At its height, the four-hour spectacle drew patriotic crowds of more than 250,000 to cheer on newly naturalized citizens, marching bands, and famous parade marshals.
“Oh, as a kid, it was so exciting, with military units, cheerleaders and marching bands, rockets being pulled down the street,” says City archivist Rob Schoeberlein, recalling Baltimore’s long-running “I Am An American Day” parade. “Of course, at 4 or 5 years old, I’m attracted to the vendors and their carts that keep coming by, selling plastic swords, tiny flags, and these balloons that are five- or six-feet high in the air. You never saw so many people as you did at those parades.”
Begun in Baltimore in 1938 with Gen. Douglas MacArthur as the first grand marshall, the “I Am An American Day” parade became an annual celebration of naturalized citizens and the city’s biggest social and political event over the next 50 years. In 1945, a likeness of Hitler was hung in effigy and presented to Mayor Theodore McKeldin. In 1947, some 4,000 newly naturalized refugees, many from war-torn Europe, sat together in Patterson Park as the parade’s guests of honor.
At its height, the four-hour spectacle included more than 25,000 participants and 125 marching bands and drew patriotic crowds estimated at 250,000 and more. Launching from St. Patrick’s Church on East Broadway, the traditional route proceeded down Bank Street to Patterson Park, culminating in a fireworks display and a U.S. citizenship Oath of Allegiance ceremony. In other words, picture lawn chairs, Formstone rowhouses, Old Glory hanging from the windows, and stoops and sidewalks packed six deep with children, parents, and grandparents waving miniature American flags…