Public Employee Press

43rd African American Day Parade
Backing OBAMA

By DIANE S. WILLIAMS

We've got your back, President Barack Obama," is the message DC 37 members and almost 90,000 spectators sent from Harlem Sept. 16, as labor unions, civil rights and community organizations, fraternities, sororities, and marching bands strutted up Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard in the 43rd annual African American Day Parade.

"It's really about whose vision for America we're part of," said DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts, a parade grand marshal. "Only President Obama offers a vision that is inclusive, progressive and supportive of working families. We all have to turn out Nov. 6 to re-elect him so he can finish what he started, rebuild America's middle class and restore the American Dream."

Other parade grand marshals included U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel and the city's first African American mayor, David Dinkins, former Gov. David Paterson, former City Comptroller Bill Thompson, the Rev. Al Sharpton and famed educator Dr. Adelaide Sanford.

The DC 37 Green Machine activists turned up the heat with a live DJ, a float and a massive get-out-the-vote registration drive to support the Obama-Biden Democratic ticket.

"We're going to re-elect President Obama in November. We are using this parade to reach the community, register voters and urge them to get to the polls," said Local 1113 President Deborah Pitts, who chairs the DC 37 Black History Committee.

Largest parade

Harlem's African American Parade founder Abraham Snyder, a DC 37 retiree, organizes the annual march, and help from DC 37 volunteers and retirees makes it one the largest cultural celebrations in the country.

Dozens of City Council members, unionists, war veterans, Firefighters, lodge members, drill teams, bands, drum lines and dance troupes bounced, rolled and rocked up the parade route. The DC37 Retirees Association and members from Locals 299, 371, 375, 420, 768, and 1549 held union banners high as spectators cheered and waved.

DISCLAIMER: This portion of the website was paid for by AFSCME’s Political Action Committee, PEOPLE, with voluntary contributions from AFSCME members and their families, and is not authorized by any candidate of candidate’s committee.