Freddy Fixer Makes A Triumphant Return

Thousands of people filled Dixwell Avenue to march and mingle in a revived Freddy Fixer parade, marking a moment of community celebration following an extended pandemic-prompted pause.

Nearly 70 marching units, drill teams, bands and businesses joined on Sunday afternoon with groups like the Ebony Horsewomen, the New Haven Firebirds, and the Walter Pop Smith Little League plus politicians and city representatives for two-hours of music, dancing and remembering neighborhood roots — all after a three-year hiatus on one of the region’s premier Black community events.

“People really didn’t think it would happen, but we’re back,” said Chanelle Goldson, Newhallville native and president of the Freddy Fixer Parade Committee. 

The parade began in 1962 as a neighborhood beautification initiative across Newhallville and Dixwell and has evolved into an annual honoring of Black history and culture in New Haven and beyond. It lost some of its force with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and ensuing financial woes — before making a triumphant return on Sunday, starting at Dixwell and Bassett and making its way all the way down past the Q House.

Click here to read about an Elm City Freddy Fixer neighborhood cleanup that took place in 2021 in lieu of the parade. Click here to read about how the parade’s organizers called off the event in 2022 because of police overtime costs and lack of funding. Click here to get a glimpse into what the parade looked like pre-2020.

Goldson, who said she grew up attending the parade every year, said she spent the past 12 months re-pitching the parade to potential sponsors and to the public, working to convince or remind others about why Freddy Fixer matters. ​“A lot of people think it’s just a parade,” she said. ​“It’s way more.” 

“We’re an underserved community and oftentimes our stories are not told… But this is a chance for community activism, for arts and culture and neighborhood, to give our kids a place to perform and a space to belong.”

“It’s been hard but it’s been fruitful,” she said, estimating that about 4,000 people ultimately came out to cheer from sidewalks and street corners.

For Freddy spectator and Newhallville neighbor Patricia Highsmith, 73, the parade’s return on Sunday was a call-back to the past and a symbol of hope for the future. She set up a red folding chair by the Dixwell Q House where the parade wrapped up alongside her daughter, Alise Scales, 50, with whom she has long observed the event.

Highsmith said she attended her first parade in the early 1980s, when the Winchester Newhall club of the Communist Party of which she is still a member marched alongside other organizations working to secure housing rights, boost union numbers and keep people fed and clothed.

Since then, she said, ​“a lot of restaurants, a lot of clubs have closed down. There’s nowhere to go after this — if the Elks Club was still here, the party would be going all night.” She said in years past the parade extended into downtown New Haven and drew an even larger audience than the one gathered Sunday.

The hardships faced by organizers of the event as well as everyday New Haveners over recent years, she said, made the parade’s homecoming even more powerful.

Both Highsmith and her daughter work in healthcare. Highsmith is a certified nurse assistant who worked long hours in the hospital during the peak of the pandemic.

“To see this after all of that brings tears to my eyes,” she said. 

“No one wanted to be near each other, there was a lot of depression and this feeling of not being able to live, you know?” her daughter, Scales, added.

“This feels like a message: Get on back and live!” she said of the parade.

Highsmith said she had few personal affiliations with the groups represented in Sunday’s march — the communist party, she said, is losing its older leadership and no longer walks in the parade. However, she said she showed up primarily to see local kids flaunt their talents and cement their community ties.

“I love to see young people participate,” she said. ​“As you get older, you wonder what the kids of today are gonna do. We don’t know what’s gonna happen in the future. But I’d be happy if it looks like this.”

Below are the winners of cash prizes ranging from $300 to $950 for their performances in Sunday’s parade. The award recipients will be honored in a ceremony hosted by the parade committee on July 26.

1^st Place

Grand Marshal Award – DJ Majesty

Elm City Freddy Fixer Spirit Award – Assistant Police Chief Bertram Etienne (NHPD)

Best Marching Unit – Ebony Horsewomen, Inc., Hartford, CT

Best Float – Pro Maintenance Pro, LLC

Best Motorcycle Group – Major Movement Auto Club (MMAC)

Best Drill Team – Elite Drill Squad & Drum Corps

Best Marching Unit – James Hillhouse High School Band & Dancing Assemble

2nd Place

Grand Marshal Award – New Haven Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority

Elm City Freddy Fixer Spirit Award – Arabic Temple Lodge #40 — Shriners

Best Marching Unit – The Firebird Society of New Haven – Local 825

Best Float – Elm City Housing Communities/Housing Authority of New Haven

Best Motorcycle Group – Flaming Knights Founding Chapter

Best Drill Team – The Howling Symphony of Soul – Amistad High School Band

Best Marching Unit – Roberto Clemente Leadership Academy for Global Awareness Magnet School