The Bud Billiken Parade is an annual South Side Chicago parade and community festival organized by the Chicago Defender that celebrates African American culture and the back-to-school season. The event features marching bands, floats, civic groups, and celebrity grand marshals as it processes along Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and culminates in a large family picnic in a local park. It is notable as one of the nation’s largest and longest-running African American parades and a major cultural tradition in Chicago.