The first Bud Billiken Parade and Picnic, the oldest and largest African-American parade in the United States, was held in Chicago.

The Bud Billiken Parade and Picnic is an annual parade held since 1929 in Chicago, Illinois. The Bud Billiken Day Parade is the largest African-American parade in the United States. Held annually on the city's south side on the second Saturday in August, the parade route travels on Dr. Martin Luther King Drive through the Bronzeville and Washington Park neighborhoods. At the end of the parade, in the historic Washington public park is a picnic and festival. Robert S. Abbott, the founder and publisher of the Chicago Defender newspaper, created the fictional character of Bud Billiken, which he featured in a youth advice column in his paper. David Kellum, co-founder of the newspaper sponsored Bud Billiken Club and longtime parade coordinator suggested the parade as a celebration of African-American life.

African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group who as defined by the United States census, consists of Americans who have ancestry from "any of the Black populations of Africa". African Americans constitute the second largest racial and ethnic group in the U.S. after White Americans. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of Africans enslaved in the United States. According to annual estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, as of July 1, 2024, the Black population was estimated at 42,951,595, representing approximately 12.63% of the total U.S. population.