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The MLK Parade in Arizona
Filling in for Ace Correspondent @cliffordbrown who has reported on the East Valley Martin Luther King Day Parade in Mesa, AZ, for the past two years, intrepid cub reporter Gumby Mark is filing this report.
It was a very enjoyable experience. Though Mesa is a city of 500,000, the parade had the atmosphere of small-town New England parades that I grew up with; relaxed, neighborly, no big floats, with lots of neighborhood organizations participating. I had nice conversations with folks standing around me. (Photos below)
Now for the journalistic observations and facts: The attendees were more white than black with lots of Hispanic folks along the parade route. The parade started off with the Mesa police (and the police honor guard) and fire, followed by the mayor, city council, and Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. After that, it was a grab bag, ranging from church groups, schools (public and private) including the Junior ROTC band from a local high school, local businesses, martial arts groups, athletic clubs, and even a contingent from the Muslim Girl Scouts of America, as well as an appearance by some of the Marvel Superheroes! Two of my favorites were the Buffalo Trooper Motorcycle Club, who revved up their engines as they passed the reviewing stand, and the Buffalo Soldiers of the Arizona Territory group consisting of black reenactors of those army regiments stationed in the west. And one of the bands played Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes which I quite liked.
Clifford has remarked in the past about the presence of Democrats and the regrettable absence of the GOP at the parade. That held true again this year. The parade consisted of about 60 contingents. As we got to #50, five Democratic groups passed by, representing three state legislative districts covering Mesa, as well as the Arizona State University Young Democrats. Three of the groups contained members with Bernie Sanders signs, including one carrying a life-sized poster of Bernie (which was kinda creepy). I saw no signs for any other candidates either with marchers or those watching. This is a friendly day and crowd; I don’t think the GOP needs to be scared of showing up, particularly in a city like Mesa which, unlike many other large cities, is not a Democratic stronghold.
Marvel Superheroes reprising the key role they played in the 1965 march on Selma, Alabama.
Democrats in the next two photos. In the first, note the guy at rear holding a life-size Bernie, and in second, a Green New Deal sign.
Junior ROTC.
Muslim Girl Scouts (the girl in the green and white gown was not part of the group).
Buffalo Soldier re-enactors.
Buffalo Trooper Motorcycle Club.
Thanks for reporting! It was way too cold for a parade in DC.
The “girl in the green and white” is dressed as Tiana, from Disney’s Princess & the Frog (2009). I only mention it because I assume you have not rushed out to see every Disney Princess movie made in the past couple decades. I’m guessing she represents an important cultural milestone for African-Americans as the first black Disney Princess. Otherwise, pretty random for the MLK Day parade. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiana_(Disney)
Thanks – I had no idea!
Holy cow! 500,000 people? Is that possible? Mesa has 62,000 people when I graduated from High School in nearby Scottsdale in 1970. But it is true. Mesa now has some 508,000 people. Amazing.
I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on having the East Valley become its own county, and separating from the rest of Maricopa County.
What would be the point of splitting the county? I’m not asking as a wise guy; I’m wondering if there is some problem that you have identified in the current county structure.
I remember the Yuma/La Paz County split, and I expect that you do as well, though I don’t recall the reasons behind it.
Enjoyed the show, Mark. Thanks for letting us share a sense of the parade. I love to see small town parades, even at this distance!
The value would be that the “East Valley” would be able to chart its own path. Mesa with a population of 500,000 is the largest city that is not a county seat. A disadvantage is that with Maricopa County, until recently, the Greater Phoenix Metropolitan Area is all under one government.
I grew up in Maricopa County, arriving in 1956 at age 4, living there until I was 18 in 1970, and returning in 1978 when I was 26 until moving up to Flagstaff and Coconino County In 1992, when I was 40. The East Valley has periodically grumbled about being under the thumb of the rest of Maricopa County.
Arizona has had the history of counties splitting up. We started with only 5 counties, and then lost one county when Congress gave Pah-Ute County to Nevada. (Pah-Ute County was on the other side of the Colorado River and included what became Clark County, Nevada and a tiny cluster of homes next to a spring in what became Las Vegas.)
From 4 Counties, 14 Counties were created by the time of statehood in 1912. It used to be fairly easy to split counties. If memory serves, a super-majority vote was needed in the part that was leaving, but only a 15% positive vote in the part that was remaining.
In 1983, La Paz county split from Yuma County, taking almost half of the area, but only a tenth of the population. Lawsuits resulted over how to split the assets and debts, and the new county had difficulty in sustaining itself. The legislature changed the law to provide that there would need to be a majority vote in the part of the county that was remaining. It will be hard to split counties in the future.
Which would be a shame. The Verde Valley should be its own County. It has a very distinct culture from the Prescott area.
The city of Sedona is in two counties.
To travel from Colorado City in Arizona to the Mohave County Seat in Kingman involves going into Utah, back into Arizona, then to Nevada, then back into Arizona. (Mohave County is on both sides of the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon.)
Ideally, County lines should be based on rivers, and mountain ranges, and the boundaries of Indian Reservations, not on straight lines drawn on paper some 130 years ago.
It seems to me that county governance is redundant for cities that are large enough to have their own services (police, fire, etc.). Why not make counties just cover all the areas that are not big enough?
Here is a wikipedia page about consolidated city-county governments, with a few references to independent city governments (where there is a city but no county): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consolidated_city-county
Muslim Girl Scouts of America?
I know scouting has undergone some changes, and will probably continue to do so as we redefine “girl,” but it’s still kind of sad for me to see another identity-driven division in an organization. E Pluribus Unum.
Thank you for the report.
I am glad that the weather was decent and people could get out and about. Also nice to see the photos.
It is regretable that the GOP doesn’t get involved in small local parades like this one was.
I participated in a July 4th 2016 parade here in Lake County Ca. I was part of a rather large Bernie Sanders contingent. Hillary had nothing happening – except for one pissed off older woman who gave us the bird when we went by her and her spouse. (Perhaps she was related to HRC?)
At the time it was very surprising to me that the GOP had no one in their ranks put together a float or simply sponsor having people on foot, bicycles or horses. In my locale, Republican voters were very enthused about Trump, and you could not go anywhere in a car without seeing many Bernie bumper stickers as well as many Trump stickers.
The equestrian in our parade got so much attention from kids from ages 3 to age 15, that if those kids could have voted for Bernie they would have.
So if you are an equestrian, and your horse is okay with crowds, it is not a bad thing to do for the Grand Old Party.
(This parade is the last happy memory of my Bernie Sanders experience. It started falling apart about a week prior, and by September, 2016, I was already sour on that little tool.)
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Many thanks to @gumbymark for continuing the reporting streak. I think this sort of thing matters more than the GOP regulars get. If you don’t show up, don’t expect to get people’s votes, and don’t be surprised with the state flips.
I remember marching with the Republican Party in Flagstaff in 2009 after Obama won. The announcers remarked that we were part of the “lost cause” resurfacing. We got our revenge in 2010 when we took the House.