Sacramento native LeVar Burton named 2022 grand marshal of Rose Parade in Pasadena
Sacramento native and actor LeVar Burton has been named grand marshal of the 2022 Rose Parade on New Year’s Day in Pasadena.
“I come from a family for whom the Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl game to follow has been a part of our family for years and years,” Burton said Tuesday after he was announced as the parade’s next grand marshal. “We are over-the-moon, beyond thrilled to be a part of this amazing event.”
Burton starred in the award-winning 1977 miniseries “Roots,” played Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge in “Star Trek,” and also hosted the long-running children’s series “Reading Rainbow” on PBS.
He moved to south Sacramento when he was 3 years old. He attended Christian Brothers High School in the 1970s, then went to the University of Southern California on a drama scholarship.
“I am living, breathing proof that dreams do indeed come true,” Burton said Tuesday. “I’m a kid from Sacramento, California, grew up watching movies and television, revering the civil rights leaders of my time. And this is my life. Never underestimate the power of a dream.”
In July 2019, Burton returned to the Meadowview neighborhood in Sacramento where he was raised for the official dedication of LeVar Burton Park, formerly known as Richfield Park. At the park dedication ceremony, Burton spoke about his mother, Irma Jean Christian, an English teacher and social worker, who was the inspiration for his work in the field of literacy.
Burton spoke about the importance of education and his mother again Tuesday at the Rose Parade event, noting it was National Teacher’s Day. He asked those in attendance to hug a teacher, “if you’re vaccinated.”
“She knew that I would grow up and inherit a world that sometimes would be hostile to my presence simply because of the color of my skin,” Burton said. “And she knew that in order for me to reach my most full potential in life I needed to be able to have an education on the same level and commensurate with those of what I’d considered to be my melanin-challenged classmates ... the white kids.”
He went on to say “Education has given me the life that I Iead, because my education was tied to a dream. That dream of my mother Irma Jean to make sure that her children could compete on a level playing field in this America and reach their most full potential.”
Tournament of Roses President Bob Miller said the 2022 parade theme is “Dream. Believe. Achieve” with an emphasis on celebrating education. Given the global pandemic, Miller said the parade’s theme also celebrates “perseverance, strength, science and scientists, health professionals, first-responders and essential workers.”
During its 26-year run from 1983 through 2009, “Reading Rainbow” won more than 25 awards including outstanding children’s series at the Daytime Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award. Burton also was an executive producer of the show.
In selecting Burton as the grand marshal, Miller said Rose Parade organizers wanted to focus on celebrating education. He said Burton perfectly epitomizes the parade’s theme.
“Because of all the things that happened in the last couple of years, we needed somebody who would help the tournament convey our message of diversity, of equity, of inclusion,” Miller said at Tuesday’s event. “Someone who had lived it, someone who had breathed it, someone who had risen above, someone who understood the importance of education and how education was and is the great equalizer and is the one thing that focuses on social and economic mobility. And LeVar does that.”
This story was originally published October 6, 2021 at 12:47 PM.
