Living in New York for short time I have already witnessed so many parades that probably, I could have written a reference titled “Annual parades held in NY”. For example, Puerto Rican, Irish, Turkish, and Chinese…All these parades have their unique history, backgrounds and purposes. Generally speaking, they are all aimed to show their cultural heritage and spirit on the streets of the “Melting Pot”. And I was really surprised to find out that there used to be a multinational parade held on the streets in America: The annual Captive Nations parade.
Here is how “Chicago Tribune” writes about it in an article “50 000 See Annual Captive Nations March in State Street” published on July 16, 1967.

Americans from captive nations carried flags of those nations down State street yesterday along with signs calling for freedom of their native lands. They were marching in the annual Captive Nations parade. American flags flew proudly at the head of each marching unit, and banners proclaimed support for United States service men in Viet Nam.

…Among the largest delegations in the parade of more than 10000 persons were those from Korea and Lithuania.
…In addition to Korea and Lithuania, the nations represented included Bulgaria, the Baltic States, Serbia, Slovakia, Estonia, Poland, Ukraine, Croatia, Bielarus, Albania, Latvia, Cossakia, Slovenia, Armenia, Georgia, Germany, Czechoslovakia and China.

Rep. Roman C. Pucinski (D. Ill), told more than 200 persons attending a luncheon in the Hilton hotel after the parade:

“God grant that spirit you demonstrated today would become infectious and spread throughout the country and throughout the whole world.”
“God created men to be free and no Communist is going to change that”

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