Bud Billiken Club

The Bud Billiken Club was a social club for black young people in Chicago, established in 1923, by the Chicago Defender founder Robert Sengstacke Abbott and its editor, Lucius Harper. The Bud Billiken Club was formed as part of the Defender Junior, the children's page in the newspaper, to encourage reading, appropriate social conduct, and involvement in the community, among the young people of Chicago.

The billiken, a smiling, rotund, elfin creature, popular in the early 1900s, became the mascot for the Bud Billiken Club when Abbott spotted a jolly deity on the door of a Chinese restaurant; upon learning that the jolly deity was the protector of children, he adopted the billiken as mascot of the Club. Later in 1923, the eleven-year-old boy Willard Motley submitted a drawing to the Chicago Defender of a pudgy and cheerful boy, which Abbott named the "new Billikin". The name "Bud Billiken" is a pseudonym that Abbott selected for the organization, using his own nickname "Bud"; the word "Billiken" was believed to be in reference to a character in Chinese mythology who was the protector of children. Though the billiken was actually created by an American woman in 1908, the figure still represented the guardian angel and patron of children and Abbott placed Motley’s drawing on the paper’s children’s page, the Defender Junior. Known as “the first Billiken,” Motley continued to pen drawings for the Defender Junior for the next seven years.

The “Rules of the Bud Billiken Club” guided youth to take pride in their race and to strive towards middle class respectability. It was also meant as a way to give underprivileged children a creative outlet and a chance to shine in the limelight. Over the years Bud Billiken became the mascot not only for the children’s page, but for the whole newspaper. Abbott organized dozens of Bud Billiken Clubs nationwide for children who pledged to read the Defender.

Initially, Abbott had created a day for the members of the Bud Billiken Club and the youth who sold his newspapers to be an annual November event. However, by 1929 the day of fun had morphed into a summer-time celebration and parade, dubbed in 1929 as the Bud Billiken Day Parade. It is the largest parade and picnic of its kind in the United States, and draws over a million viewers each year.

The Club was dedicated to supporting Chicago’s black youth, and frequently paid tribute to outstanding individuals. In 1935 the Club honored Cleotis Brittenum of Holly Springs, Mississippi for selling more Defender subscriptions “than any other Billiken.” At the annual Parade Cleotis rode in style on a white and gold float with the American Legion Drum and Bugle Corps broadcasting his ride through the South Side.

...
Wikipedia