4,000 Turn Out to View Parade It Didn’t Rain on

Larry Eddings, his brother Anthony and their pal Paul Fouches sat in a weathered steel-blue Ford Caliente Saturday morning, munching on beer nuts and chips as the sixth annual Santa Ana Black History Parade marched by the car’s front windshield.

The trio had no problems reserving their vantage point for the colorful neighborhood procession: They were parked in their own driveway.

“We can see it just fine from here,” said Eddings, 33, anunemployed computer circuit assembler who sat behind the wheel. “Looks fine to me.”

An overnight rain shower convinced the three to climb into Edding’s car, and had other parade organizers and city officials worried when ominous clouds remained through the morning.

“At 8 o’clock this morning I didn’t think we had a parade,” Mayor Daniel E. Griset said later. “But I think we had a good turnout today.”

Indeed, organizers said an estimated 4,000 people lined the mile-long parade route, and an equal number later marked the start of Black History Month at a lively festival nearby.

Largely from Santa Ana, most of the crowd had merely to plant beach chairs on their front lawns as the hourlong parade snaked through the southwest Santa Ana neighborhood that until recent years was known as Little Texas, a name it earned after a large population of black native Texans settled there decades ago.

Sponsored by the Orange County Black History Commission, the parade kicked off annual Black History Month in Santa Ana, home of the county’s largest black population.

“It’s very important for black people to continue to develop self-esteem, to never forget our roots,” Allen Doby, the City of Santa Ana’s executive director of cultural, recreational and community services, said Saturday. He also is the city’s representative on the Orange County Black Historical Commission.

The commemoration of Black History Month, Doby said, is particularly important in Orange County, which has the smallest black population--a little over 1%--of any major metropolitan area in the country. Blacks make up only about 5% of the population in Santa Ana.

Bigger Crowds Hoped for

“As long as we still have people who are not exactly free, we have to continue to work,” Doby said.

Ambitious parade organizers said they hope eventually to draw 25,000 to 30,000 people to the parade, mostly with accelerated publicity efforts and more sponsorships from local merchants.

But Saturday’s crowd--which exceeded last year’s attendance fourfold--was encouraging, Doby said.

By 12:30 p.m., marching bands, floats and classic cars that ferried hand-waving politicians and beauty queens wound up at Jerome Park, where radio disc jockeys orchestrated what amounted to a neighborhood block party among several thousand people. It also was a dance showcase of sorts for some of the parade performers --among them The Soul Street Stompers and the Foster Starlettes--who did some strutting before large speakers that blasted funk music about the park.

‘Means a Lot to Me’

Local civic organizations and church groups sold barbecued ribs and chicken, hot dogs and soft drinks from food stands as the winning drill teams and bands were announced from a large stage. San Diego Padres shortstop Garry Templeton, a Santa Ana native and the parade grand marshal, was given a key to the city.

Cheryl Ford, 29, an insurance company investigator from Orange, had arrived at the parade route early with her 8-year-old son and 13-month-old daughter.

“It means a lot to me,” she said. “It took so long to even get it going. I’m hoping eventually it will get really big.”

The parade and subsequent party were equally important to Eddings, his 18-year-old brother Anthony and their buddy, Fouches, 48, who offered beer nuts to strangers as the parade passed by.

“I came last year and the year before that,” said Fouches, an equipment operator for the county who drove from his Diamond Bar home early Saturday for the parade.

“I think it’s getting a little better every year. I think it’s a good thing,” he said. “Everybody else has one. Why not us?”