By: Jayne Duignan
In Mobile, Alabama, 1939, a group of six friends, accompanied by their wives or dates, attended a Mardi Gras celebration at the Elk’s Lodge. The group felt the night was too young to end. After leaving the Tea Dance, they devised a plan to join the parade themselves.
Convict suits from Atmore Prison Farm had just finished being cleaned at the Imperial Laundry, a cleaner’s that one of the friends had a part in owning. They stopped to borrow the black and white striped outfits. The friends continued on, purchasing their own hats and masks from street vendors to complete their parade-look.
This night of parading around in prisoner outfits and masks led to the creation of the Mystic Stripers Society, a social organization that holds parades and balls in celebration of Mardi Gras.
It is named after that night in 1939, emphasizing the black and white striped prisoner outfits borrowed from the cleaners.
“There are usually 350-400 active members, 50-100 associate members, and 50-100 honorary members,” William Griffin, a member of the Mystic Stripers Society since 1988, said.
John Repoll is a friend of Griffin and has been a member of the Mystic Stripers Society since 1990. “Active members are those who ride floats, the associate members are those who are waiting to ride the floats, and the honorary members are the ones who used to ride in the floats,” Repoll elaborated.
According to Griffin and Repoll, the origin of the Mystic Stripers Society is known as that story of a small group of friends who impulsively celebrated Mardi Gras together in 1939.
Beyond the societies, the history of this holiday and town are as vibrant as the floats in the parade.
Assistant Professor in the history department at Auburn University, Dr. Elijah Gaddis, received his doctorate and master’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In October 2022, Gaddis will have his first book published in the Cambridge University Press, titled Gruesome Looking Objects: A New History of Lynching and Everyday Things.
According to Gaddis, Mardi Gras, which is French for ‘Fat Tuesday’, is a religious holiday, even if it is not celebrated that way.
“While the name refers to that day of the week that is more formally called Shrove Tuesday, we think of Mardi Gras as a much longer celebration leading up to the period of sacrifice during Lent,” Gaddis said. “So, Mardi Gras then refers to these long, often debaucherous celebrations.”
Mardi Gras is an eccentric celebration even outside of the United States. The processional culture, as Gaddis refers to, entails parades and costumes, especially seen in Latin America.
When Mardi Gras was brought to Mobile in the late 17th century, the city was considered a French-claimed territory. As the years passed, Mobile and Mardi Gras stood the test of time.
“It (Mobile) persisted, more or less, for the next several hundred years even as the city became the property of the Spanish, British, and then the new United States,” Gaddis said.
The essential forms of celebration for Mardi Gras in Mobile are similar to those in New Orleans and outside of the country: masking, parading, raucous celebrations and consumption.
“In any society with Catholic roots or a large Catholic population, there is almost always some form of Mardi Gras celebration,” Gaddis said. Such celebration is excess because it is leading up to Lent, which is a time of abstention.
However, Mardi Gras in Mobile has not always been as grandiose as it is now. Although the parading and masking have been essential aspects to the celebration, the handmade floats with bright yellow, green, and purple colors that take weeks to create, were not always involved in the celebration.
“Certainly, Mobile has evolved to fit the needs and interests of the particular time and place in which it is celebrated, but that kernel of excess was always there,” Gaddis said.
As for the debate on whether Mardi Gras belongs to New Orleans or Mobile, Gaddis said he believes it goes deeper than one town wanting to claim the holiday.
“The debate goes back to old rivalries and challenges between these two major port cities, which are not so far apart from one another,” Gaddis said. “I think it's only intensified as Mardi Gras in New Orleans has gotten bigger and more well known. Mobile residents have thus wanted to claim a longer tradition, even if it doesn't seem as big as the one in New Orleans.”
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