriving working class communities to places far removed from local and federal resources, rife with unemployment, poverty, drugs and gang violence. Despite this adversity, many residents have held on and guard deep feelings of affection for their communities. More recently, though, another challenge has reared its head. Residents in each of these communities face the very real possibility of being displaced from the communities they love because they can no longer afford to live there.
What began as the wish of Chicago Defender's founder Robert S. Abbott to organize the many youth who sold the newspaper, mushroomed into what is now the largest parade in the United States.

The first Bud Billiken® Parade and Picnic was held August 11, 1929. The parade route ran from 31st and Michigan Boulevard to Washington Park. In the mid-30's the city rerouted the parade to South Parkway because its Michigan route tied up traffic as it went east into Washington Park. Around 1947, it was rerouted back to Michigan due to street repairs on South Parkway. After the street repairs the Bud Billiken® Parade and Picnic returned to South Parkway and has remained there ever since. South Parkway, now named Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive, runs through the African American neighborhood on the City's Southside.

Since the Bud Billiken® Parade and Picnic began, more than 50 million children and their families have made the second Saturday in August a day of community and celebration of African American togetherness and just plain fun.
The South Side of Chicago’s once proud industrial communities fell onto hard times during the 1970s and 1980s, changing from thriving working class communities to places far removed from local and federal resources, rife with unemployment, poverty, drugs and gang violence. Despite this adversity, many residents have held on and guard deep feelings of affection for their communities. More recently, though, another challenge has reared its head. Residents in each of these communities face the very real possibility of being displaced from the communities they love because they can no longer afford to live there.