President Obama Scheduled To Be Grand Marshal Of Bud Billiken Parade (Knockonwood)

By Chuck Sudo in Arts & Entertainment on Jun 26, 2012 9:25PM

Chuck Sudo/Chicagoist

The Bud Billiken Parade is already one of our favorite events of summer in Chicago. Now it may grab everyone's attention if President Obama schedule is free Aug. 11.

Barring an unforeseen circumstance, Obama is scheduled to be the Grand Marshal of this year's parade. Parade committee president Colonel Eugene Scott told WBEZ they tried to keep it under wraps as long as possible while they worked with city and federal officials to ensure there was sufficient planning and resources to accommodate the security necessary for a dignitary of Obama's stature. Scott said talks with the White House to have the president as Grand Marshal began last October. "They don't use words such as confirm," he said.

The Bud Billken Parade is the largest and oldest African American parade in the country. "Bud Billiken" was a character created by Chicago Defender publisher Robert Sengstacke Abbott in 1923, who spotted a wooden Billiken charm doll in a Chinese restaurant and decided to use it as a mascot for a new youth section to the paper. Early Bud Billiken columns were written by Willard Motley, and the Bud Billiken character grew to become a symbol of hope, unity and pride for Chicago's black population.

Abbott and David Kellum created the Bud Billiken parade in 1929 as a way to celebrate Chicago's black youth, mark the end of summer and the beginning of a new school year. Scott says the parade draws between 800,000 and 1.2 million people annually. Today, it attracts beauty queens, entertainers, politicians and others. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel was last year's Grand Marshal of the parade, while R. Kelly served as an honorary Grand Marshal. We'll leave it to you as to whether Obama's re-election campaign is coincidental to his being named Grand Marshal of this year's parade.