In the past 10 years, the Tournament of Roses has welcomed its first Asian-American, African-American, Latina and Latino presidents. Meanwhile, two LGBTQ grand marshals were chosen in the last eight years and the first gay president will take the helm in 2027.
“The organization has changed considerably during my time here,” said Ed Morales, the current president of the Tournament of Roses who will lead the parade on Jan. 1.
The recent spate of diversity demonstrates a wave of change for the 136-year-old organization that more than three decades ago was was slapped with the moniker “Tournament of Racism” by some activist groups.
The group, once criticized for leadership that was once all white and and all male, has been providing increased leadership opportunities to minorities ever since the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Black activist Danny Bakewell and local leaders including Rick Cole, an upstart mayor of Pasadena, challenged the tournament in the early 1990s, with one group even threatening to launch a counter-parade.
It was about that time when Morales joined the organization. The changes he saw, he said, made it possible for a Latino with grandparents and a father born in Mexico to become president.
Morales further fueled the diversity trend by choosing tennis legend and LGBTQ pioneer Billie Jean King as his grand marshal.
The current diversity is the result of seeds of change planted decades ago, Morales said.
“These things,” he said, “don’t happen overnight.”
A look back
Many point to the 1993 Rose Parade when then-Pasadena Mayor Rick Cole wore a t-shirt emblazoned with the words “Tournament of Racism” under his regular shirt while riding in the parade. He showed the t-shirt to a reporter after the parade ended and the story exploded. But contrary to popular lore, Cole never flashed the t-shirt during the parade.
Cole got the t-shirt from activists who objected to the choice of a grandson of Christopher Columbus as grand marshal of the 1992 parade. “I went at them head on in a very confrontational way,” said Cole, right after Cristóbal Colón was picked in the fall of 1991.
Cole, 71, in an interview weeks after returning to the Pasadena City Council after years away, said the Tournament ignored the debate that has erupted over Columbus in recent years. While celebrated for centuries for his exploration that opened the doors to the Western Hemisphere for Europeans, a more harsh spotlight has been shone on Columbus recently, sparking debate over harm done to indigenous people under his exploration and governance.
“(The choice) was clueless … it reflected my view of the myopia of being a club of aging white men,” he said on Monday, Dec. 23.
The lack of Black or Latino presidents also helped to fuel protests calling for diversity. “They didn’t admit any black people for 75 years. There was no one female or black or brown eligible (for president). It took 15 years to work your way up. They said it was paying your dues but people invited pals from work, or church or the neighborhood,” Cole said.
In 1992 and 1993, Cole and Councilmember Katie Nack, along with business and minority leaders, joined national Black leaders, including Coretta Scott King, Bakewell and Jackson. After Jackson said he’d launch his own parade on Jan. 1, the group met with Tournament leaders and a compromise was struck in November 1993.
In 1993, the Tournament added five at-large minority and women members to the executive committee, bringing new perspectives to the once closed group. Some eventually ascended to the presidency.
The Tournament itself wants its message to be very different in 2024.
Noting decades of change, Tournament leaders today point to not just Morales, but to events and initiatives throughout the year that illustrate what Tournament of Roses CEO David Eads said represents an organization that is “a positive force for change.”
“The Tournament of Roses has evolved significantly since its founding, while cherishing traditions of joy and celebration,” he said in a statement. “At the heart of the Tournament of Roses lies a commitment to embracing diversity, equity and inclusion. We strive to reflect the diverse community we serve, recognizing that diversity strengthens our organization and enriches the experiences and events we create.”
Cole, a harsh critic for years, has himself mended fences with the Tournament and will be seated in the grandstands on Jan. 1. “I think the Tournament is far from perfect. But I am proud of the progress it has made. And that is good for everyone,” he said.
Cole credited Gerald Freeny, one of the five added to the executive committee, as “an effective champion of institutional change.” After 123 years, he became the first African American president of the Tournament, serving from 2018 to January 2019.
The next year, Laura Farber became the first Latina president of the Tournament and only the third woman in that position in 124 years. She was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and a native Spanish speaker.
