Led by the Elizabeth City Cosmopolitan Band, a colorful Emancipation Day parade said to have been more than a mile long was staged by Elizabeth City negroes Tuesday, January 1, 1924.
The marshals were Alex Wilson and W.H. Hawkins, resplendent in stovepipe hats and gay sashes.
In the procession were vehicles ranging from limousine to billy goat cart, one ox cart finding place somewhere between the two extremes.
Up toward the front of the parade was the Quickstep Hook and Laddar Company, Elizabeth City’s crack negro fire company, each member impressive in new helmet, boots and raincoat, the Christmas gift of the citizens of the city.
It is estimated that fully 200 decorated automobiles took part in the parade. Then, besides, there were floats and decorated trucks, a troop of trim colored Boy Scouts and a troop of even trimmer colored Girl Scouts.
Thirty-five participants mounted on horseback occupied prominent place in the parade.
Seldom has a parade staged in Elizabeth City attracted more attention. Indeed, the crowds that lined the streets to see if it were suggestive of circus day, and were fully as large in the white residence sections as in the colored residence sections of the city.
The parade started from Roanoke Institute on Body Road at 11 o’clock Tuesday morning and ended at Body Road High School a little more than an hour later.
From the front page of The Daily Advance, Elizabeth City, N.C., Jan. 1, 1924
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