Melissa Bailey Photo
The Mob Squad.
Spectators Teairra, Ajaya and Arie stayed warm and dry.
A little drizzle didn’t stop “Action Jackson,” Spiderman, the Mob Squad, and far-flung drill teams from rolling, stomping and roaring down Dixwell Avenue Sunday for the annual Freddie Fixer parade.
As many New Haveners and visitors streamed to Yale and Albertus Magnus for graduation ceremonies Sunday afternoon, others flocked to Dixwell Avenue to celebrate the annual tradition in the heart of the city’s historically black neighborhoods, Dixwell and Newhallville.
The half-century-old parade has been building back up in size after it was canceled in 2008 amid fears of youth violence. The three-hour event drew a crowd of about 2,000, according to police spokesman Dave Hartman. He said the parade went smoothly from a public-safety perspective. The event grew out of the late Dr. Fred Smith’s neighborhood clean-up campaigns.
Sunday’s parade stepped off at 1:30 p.m. at Dixwell and Morse Street, just over the Hamden border.
The Fusion Drill Team of New Haven was one of 45 groups that took part in the parade.
The youngest contingent of the Camden Sophisticated Sisters Drill Team.
Drill teams, a signature part of the event, came from as far as Camden, New Jersey.
The rain deterred some would-be participants, such as Robert Bonner, who usually rides his lawnmower in the parade. (He rode a bicycle on the sidelines instead.)
Eddie Jackson, who goes by the name Action Jackson, rode his Honda Gold Wing bike with his buddies from the Hamden-based Soul Seekers motorcycle group.
A large, stuffed Spiderman rode at his back, as it has for 10 years. Jackson said he had bought the toy for a friend whose nickname is Spiderman, but the friend rejected the gift, so he kept it instead.
Jackson rode past neighborhood icons like Willie Mewborn, who stood with a group of friends outside his barber shop, Willie C.‘s.
Nichole Jefferson (pictured with her husband, Edward), director of the city’s Commission on Equal Opportunities, put together her first-ever float in the parade.
She rolled in front of Henry Fernandez (pictured, hatless, with Rafael Ramos), one of many mayoral candidates who campaigned along the parade route. Fernandez walked with supporters from the Local 478 Operating Engineers.
The parade route was dominated by mayoral campaign signs from Fernandez and Toni Harp …
… as well as signs of gratitude addressed to retiring two-decade schools Superintendent Reggie Mayo.
Tyland Jeffries, one of a variety of food vendors along the route, cooked chicken wings with homemade barbecue sauce inside a 330-gallon oil tank that he converted into a grill.
Ricky Carter hung out near a house along Dixwell where his friends were selling fried fish sandwiches for $5 a pop.
The crowd thickened at the Dixwell Plaza, where parade participants (like Shahid Abdul-Karim of the New Haven Register) were introduced over a loudspeaker.
Outside the defunct Q House, Devonne “Da Bomb” Canady of the Elephant in the Room boxing gym taught Semaj Reddick how to throw a 1 – 2 punch…
… and dodge a left hook.
Howard Boyd, one of the parade organizers, said the whole event lasted about three hours. He said when misty rain began to thicken around 2:45 p.m., he thought people might go home. He was pleasantly surprised.
“They did not leave,” he said.
