Annual UAPB parade sticks to tradition
Bubbles were floating, sports cars were roaring and crowns were shining as the annual University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff homecoming parade marched north on Main Street on Saturday.
The yearly, holiday-like affair for school alumni and longtime residents held tradition in bringing people from near and far together and enticing new faces to the parade environment.
“I just enjoy seeing the kids,” said Chantal Jones, a McCrory native who graduated from UAPB in 2007 and brought her mother, daughter and grandson. “I love UAPB’s band. That’s my band, right there. But I love seeing the kids. As a matter of fact, I’m a teacher at 34th Avenue Elementary, and we have a band in it, and my grandson is playing the drum in the band.”
Aside from the warm fall day, something else was slightly different about this year’s event from others — the route.
The parade route turned west on Second Avenue from Main because construction is continuing on the west-to-east road, pushing the Jefferson County Courthouse into a further but nonetheless picturesque backdrop. Najarad Jasper of Pine Bluff was relaxing at the corner with family and friends waiting for the parade to kick off. The sight of the backdrop did nothing to make the parade feel different to him.
“Same ol’, same ol’,” he said, adding that he’s attended since childhood.
This year’s parade continued the university’s sesquicentennial celebration with the theme of “150 Years of Excellence-Simply the Best.” Chancellor Emeritus Carolyn Blakely served as this year’s grand marshal, with Miss UAPB Kaitlyn Peterson and Mr. UAPB Jonathan Burgess, both of Pine Bluff, and Miss UAPB Alumni Joyce Bracy Vaughan among those in homecoming royalty.
“I’ve been going to this parade since I can’t remember when,” Jones said. “My whole family went to college here. It was a given I was coming here because when I came here, my uncle [Lawrence Davis Jr.] was the chancellor.”
Davis served as grand marshal of last year’s homecoming parade.
Even a family of Alcorn State University supporters were
drawn to Saturday’s action. Alcorn State competed against UAPB in the football game later in the afternoon at Simmons Bank Field at Golden Lion Stadium.
“I didn’t go to Alcorn’s homecoming, and they were playing here, so I thought I’d come here and watch their homecoming parade,” said Perry Lewis of Meridian, Miss., attending with his daughters, Deidra Harrell and Latrecia Stubbs and granddaughter Mallory Stubbs, 4.
This was not Mallory’s first rodeo, so the speak. She and her mom, an Alcorn State alumna, went to the alma mater’s homecoming in Lorman, Miss., earlier this month.
“Although I didn’t attend, I grew up going to HBCUs,” said Harrell, who attended the University of Southern Mississippi.