Longest running event of its kind in the U.S. continues tradition of honoring Veterans
BIRMINGHAM (Nov. 10, 2022) – The 75th Annual National Veterans Day Parade will follow its original route throughout Downtown Birmingham tomorrow, Nov. 11, at 11:00 a.m. The parade will include a mixture of Veterans service organizations, armed forces and local Alabama military supporters alongside color guards, high school bands, and even the Budweiser Clydesdales – a new and exciting highlight this year.
Birmingham’s Annual National Veterans Day Parade celebrates the national holiday officially signed into legislation by President Eisenhower in 1954 and is the longest-running parade of its kind in the country. The event will be broadcast live via nationalveteransday.org for those who cannot attend onsite.
For more information, visit nationalveteransday.org.
WHAT: The 75th Annual National Veterans Day Parade
WHEN: Friday, Nov. 11 at 11:00 a.m.
WHERE: Downtown Birmingham, following its original route
Start on 18th St. and 9th Ave N.
South on 18th St. to 2nd Ave N.
East on 2nd Ave N. to 22nd St.
North on 22nd St. to 5th Ave N.
West on 5th Ave N. to 19th St.
North on 19th St. in front of City Hall
End at 19th St. and 10th Ave N.
OTHER: The Budweiser Clydesdales, color guards, drill teams, and high school bands to join Veterans service organizations, armed forces and local Alabama supporters for the parade.
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About the National Veterans Day Parade
Although World War I officially ended with the Treaty of Versailles, fighting ceased seven months earlier after an armistice between the allied nations and Germany commenced on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. In November 1919, President Wilson proclaimed November 11 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day.
Armistice Day was set aside to honor veterans of World War I. But after World War II required the greatest mobilization of soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen in the nation’s history, a World War II veteran from Birmingham named 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 Dwight Eisenhower to create a national holiday that honored all veterans. In 1954, President Eisenhower signed legislation establishing November 11th as Veterans Day.
President 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 passing in 1985. His family continues to march in the parade to this day. There is a memorial in the northwest corner of Linn Park, to Raymond Weeks and the founding of National Veterans Day.
