Birmingham's Veterans Day Parade To Go Virtual For 2020

BIRMINGHAM, AL — The annual Veteran's Day parade in Birmingham — the country's longest running Veterans Day parade — will still happen this year, but in virtual form, according to Birmingham officials.

Scheduled to begin Wednesday, Nov. 11, at 4:30 p.m., the virtual event will include a mixture of live and recorded content and will culminate with a live broadcast fireworks show.

The event will be broadcast via nationalveteransday.org and will include a mixture of live and pre-recorded content, including color guards, high school band performances, drill teams, the 117th Air Refueling Wing, many greetings and shoutouts from frequent participants in the parade, along with past parade footage with vintage aircrafts, floats, horses, Boy Scouts, the 40&8 train car, the Clydesdales, military vehicles and more.

The virtual event will end with a live broadcast of the fireworks show over downtown/southside Birmingham.

“Due to safety concerns, we knew the parade could not happen in its traditional format,” said Mark Ryan, president of the National Veterans Day Parade. “Despite this barrier, we wanted to continue to remember and honor our nation’s veterans while teaching others about their sacrifice, and this virtual event gives us the ability to do just that.”

Birmingham became the pioneer of the national holiday when World War II veteran and Birmingham resident Raymond Weeks had an idea to expand Armistice Day to celebrate all veterans. In 1947 he led a delegation to Washington, D.C., to urge then-Army Chief of Staff General Eisenhower to create a national holiday that honored all veterans.

In 1954, President Eisenhower signed legislation establishing November 11 as Veterans Day. President Ronald Reagan honored Weeks as the driving force for the national holiday with the Presidential Citizenship Medal in 1982 at the White House.

Weeks led the first National Veterans Day Parade in 1947 in Alabama, and he continued the tradition until his death in 1985.