Salute to the Past

Jessica Cooper was a wobbly infant when the late Florence Griffith Joyner captured three gold medals at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, but Saturday morning the 11-year-old track star marched straight and proud in honor of “FloJo” at Orange County’s Black History Parade.

“I looked up to her because she accomplished a lot,” said Jessica, whose Compton track team joined scores of other young speedsters from across Southern California at Saturday’s festivities in downtown Santa Ana. “She was a good person--and she was fast.”

The tribute to Griffith Joyner, who died after suffering an epileptic seizure at her Mission Viejo home in September, capped off a jazzed-up, homespun parade that organizers said drew the biggest crowd since it began about 20 years ago.

Thousands of onlookers lined both sides of Broadway and Civic Center Drive, cheering on everyone from former Negro League baseball star Earl “Stick” Robinson of Fullerton to the Katella High School Band.

In all, 173 bands, community organizations, politicians and school groups marched down Broadway during the 3 1/2-hour event, which started under an ominous gray sky but ended in crisp winter sunshine.

“This was the best we’ve ever had, by far,” said Chuck Mosley, a co-founder of the Mission With Benevolence Foundation, which organized the event.

It’s been an amazing turnaround for a parade that teetered on the edge of extinction in the early 1990s, when the festivities were canceled three years running because of funding problems. But the nonprofit foundation raised enough money to revive the parade in 1994, and it’s been growing ever since.

The morning began with a special breakfast to honor Griffith Joyner, one of America’s fastest and most flamboyant track stars, whose sudden death at age 38 stunned the sports world and her Orange County neighbors.

Griffith Joyner, nicknamed FloJo, won gold medals in the women’s 100-, 200- and 400-meter relay in the 1988 Olympics, along with a silver in the 1,600-meter race. Her record time in the 100--10.49 seconds at the 1988 U.S. Olympic trials--still stands.

“What she stood for is that you should believe in yourself, and that’s what we want people to see when we walk today,” said her sister, Elizabeth Griffith-Tate, who now heads the Florence Griffith Joyner Youth Foundation in San Diego.

Parade driver Al Carr of Santa Ana, whose 1946 truck was filled with excited youngsters from Santa Ana’s Community Baptist Church, said it’s too bad the community waited until now to celebrate Griffith Joyner’s life and accomplishments.

“We’ve got to do something for her, but it would have been nicer if she was here to see it,” said Carr, whose truck also sported a plug for Duke’s Barber Shop, which he owns.

Carola Dawkins of Laguna Hills, who came with her daughter and granddaughter, praised the day’s festivities as a way to pull together the county’s fragmented African American community--and also the mix of other growing cultures changing the face of Orange County.

“This is a very diverse area--it’s nice to see a celebration of that,” said Dawkins, a senior judicial assistant at the Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana.

That diversity was proudly on display during the parade, from the Fiesta Ballet Folklorico to the United Samoan Organization of Orange County, which won the competition for best float.

After the event, the crowd descended on a fairground with dozens of booths offering food, ethnic clothing, church information and even car-buying services. The Faith Deliverance Apostolic Church of Fullerton was selling $5 chicken dinners on one side, and Ghetto Records was selling the latest hip-hop CDs on the other--and both attracted big crowds.

Fairgoers also enjoyed hours of entertainment on two separate stages, including a passionate spoken-word tribute to Griffith Joyner--”You Must Have Been an Angel”--by the youth ensemble By Any Means Necessary.

“I hope this goes on year after year,” said Rosa Kelson, 44, of Placentia, who enjoyed the festivities with her 16-year-old daughter.