Photo: Kyle Bray/WBZ NewsRadio
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — Hundreds of residents and local leaders marched through the streets for the Roxbury Unity Parade to celebrate Black history and the power of community on Sunday.
The event is the brainchild of Toy Burton, who noticed that the surrounding neighborhoods had parades unlike Roxbury. Burton says she created the parade in 2018 to address the violence encompassing her part of the city and to show Roxbury in a different light.
"A lot of times, the media portrays Roxbury in a bad light, and this is what the parade is about. The community coming together. And we uplift those who uplift Roxbury every day. So it's a positive thing just to show Roxbury's excellence," said Burton.
The mission of the parade is to honor Roxbury's culture and history. Known as Boston's Black Heartbeat, the parade has been just as resilient as the city.
"The first year it was raining. The second year, a heatwave. Third year, COVID. We were the only parade who did not cancel during COVID. We became a caravan, so we made history doing that," said Burton.
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Several residents were honored for their work in the community during the opening ceremony. The parade began on Malcolm X Boulevard at Madison Park Technical Vocational High School and lasted for an hour.
"It gets people to come out around unity, like this parade is about," remarked one attendee. "Everybody gets to come around, talk about their stories about how they triumphed through the struggles that we go through every day in Roxbury."
Several city officials were on hand for the annual event, including Mayor Michelle Wu and Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, who spoke about the importance of embracing black joy.
"Today, I'm not here to give oxygen to an emboldened white supremacy. Instead, what I'm here to say is in a moment of anti-Blackness on steroids that today and every day in Roxbury we will be pro-black unapologetically," said Pressley.
WBZ NewsRadio's Kyle Bray (@Kyle BrayWBZ) reports.