Colonel Eugene Scott: From Billiken to the battlefields and back again

Fifty-three years later, the impression is still recalled.

As the celebration of Blackness/Black people progressed pass him on a Southside Chicago street, 12-year-old Eugene Scott watched in wonder.

"I was in awe. I was so overwhelmed," Scott said, when discussing the first time he attended a Bud Billiken Parade. "I had never seen a parade that large. Seeing that helped me understand what this parade is really about. I saw and felt it as a young kid.

Scott's childhood also featured the influence of Florence Sengstacke, sister of former Defender publisher John Sengstacke.

Florence Sengstacke, Scott said, taught him about accountability. One day, Scott asked her …