15 Photos From Joliet's Black Joy Parade, Celebrating Black Excellence In Our Diverse Community

JOLIET, IL — Joliet's Black community pride was on display in a big way in downtown Joliet as Saturday afternoon marked the return of the Black Joy Parade celebrating Black Excellence in the community. The parade took place along North Chicago Street and passed the Rialto Square Theatre. Afterward, thousands of people celebrating Joliet's cultural diversity gathered at the beautiful new downtown City Square, which features the Dome of Unity.

"Weather was great, turnout was fantastic and we celebrated joy!" remarked Boise Walker, chairperson of Joliet's Black Joy Parade.

"As one of the emcees, I was elated to have a front row seat to see the vast array of programs, organizations, churches, businesses and nonprofits that support our community. The best thing about it to me was exposing our kids to the richness of the Black American culture. They should be proud of who they are and where they're from, and this parade hopefully showed them why," remarked Ernest Crim III, Emmy-nominated producer and founder of Crim's Class Nonprofit, who served as one of the emcees at the Black Joy Parade.

Hollywood Casino Joliet was the presenting sponsor. D'Arcy Motors will be the Excellence sponsor. Illinois Nurses Association and Nu Mark Credit Union were the two Heritage sponsors. There were two grand marshals for Saturday's Black Joy Parade: retired Joliet City Councilwoman Bettye Gavin and U.S. Olympics boxing hopeful Joseph Awinongya Jr.

Crim, who is the host of "The Crim's Class Podcast," was gracious enough to take several photographs of the Black Joy Parade to help out Joliet Patch in a big way.

As his Facebook biography explains, Crim is a renowned anti-racist educator, author and speaker who uses Black history to empower and educate families and train educators through an equitable lens. He has been featured on ABC, PBS, CBS, NBC and Newsweek and now serves as CEO of Crim's Cultural Consulting.