Popular event likely back in Newport News
Mayor says having Southeast Community Day Parade a ‘priority’
NEWPORT NEWS — Many residents were angered last year when they discovered one of the region’s largest parades — the Southeast Community Day parade — seemingly had been canceled.
But Newport News City Council is trying to bring the parade back to its full glory — though it could mean losing a different event. During a City Council work session this week, Mayor Phillip Jones suggested canceling the city’s Juneteenth parade and instead using the government resources to bring back the Southeast Community Day parade, traditionally held in September.
Jones said the matter was a “priority” for many residents.
Southeast Community Day parade founder Andrew Shannon, who organized the first event in 1991, said expenses played a significant role in the parade’s hiatus last year.
For years, Newport News fronted costs for parades and festivals — even those not sponsored by the city.
That all changed in April when the City Council voted 4-3 to change the special events permit ordinance so organizers would be responsible for paying all associated costs — not the city. The ordinance change meant the parade would have cost organizers almost $15,000, so Shannon withdrew his parade permit.
He said he still hosted a parade, but it was drastically scaled back — covering only a few blocks and on a sidewalk instead of the road. In a typical year, the parade route covers a few miles of the streets of Southeast Newport News and draws thousands of spectators.
“Last year, we did have to modify it because we didn’t have the financial support from the city,” Shannon said. “By that, I mean, we were being charged thousands of dollars to do something that we’ve been doing for 30
years.”
Shannon said people were “devastated” last year when they discovered the whole parade was not happening.
Council members Tina Vick and John Eley III said they saw people line up along Jefferson Avenue to wait for the parade this past September — not realizing it had been canceled.
“It just broke my heart to see senior citizens lined up along Jefferson Avenue thinking a parade is coming, and it’s not there,” Eley told the council on Tuesday. “I think after over 30 years, it’s just something the community wants.”
Vick told the Daily Press there was poor communication last year about the parade.
“Some people came out there thinking it was the full parade coming back,” she said. “And I did too, because I didn’t know it was canceled. We have to have better communication.”
Last year — at the urging of former Vice Mayor Saundra Cherry — the city hosted its inaugural Juneteenth parade in collaboration with the Newport News Downtown Merchants and Neighbors Association. However, several council members acknowledged Tuesday that the Juneteenth parade wasn’t as highly attended as the Southeast parade.
Instead of the city sponsoring a Juneteenth parade, Jones suggested the council should try to help finance the Southeast parade.
Juneteenth, also known as Emancipation Day, commemorates slavery’s end in the United States. It recognizes June 19, 1865, as the day the last enslaved African Americans learned of the Emancipation Proclamation, which granted their freedom. It became a paid state holiday in Virginia in 2020, and a federal holiday in 2021.
Jones and City Manager Cynthia Rohlf said the city would still celebrate Juneteenth with other activities if they opted to cancel the parade.
Shannon founded the Southeast Community Day parade to spread positivity and celebrate the community during a time in which the local news cycle was dominated by reports of middle and high school girls being sexually assaulted.
The event, typically held the weekend after Labor Day, helped bring a distraught community together and grew into a day of cultural celebration and community awareness.
The parade was held annually until 2020 when Newport News denied a permit for the event — citing restrictions due to the pandemic. As a result, Shannon filed a lawsuit against the city, saying the decision infringed on First Amendment rights. He still held an event that year but rebranded it as a protest.
Vick said Shannon’s relationship with many council members was “strained” after the incident. However, the parade was brought back in full in 2021.
Full details of how the city could revive the parade this year — including financial costs — have still not been decided. Jones told the Daily Press the city would need to determine vendors and sponsors. He also said he would like to schedule community meetings to hear from the citizens about what they want to see from a parade in their community.
“But at the end of the day, 100%, we will have a Southeast parade in September no matter what,” Jones said.
Shannon said he was thankful the city expressed interest in again supporting the parade “because Southeast Community Day has always been an event that celebrated pride and hope for the community.”
Given the origins of the parade, Shannon noted Newport News has again seen an influx of national coverage over the Jan. 6 shooting of a teacher by a student at Richneck Elementary School. He said he hopes the parade’s return “will provide a ray of hope and light and sunshine to our city.”