BAKERSFIELD, Calif KBAK/KBFX -- On Saturday, the annual Bakersfield Black American History Month Parade marched through downtown.
While the parade celebrates Black history, it also helps explains how it hopes to showcase the culture and pride going on in our community right now.
"The parade is opportunity for us to be together," said Emcee & Black History Committee, Jovon Dangerfield. "It's an opportunity for us to love each other. It's an opportunity to celebrate our diversity, our creativity, and most of all, our unity."
Portions of Downtown Bakersfield were closed Saturday for the annual Bakersfield Black American History Day Parade as thousands filled the streets with several authentic black-owned businesses and groups on display spreading love and unity.
"Not only celebrate the past, but my personal hope is that we start to learn to create history," said Dangerfield. "Become history, do groundbreaking things, continue in innovation, continue ingenuity continued creativity, create things, make things, build things, and learn how to love each other like never before. That's what God wants from us and that's what I'm all about."
"Today is a blessing," said Anita Teresa Creations' Founder, Anita Teresa. "Today is a blessing for those that passed before us, our ancestors. Today is a day to pay homage and respect to our artists, creatives, a creative like myself. Just being hands on; that's what today means to me. It's an opportunity to bless others with wearable art, show our creative gifts that God has given us, and again, just being a part of the black community,"
With February being a shorter month, the community says it has limited time to show that love for one another, not just the black community, but it's for all people in general,
"28 days to show love to one another," said Teresa. "And again, that's people of all kinds, very diverse. February is the month of love; we celebrate Valentine's Day in the month of February. So again, we just want to continue to love on each other in the month of February. That's what the month of February means to me. As Jesus is Love, February: the love month."
"Bakersfield is not as disunified as some people may make it seem," said Dangerfield. "We actually are together, we actually love each other, and we actually work hard at what we do. And today is the day to put that all on display and show the entire city that this is what love's about."