During what should have been a joyful 7th birthday at a Mardi Gras parade, a young Black girl in New Orleans caught a gift that stopped her family cold. The child was tossed a Black doll with noose-like beads around its neck from a parade float adorning the phrase “crack pipe,” the child’s mother, Shayna […]
Mardi Gras
Posted inCulture, HBCUs
HBCU Bands Bring Big Sound to Mardi Gras Parades
Get ready for Mardi Gras as Black college marching bands’ thunderous sounds are felt throughout the streets of New Orleans. From Southern University’s veteran parade performers to newcomers such as LeMoyne-Owen College in Memphis, Tennessee, these bands are already captivating people on TikTok and Instagram. Earlier this week, Southern University’s Human Jukebox did their rendition […]
Posted inCommunity, Culture, History
The Mardi Gras Indian Tradition Carrying Generations of Black History
NEW ORLEANS — From the porch of his family’s home in Uptown New Orleans, Gerard “Little Bo” Dollis remembers being small enough to see only feathers — plumes of red and gold that blocked out the morning sun and the party bus idling behind his father. “You couldn’t even see the bus,” said Dollis, also […]
