For the 78th year, the Bud Billiken Parade will step off at 10 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 11, on Chicago's South Side.

The parade has the distinction of being the largest African-American parade, and the second largest parade overall, in the United States. Since the first parade in 1929, it has drawn more than 50 million individuals to enjoy a day of community and celebration of African-American roots.

At the post-parade picnic this year, members of the Chicago Baha'i community will volunteer in storytelling, the Cooperation Olympics and "virtues" face-painting.

Baha'i participation in the Bud Billiken Parade began when Robert S. Abbott, founder of the Chicago Defender, and David Kellum, an editor at the paper, created the event.

The two hadn't yet become Baha'is, but their outlook was in line with principles of the Faith. They also had been involved for years in civil rights and improving relations between the races. Indeed, Messrs. Abbott and Kellum founded the Bud Billiken picnic and parade as a celebration of "unity in diversity for the children of Chicago."

Bud Billiken, the parade's namesake, is a fictional character invented by Abbott in 1923 to symbolize pride, happiness and hope in being African-American. (The billiken was a good-luck doll devised by Kansas art teacher Florence Pretz in 1908.)

The Defender staff created a Bud Billiken comic strip for young readers that extolled the virtues of being honest and trustworthy, obeying parents and respecting others. Through a pen-pal program, the Bud Billiken Club connected African-American with kids in Africa, South America, Europe and the Middle East.

Celebrities who have graced the parade's route include Joe Louis, Muhammad Ali, Duke Ellington, Spike Lee, Oprah Winfrey, Hopalong Cassidy, Lena Horne, L.L. Cool J, Bozo the Clown, Jack Brickhouse, Frank Thomas, Michael Jordan and President Harry S. Truman.