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Oakland resident Greg Hill watches the inaugural Black Joy Parade, which held in Oakland on Sunday, Feb. 25 and was a celebration of the positive aspects of the Black diaspora. (Photo: Drew Costley)

In picture and sound: First annual Black Joy Parade takes over downtown Oakland

on March 2, 2018

On February 25, the first annual Black Joy Parade took over a span of eight blocks in downtown Oakland, focusing on the black experience. Over 14,000 people were in attendance, including local artists, musicians, two-time Olympic gold medalist Ruthie Bolton, and Oakland Mayor, Libby Schaaf. The streets were full of the sounds of cheering and dancing, and the song being played through all the speakers was “24K Magic” by Bruno Mars. To learn more about the parade and hear from the people who were there, click the button below to listen to the audio piece.

4 Comments

  1. Caldeiras Oeiras on March 19, 2018 at 4:54 am

    Congratulations on the inaugural Black Joy Parade! It must be tough to put this together but keep on doing it! Hats off to you all I will be looking forward to to next year keep up the good work.



  2. Desentupimentos Setubal on May 10, 2018 at 3:17 am

    The opening of the Black Joy Parade was a great idea, congratulations.



  3. madlynn f johnson on July 1, 2018 at 6:30 pm

    It was a wonderful event. I especially enjoyed the fashion show, the belgeium waffles, the drummers and of course the diversityof people. I look forward to future event.



  4. […] year in a row, bringing some 40,000 protesters to downtown. The city also celebrated its first Black Joy Parade, welcomed the “Super Blood Blue Moon,” a rare celestial occurrence, and hosted […]



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