By Dianne Anderson

For its 43rd year, the Riverside Black History parade is ready to roll again with a long stretch of attractions that keeps family and friends coming back to reconnect around the city’s biggest cultural event.

Russel Ward said he is extremely excited to have it back in the public eye.

“Our Grand Marshal is Dr. Renee Hill, RUSD Superintendent of Schools. Also entrees such as Urban Saddles Equestrian group, [we have] the Mayor of Riverside and City Council, Sen. Richard Roth, the Pacesetters of San Bernardino, Rocco and the League of Clowns and more,” said Ward, co-chair of the parade.

On Saturday, February 11, the community is invited to come out for. The Expo, under the theme, “Inland Empire – Moving forward in Unity,” is held in Downtown Riverside at 3900 Main Street.

Dell Roberts, co-founder of the Black History Month parade in Riverside, said that it will always be his baby. The event hosts over 40 vendors, food, artifacts, clothing, books, information booths, and an event stage showcasing local entertainment.

He said one of his main goals through the decades has been to help spotlight Black professionals in leadership positions, and some great homegrown talent.

“We don’t have movie stars, but we have prominent people from the community. To have people on the sidelines that say I used to live next door to them or to run up and try to touch them because they haven’t seen them in so long — that gives me a thrill,” he said.

In keeping with the spirit of celebration, the University of California, Riverside is reflecting on some long deserved Black leisure and fun.

Dr. Jamal Myrick said that Alison Rose Jefferson is a foremost researcher on the topic, and will engage students in thoughtful conversations on the evolution of Black leisure in California, also known as Black joy.

“You look at all the old black and white photos, but it’s not all doom and gloom. Today, in the Black community, we’re still finding time [to experience] joy and happiness regardless of the negative impacts of things happening,” said Myrick, Ed.D., director of African Student Programs at UC Riverside.

Among this month’s campus lineup, they are also reaching out to support life through their blood drive. Organizations, including the local branch NAACP, COPE and Divine 9 Black organizations are encouraged to participate and reach out to campus partners.

Dr. Myrick said his staff has done a great job reframing Black History Month in positive experiences, like spirit day of cosplay and anime.

“Depending on where you sit on your perspective that it’s not mainstream Black, but I appreciate those types of programs that my office put together because it challenges to [present us] in a different light. Black people like comic books and cosplay,” he said.

Also coming up, but not related to UCR, Myrick is calling on the community to attend their 35th annual oratorical contest for Inland Empire Black students grades 1-12, featuring Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, and Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. Students will give speeches on the spectrum of Black identity.

For all the leisure, he said the priority is strengthening Black student recruitment, and the campus works hard to table at community events year-round.

“We would be doing ourselves a disservice as a campus if we did not. This is our backyard where we thrive, we want to make sure we do our due diligence and get Black scholars to our campus,” he said.

At Cal State University, San Bernardino, heady topics are in store with a good mix of online and in-person events. The high point is the Pioneer Breakfast held on February 24, which was unavailable last year due to COVID-19.

Dr. Marc Robinson said that one of his favorite events this year happens to be the one he is moderating, the film “The First Rainbow Coalition” on the Black Panther Party chapter in Chicago, and their wide impact in the late 1960s. The showing unpacks the original rainbow effort, which included African Americans, Latinos, whites, who worked together to address shared grievances.

“I think it’s a very fascinating film for its historical and contemporary resonance, and an example of collaboration across racial lines,” said Robinson, assistant professor of history, and Black History Month Committee Co-Chair. “My particular research area focuses on civil rights and Black power movement, this is the time period film within my research area.”

As a historian, he said in some ways things were worse back then, but in other ways, it’s better now.

In any timeline, the challenges are steep.

“Circumstances have changed. While there is police brutality then and now, we’re dealing with mass incarceration, but police surveillance arrests and incarceration wasn’t the case in the 60s and earlier,” he said.

He finds the Black community still deals with a huge amount of social issues that should have been addressed in the past.

“We may want things to happen in a matter of years or even decades, but often historical trends play out over a century. In part what we’re living through is an ongoing story that we’re in the midst of, I think of the 60s and now as part of one long period, as opposed to two separate periods,” he said.

But past or present, he is encouraged the community continues to forge ahead. One good breakthrough has been the acceptance of Black female leadership into the movement. Another is that more attention is on the importance of mental health in the community.

“I’m really inspired about how some of the younger activists as well as our current movement, that there is a stronger recognition of the importance of mental health, of thinking about self-care as it can be a resource in the struggle,” he said.

For UCR African Student Program events, see https://asp.ucr.edu/

For CSUSB Black History Month events, see  https://www.csusb.edu/bhm/events-calendar