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Before those two, in 2015, Richard Chinen became the first Asian-American to serve as president.
In 2017, diver Greg Louganis, a five-time Olympic gold medalist, was the first openly gay person to serve as grand marshal.
On Jan. 1, lesbian, tennis standout and women’s rights activist King, from Long Beach, will be the second openly gay athlete to serve as grand marshal.
“Important for people to see themselves”
“I am the first Latino president,” he said, proudly. “And the first president of Mexican descent, which has some significance in L.A.,” Morales said, mentioning nearly half of LA County’s 10 million residents are Latino. “It is important for people to see themselves, to see people that look like them.”
Morales honored his grandparents who emigrated from Mexico to El Paso, Texas, by inviting the Pebble Hills High School Spartan Marching Band from El Paso. He also chose the Rancho Verde Crimson Regiment marching band from Moreno Valley in Riverside County. Most students from the school are first-generation graduates. Also, 25% of the students have families in the armed forces, the Tournament reported.
Morales said as a lifelong resident of Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley, he is influenced by many different ethnicities that make up Southern California. He remembers his aunt sharing Mexican dishes with an Italian neighbor, who brought them stuffed shells for Easter dinner. He met Vietnamese Americans while attending elementary school in San Gabriel. And the family, now living in Pasadena, still go for pizza night to Petrillo’s Pizza restaurant on Valley Boulevard in San Gabriel.
“Meeting people from different cultures is very enriching. It is a very healthy thing. When groups get polarized, the genesis of that polarization is too insular,” he said.
Morales selected King for two reasons. He’s a tennis buff and second, he admires her work as an advocate for women’s rights and for LGBTQ rights.
“I have an LGBTQ daughter,” he said. “It is exciting to be able to choose somebody who could be a role model for Jesse.”
His daughter, Jesse,19, is nonbinary, and goes by “they” and “them” pronouns, Morales said. Nonbinary is a gender identity and usually describes someone who doesn’t identify as a man or a woman. Jessie attends Emerson College in Boston.
Future president Terry Madigan, will take the helm for the January 2027 parade, but will be in charge from the third week of January 2026 until early January 2027, he said. He currently serves as Tournament treasurer.
Madigan is an openly gay man and member of the executive committee, from which the presidents are named after working numerous assignments for several years. An announcement of the future presidential line-up included a mention of Terry and his husband, something he said was subtle but brought him cheers from the LGBTQ community and from fellow queer members within the Tournament’s 936 volunteers, he said.
He and his husband, Kevin Sommerfield, have been together for 30 years. They were married in San Francisco where they met before California’s Proposition 8 banned same-sex marriage in 2008. The ban was overturned by the courts and Terry and Kevin’s marriage stuck, he said. They live in South Pasadena.
“It has never become an issue for me,” saying diversity has spilled over into acceptance of gender and sexual preference in the group. “I realized long ago If I don’t want people to gossip about me I need to be honest about who I am and my life,” Madigan said on Dec. 23.
Madigan, 60, like Morales, joined the Tournament during the tumultuous time of diversity tensions and protests. Both said they are products of the new, inclusive atmosphere at the Tournament.
“At that point, the leadership had an opportunity to turn our backs on the world. They chose to look out to the world,” he said. “That is when this diversity journey began.”
Madigan, who is a retired personal chef, also serves on the board of the San Gabriel Valley LGBTQ Center, which is based in El Monte. The group hosted kickoffs for the group’s Pride tour at the Tournament House for two consecutive years, Morales said. Morales attended the San Gabriel Valley LGBTQ Center’s grand opening/reception on Oct. 19 with Madigan.
He said the parade’s theme, “Best Day Ever,” meaning the experience of seeing the parade in person or on TV as a joyous day, will be something for everyone. “It is universal. It belongs to everybody, not just one group,” he said.
Madigan is hoping the new Tournament leadership will continue reflecting the melting pot of people in Pasadena and beyond, well into the future.
“The world is changing. And we need to change with the world. And we are,” Madigan said.