Zulu once again reigns in New Orleans
12th February 2024 · 0 Comments
By Ryan Whirty
Contributing Writer
The traditions of the Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club have been developed and evolved in the ensuing years and remain strong to this day, despite periodic challenges like controversy, funding and membership crises, economic downturns, hurricanes and world wars.
The club’s extensive charitable and philanthropic work has likewise become multi-faceted, resilient and steady, ensuring that Zulu continues to dedicate itself to the community around it.
And the club’s headquarters on Broad Avenue in Treme are equally iconic.
But the centerpiece of the Zulu legend and legacy is its annual Mardi Gras celebration, a lavish, colorful and boisterous series of popular events and celebrations that culminate in the world-famous Zulu parade the morning of Mardi Gras, when club members, parade riders and thousands of revelers savor the grass-skirted, coconut-tossing pageantry.
This year will be no different, said Zulu club president Elroy A. James.
“If I had to describe what people will get from Zulu this year, it will be much of what the organization has been producing for the community over the last few decades,” James said. “It will be a display of pageantry that is unique to New Orleans Mardi Gras.”
This year’s Zulu festivities will once again focus on local economic development. The celebration brings a great deal of tourism and tourist spending to the city, with emphasis on assisting local companies grow. For example, James noted, the club’s Lundi Gras party will feature booths and tables for many of the city’s small and minority-owned food businesses and artists, with the goal of creating an experience that is the Big Easy personified.
“I think our Mardi Gras experience is a microcosm of New Orleans,” he said.
Darren Mire, the club’s media relations director, said that Zulu represents a tradition stemming back to an era of segregation that has grown to become something that encompasses the whole city. “At first it was an African-American-founded organization, but by now it’s gotten so huge that it’s one of the premier organizations in the whole city,” he said.
As an example, he noted how a certain coconut gift is now a highly sought after prize by collectors and lovers of Mardi Gras.
“Our Golden Nuggets have become the signature throw of Mardi Gras,” he said.
Also during its packed slate of activities, Zulu’s 800 members hosted its annual lavish Coronation Ball at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. The 2024 Zulu King and Queen were crowned, with a packed slate of music, food and artistic displays. The theme of the ball was “Celebrations and Libations Zulu Style,” and the ball committee was chaired by Clifton Jones Jr.
The celebration continues with Monday’s (Feb. 12) annual, day-long Lundi Gras Festival at Woldenberg Park on the downtown riverfront. As it has for the last three decades, the Lundi Gras festivities will include a full, family-friendly day of live music, running from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. The event will also include food, arts and crafts. The musical lineup includes DJ Polo and Uptown Angela, Con Funk Shun, Johnny Gill, Ne-Yo and DJ Jam Out.
The storied Zulu parade itself will take place the following day, Fat Tuesday, starting at 8 a.m. With the pomp of the Zulu King and Queen’s spectacular official arrival, the parade will begin at the intersection of S. Claiborne and Jackson avenues, then run southeast to St. Charles Avenue, on which the parade will make its way to and around the former Lee Circle, back to St. Charles and then wind its way north to conclude at the crossing of Orleans Avenue and Broad Street.
This year’s King Zulu is Melvin L. Labat, a New Orleans native and current Gretna resident who is affectionately known as “ZO” or “Mel.”
Labat is the director of property and facilities for Fluor Federal Petroleum Operations (FFPO) at the New Orleans office of the Department of Energy Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a job in which he manages material at six government properties between Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.
Labat has an extensive resume of civic engagement and charitable philanthropy, including educational institutions at every level, especially supporting STEM programs. He volunteers with the National Down Syndrome Association, church events and Christmas gatherings, as well as serving as chairman of Zulu’s Annual Toys for Tots Christmas Giveaway.
“Being King is an incredible honor and privilege,” he said. “I’m proud to represent the Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club, Inc. and our cherished traditions.”
Joining Labat as 2024 Zulu royalty is A. Angélique Roché as Queen. Roché is a Louisiana native and second-generation Zulu Queen; her mother, Rose A. Lee Roché, was Queen Zulu in 1996.
Roche graduated with a bachelors from Southern University and from the law schools of Southern and George Washington University. She has used her educational experience to work as a campaign official for several political candidates, and is currently a consultant, writer and host for Marvel Entertainment.
Over its century-plus existence, the Zulu Mardi Gras experience has become world renowned. Local natives and residents place great emphasis on the events and the pageantry, and honors like becoming Zulu royalty or helping plan and run the lavish pre-parade Coronation Ball are highly prized.
In fact, 75 years ago, one of New Orleans’ greatest sons fulfilled a lifelong dream by riding as the Zulu King, and it was the thrill of a lifetime. As the honorary monarch reigning over the Crescent City’s most well-known, most tradition-rich Mardi Gras parades, Louis Armstrong, Satchmo himself, guided the annual Zulu parade and Fat Tuesday bash precisely three-quarters of a century ago.
“It is a great day for all New Orleans, and particularly for the Zulu Aid Pleasure and Social Club,” Armstrong wrote of Mardi Gras’ iconic event in his autobiography, “My Life in New Orleans.”
Satchmo noted that although the Zulu parade has its origins in the city’s traditional Black neighborhoods, it eventually grew to be something even greater.
“Most of the members of the Zulu Club then lived around Liberty and Perdido Streets,” Armstrong wrote, “but now Mardi Gras has become so famous – people come from all over America to see its parade – that it includes doctors, lawyers and other important people from all over the city. Later on a Lady Zulu Club was organized. It had been my life-long dream to be the King of the Zulus, as it was the dream of every kid in my neighborhood.”
Such world renown and universal appeal are a source of pride among current members and officers, but the event remains anchored within and inspired by New Orleans’ Black community and continues to honor African-American traditions.
While Zulu now allows white individuals to join, the krewe and parade were originally formed as a satirical, tongue-in-cheek response to the traditional large, segregated, racially exclusionary whites-only parades like Rex.
“Blacks weren’t allowed [at traditional white parades],” Zulu’s historian Clarence Becknell told NPR in 2009. “You either got into a fight or something or you had to hear the racist remarks. The policeman used to push you back and put a white family in front of you. I mean, that’s the kind of things we had to put up with. Well, when Zulu came around and started parading like we did, that put pride in the black community.”
Mire noted how the parade started in African-American working-class neighborhoods but now runs through traditionally white, more well off neighborhoods Uptown, especially along mansion-packed St. Charles Avenue.
However, Zulu still ends in the traditionally Black neighborhood of Treme, which, aside from the French Quarter, is New Orleans’ most iconic, storied section.
“We never lost our roots in the African-American community,” Mire said.
After more than 110 years, Zulu continues to grow and evolve, said James. He said that in the last roughly half-dozen years he’s been president, the number of club applications has swelled, with a membership waitlist of more than 100 applicants. He added that Zulu is currently working on updating and enlarging its parade structure and lineup, including purchasing more float vehicles and materials.
“I think the community will be excited to see what we’ve put into the parade,” James said. He added that Zulu is now multicultural and strives to evolve and strengthen along with New Orleans as a whole.
“Zulu is 115 years old, and it has been able to grow with the changes of our city,” he said. “We’re now a diverse organization. While we remain true to our traditions, we also realize that we become better when we include everyone.”
“The future is bright for our organization,” James said.
This article originally published in the February 12, 2024 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
