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Just how did Zulu get started? [1]
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Date: 2025-03-03
“There Never Was and Never Will Be a King Like Me,” a vaudeville skit about an African tribe, inspired the creation of the Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club.
Started as a marching club in 1909, the group of Black men called itself Zulu and selected an African theme for costumes a few years later.
“The characters wore grass skirts and dressed in blackface – a common practice in vaudeville theater, for both Black and white performers,” Louisiana State Museum states. They also wore turtlenecks that were dyed black, tights, Spanish moss as wigs and rabbit fur as trim. Their boots were painted gold.
In the beginning, Zulu made its own floats from boxes, palmetto leaves and moss. The first coconuts were thrown in 1910. Zulu historian Emeritus Clarence Becknell told WDSU that the krewe threw coconuts because riders could not afford to buy beads.
“The most noteworthy distinction of the Zulu parade is that it’s the oldest predominantly Black krewe on the official New Orleans parade schedule,” Trivia Mafia states. “The ‘pleasure club’ aspect took … a more light-hearted approach than the sometimes self-serious white parade krewes.”
According to the state museum, Black businesses, such as the Gertrude Geddes Willis Funeral Home, sponsored the Zulu parade. In 1917, the parade began at the New Basin Canal and Claiborne Avenue. In the early 1950s, the parade moved to its current starting point at Claiborne and Jackson Avenues.
In 1948, Zulu was the first krewe to feature a queen in its parade.
“Zulu made civil rights history in 1969 when the city granted the club permission to parade on Canal Street, the route historically reserved for white carnival parades,” the state museum states. The route change “was significant and symbolic” because a Black krewe “became part of the city’s official Mardi Gras festivities.”
For more tales from New Orleans history, visit the Back in the Day archives.
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