For 40 years, hundreds of students have lined the streets and filled the stands at Memorial Stadium for Selma High School’s homecoming parade and game.

The event, which has showcased innumerable band performances and homecoming courts in times past, will be a bittersweet one for many, as it will mark the end of an old era and the beginning of a new one with the completion of the new high school in 2012.

Event coordinators Selma High SGA advisor Chimeria Cleveland and Lesia James want this homecoming to be special — bringing together all homecoming queens of both Selma and Albert G. Parrish High Schools. Queens will participate in the homecoming parade and the halftime crowning ceremony set for Oct. 7.

“We’re bringing back all previous queens to join in on our parade because this is the last one before we build our new school,” James said. “This is our fourth consecutive homecoming parade … we wanted to have a big parade and we were just brainstorming about what we could do. The theme is ‘the end of time … a new beginning.’”

The homecoming parade will begin at 2 p.m. at Selma High and will continue down Broad Street before ending at the Edmund Pettus Bridge around 5 p.m. The homecoming game will begin afterward at 7 p.m. inside Memorial Stadium.

James said the festivities symbolize forgetting the old and embracing the new.

“This parade will culminate an old school and a new school with a new beginning,” James said. “I hope and pray past alumni of Selma High and current students will embrace what the superintendent is doing. A new environment motivates you to learn better … we want that constant communication between the community and the school.”

Hoping for a great turnout and positive responses, James said most have been supportive of the event.

“Mrs. Wanda McCall (Selma High principal) is very excited about the parade and the new school,” James said. “We encourage citizens to come out and watch the parade and uplift our students and the new school.”

If you are a past queen and would like to participate in the homecoming festivities, contact James at 349-5868 or Selma High at 874-1645 for more information.

Coordinators also encourage all queens to wear black for the event.