Mayor Michelle Wu joined Burton in honoring standout community leaders at the award ceremony before greeting recipients and posing for photos. She said the parade fills a long-missing role in celebrating Roxbury and Boston’s Black community.
“We get the chance to celebrate many cultures with festivals and parades in Boston, but this had been one that was missing for a very long time,” Wu said. “For Toy to step up, build a movement, and create a space for all of us to come together every year is really special. It builds momentum for all the work that happens every day in this community.”
Before the parade kicked off, Roxbury Unity Parade executive director Toy Burton was presented with a Welcome to Roxbury T-shirt during the community awards presentation ceremony at Madison Park Technical Vocational High School.Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff
Wu said the parade also recognizes the legacy of Roxbury residents who have shaped Boston’s history, including Sarah-Ann Shaw, Boston’s first Black female television reporter. The Shaw-Roxbury Branch Library was officially renamed to honor Shaw on Saturday, an event Wu also attended.
“If you look at every major movement for justice and change, Boston has played a role in that, and someone from Roxbury has always been driving the progress that we have to keep pushing for,” she said.
Wu wasn’t the only elected official at the event. State Representative Chynah Tyler, whose district includes Roxbury, received the Pillar of the Community Award.
“So much work goes into making sure that the legacy of Roxbury continues to live, so to be a part of that and to be able to be honored as a part of that, it means a lot to me,” Tyler said.
Several awards were named after well-known Roxbury residents, such as the Michael L. Bivins Community Hero Award. Bivins, a founding member of New Edition and Bell Biv DeVoe, remains active in the community and personally selected basketball coach and mental health advocate Al McClain for the award.
“I have known Mike [Bivins] since he was 10 years old, so for him to see me as a hero is unbelievable,” said McClain, 66, who works at the Boston Center for Youth and Families Tobin Community Center. “I want the kids in Roxbury today to see this [parade] and take away the love. The camaraderie, the way everyone gets along with one another, pass that on and it’ll make our streets safer.”
As participants lined up to march through Roxbury, McClain said he hoped the parade continues to grow.
“We want the whole of Roxbury to come out. We want these streets to be crowded,” he said.
Residents cheered from their front steps as parade participants walked the route and rode aboard a historic Boston trolley. Dance teams and a majorette group performed throughout the parade, while the Tempo International Rhythm and Steel band filled the streets with Caribbean music from an open-back truck.
City Councilor Miniard Culpepper, whose district includes Roxbury, waved from a car near the end of the procession. He said the parade celebrates the neighborhood’s historic contributions and, more broadly, “the greatness of Black people in the city of Boston.”
“This day is something that I prayed for for years. I always wondered, ‘Why does everyone else have a parade except Roxbury?’ and it felt like there was something missing in our community,” Culpepper said. “When Toy decided to do the Roxbury Unity Parade, I felt like my prayer was answered.”
Boston City Councilor Miniard Culpepper rode in a car during the Roxbury Unity Parade.Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff
Beside Culpepper sat Antonia Edwards, a paralegal and member of the city’s reparations task force. Edwards, whose family roots in Roxbury date to 1940, said the parade reflected the neighborhood’s “pride, legacy, heritage.”
“Roxbury is the heartbeat of the Blackness in Boston,” Edwards said.
Culpepper said Roxbury’s strength lies in its diversity, pointing to the neighborhood’s long history of welcoming newcomers.
“If you wonder why Roxbury is so diverse, it’s because whoever comes to Roxbury, we receive them with open arms and love,” he said. “Roxbury has always led the city of Boston in diversity, always.”
Asked what the parade means to the community, Culpepper summed it up in three words: “Roxbury is love.”
Chloe Craft can be reached at [email protected].
