The South Carolina Black History Parade & Festival will return for the 20th year.
The twentieth Annual “Karamu! Celebrate!” Statewide Black History Parade and Festival will be held on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025, in Columbia, S.C., the historic Waverly and Five Points communities. The Grand Marshal for 2025 will be the Honorable Senator Maggie Glover. In January 1993, Maggie Glover made history as the first African-American woman to ever serve in the South Carolina Senate.
Grand marshals from past years will come again to participate in the GRAND FINALE of this event.
Parade participants and vendors are still being accepted and registration continues. Applications are due by Monday, Feb. 10, 2025. To register your church, groups, schools or organizations, contact Oveta Glover at 803-361- 5470, via email at fundsinc@fundsinc1.org or online at www.fundsinc1.org
Floats may be retrieved from Southeastern Float Co. 803.917.0644; however, decorated trucks, cars, bikes, walking groups and marching bands are also permitted and encouraged to participate.
“Karamu! Celebrate! – The South Carolina Black History Parade & Festival” in
F.U.N.D.S. founder Oveta Glover is the creator of the Black History Parade.
Columbia, S.C., and is sponsored by Friends United as a Neighborhood Developmental Society Inc. (F.U.N.D.S. Inc.) “Karamu” is a Swahili term for “celebration.” In the Swahili culture, festivals and feasts are celebrations of significant events in the lives of people.
Established in 2005, the parade’s initial focus was the celebration of Black History Month in the United States and the recognition of the many significant contributions of those of African descent in America and the global village.
The purpose of “Karamu! Celebrate! – The South Carolina Black History Parade and Festival” is to educate, entertain and celebrate those achievements; hence the parade motto, “Education Through Entertainment.” For more information, visit the parade website at www. fundsinc1.org.
