The first large-scale parades took place in Philadelphia and New York, the most important U.S. cities of the federal period. In 1788 both cities staged grand processions in July to celebrate the ratification of the Constitution by New Hampshire, bringing the Union into existence. In Philadelphia, civic leaders, followed by uniformed cavalry, composed the first part of the procession. A parade of the city's crafts and trades followed, many embellished with tableaux showcasing their products atop rolling wagons (early floats). Other groups marched with richly decorated flags and matched clothing characteristic of their trades. Although American women of the federal period rarely took part in public events, female participation in the parade celebration was evident in the elaborate costuming of marchers and the creation of window and building decorations.
These early events set the precedent for the civic parades that proliferated in American cities during the nineteenth century. Annual celebrations such as Independence Day, receptions for visiting dignitaries, local achievements such as the opening of the Erie Canal, as well as funerals for prominent personages, called for a parade. Certain conventions, such as military display and national emblems and memorabilia, heightened the aura of patriotism surrounding the events. Over the course of the nineteenth century the parade composition based on crafts and occupations gave way to marchers representing a myriad of voluntary associations, including fraternal orders, temperance associations, and ethnic benefit societies. The centrally organized, citywide event was joined by more specialized parades publicizing political parties or causes.
The American parade departed from its European antecedents in its inclusion of a broad array of the nation's occupations and classes. The parade project, which required money, time, and discipline on the part of both organizers and participants, drew citizenry together and smoothed class and ethnic friction as Americans gathered to symbolically recreate and celebrate the working solidarity of a diverse people. In an era before mass communication and commercial entertainment, parades were a way of broadcasting information about social hierarchies, group identities, and individual status. They also served as public entertainment. The colorful expressions of American life were often captured in paintings and lithographs, amplifying the parade's importance as a cultural institution.
Parades have also reflected and revealed the limitations of American inclusiveness and schisms in national values. Although free African Americans were sometimes allowed to bring up the rear of important parades in the nineteenth century, their positioning at "the end of the line" and their more frequent absence from the panoply reflected their unequal status in American society. Over the course of the nineteenth century African Americans incorporated standard parade conventions into earlier folk celebrations and later challenged the traditional use of public space by whites.
While the basic format for parades organized for official occasions has persisted up to the present, the frequency of monumental processions began to decrease after the Civil War. Among the reasons for the decline were the expense, logistical problems associated with large crowds and street closings, and the rise of other forms of communication and entertainment.
Parades in the United States have also been adapted to convey a variety of less widely accepted social messages. As early as the 1820s the public militia of northeastern cities mounted wildly ragtag processions to burlesque the snappy performances of the privately funded, well-equipped volunteer units. Parades of a different style were enacted by striking workers protesting low wages and long hours. Beginning in the 1820s, these demonstrations grew into huge marches by the 1870s, culminating in the first Labor Day Parade in 1882. The impact of these types of protests was intensified by the use of official parade iconography�national symbols, floats, banners, bands�and the choice of patriotic occasions for the event. In effect the "alternative parades" challenged the dominant culture to envision a different social order.
Parades have also functioned more generally as an outlet for rambunctious behavior and a put-down of bourgeois values and standards. This tradition surfaced early in the republic, with the importation of folk customs involving masked processions accompanied by the cacophony of pots and pans. Known as mummers, sometimes dressed in women's clothing, these marchers created disorder at Christmas in Philadelphia in the 1830s and 1840s. New York City's St. Patrick's Day Parade, as it evolved during the anti-Irish period of the 1830s and 1840s, also flouted standards of polite decorum as some beleaguered Irish Catholics acted out with alcohol and rowdiness.
All of the parade forms described above were reprised by the start of the twenty-first century. Official parades were still organized and televised for important national events, including troops returning from battle, presidential inaugurations, and state funerals. Many large-scale parades, for example, the Rose Bowl Parade and Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, were commercially produced, perhaps reflecting the challenge to "civic piety" posed by materialism in the twentieth century. National television coverage of these events created a unifying cultural referent in an increasingly diverse society.
The "unofficial" parade motifs have had a long life, too. The movement for women's suffrage dramatized their cause with parades beginning in the 1910s. Freedom marches became a staple of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, displaying the ideals of equality and unity as African Americans and whites marched together against a backdrop of patriotic symbols. Reproduced in countless news magazines and other media, these events made a deep impression on Americans and worked for social change.
Pasadena, California, locals mock the dignity, precision, and hoopla of the Rose Bowl Parade each year with an alternative Doo Dah Parade, featuring a team of horses pulling a six-pack of beer and a garbage can drum band. Mardi Gras, or Carnival, the faux Lenten event celebrated in the United States in Mobile, Alabama, and New Orleans, incorporates masked marchers and revelers who invert social hierarchies and gender roles.
Because of their powerful symbolism as the official blueprint of American society, as well as their inherent capacity for disorder, parades still tend to engender controversy. In the 1990s krewes, the private clubs in New Orleans that produce parades for Mardi Gras, clashed with the city council over integration. Later, New York's St. Patrick's Day Parade again created a stir over the exclusion of gay and lesbian marchers. All of these elements are mirrored in parades produced in small cities and towns throughout the United States to focus attention on their local heritage, strengthen a sense of community, support the local economy, and have fun.
Edison Motion Pictures (Library of Congress American Memory)
Encyclopedia of American Studies, ed. Simon J. Bronner (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018), s.v. "Parades" (by Perry Frank), http://eas-ref.press.jhu.edu/view?aid=167 (accessed August 23, 2018).
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