Thomas MacMillan Photo
Marchers strutted proudly past a Dixwell mini-mart. The air was filled with the sound of thundering drums, not gunfire.
It was sound of the Freddie Fixer parade marching on — and defying fears caused by the recent rash of neighborhood violence in Dixwell and Newhallville.
Hundreds of people turned out Sunday afternoon for the parade, the black community’s signature annual public celebration. It has been struggling in recent years to overcome concerns about having a massive event along the main corridor of a community plagued by gunfire. Two years ago, the parade was canceled altogether because of fears of violence.
But organizers marched on, and Sunday’s peaceful event marked a strong resurgence of the parade. Organizer Maurice Smith said four times as many people attended as last year.
The parade went smoothly from a policing perspective too, according to Captain Joann Peterson. There were no major incidents and no parade-related arrests.
The Nation, New Haven’s championship drum and drill team, was once again the centerpiece of the parade. The squad marched in front of the mini mart on Dixwell Avenue where Tywan “Sookie” Turner was gunned down on April 10.
Turner was the 11th homicide victim of the year. His death came at the end of a spate of violence, including two double-homicide weekends in a row, and a body found in a trash can.
Those violent incidents caused aldermen to think twice about supporting this year’s Freddie Fixer parade. At the Board of Aldermen meeting on May 3, lawmakers stopped short of encouraging people to attend the parade, citing concerns about the recent gun violence.
But hundreds of people turned out anyway. Neighbors stood and sat on Dixwell Avenue watching drum and drill teams, motorcycle and SUV clubs, firefighters, city officials and others pass by.
The Presidents Motorcycle Club joined several other local clubs who revved their engines as they meandered down Dixwell. The club lost a founder and captain in a motorcycle accident in New Haven last year.
Mayor John DeStefano worked the crowd, hustling to keep up with the head of the parade after stopping to shake hands.
William McNeil sat in a folding chair as he watched the parade roll by. He said he remembers when Freddie Fixer began, in 1960. “It used to be a great big parade,” he said. Then came the troubles with youth violence. “That slowed everything right down,” he said.
Down the street, Anthony Richardson was cooking up hot dogs and hamburgers for friends and family.
Organizer Maurice Smith weaved through the action, snapping pictures with his cell phone. He was collecting evidence of the good times. “To make sure we can convince these people that it’s not about violence,” Smith said.
In addition to the Nation drum and drill squad, several other step teams stomped and twirled down Dixwell. Bridgeport’s P.T. Barnum Diversity Steppers, led by 16-year-olds Octavia Fewell and Alisha Freelove, featured steppers as young as 4 years old. Click play to see them warming up before the parade and footage of the Nation performing for a crowd.
But New Haven’s Nation had the most steppers, the fanciest uniforms, and the loudest drums. The squad drew the biggest reaction from onlookers. Police had to push people back onto the sidewalk to make room as the Nation passed before the parade’s reviewing stand at the Dixwell Plaza.
In the background, the shuttered Q House stood empty. The Q House was once a vibrant community center for youth; some are working to bring it back.
Up the street, the parade passed by the site of a more recent loss. Grass grew in a vacant lot where an apartment building recently stood, until it was destroyed by a three-alarm fire exactly one month before this year’s Freddie Fixer parade.
After the parade, Maurice Smith was bubbling over with excitement. “I’m walking on air right now,” he said.
Smith took the quadrupled size of the crowd as a sign: people are “fed up with being afraid.”
The huge turnout was the neighborhood saying, “We don’t have to deal with this nonsense,” Smith said. People are sending a message that they will not be intimidated by violence, Smith said.
“We got it back today,” he said. “Freddie’s back for real.”
“We had a good day,” said Captain Peterson after the parade. There were no major incidents and no arrests made at the parade, except for a warrant arrest that was unrelated to the event, she said. “It was just a nice day for the police department and the community to come together.”
WTNH reported that a police bomb squad detonated a suspicious briefcase along the parade route after the march went by. It turned out to be full of papers.