Mardi Gras Isn’t Just in New Orleans -<br />By DAMON WINTER and MEGHAN PETERSENMARCH 1, 2017<br />MOBILE, Ala. — When people think of Mardi Gras, they think of New Orleans.<br />The Mobile Area Mardi Gras Association, formerly called the Colored Carnival Association,<br />held its first parade in 1940, more than two decades before the end of segregation.<br />“It is a reward for longevity.”<br />Only two mystic societies, the Mobile Carnival Association and the Mobile Area Mardi Gras Association, have public coronations.<br />The king of the Order of Doves, Ross Huffstutler, received help from Maxine Day James as he<br />and the queen — his wife, Hannah Huffstutler — waited to pay their respects to the royal couple of the Mobile Area Mardi Gras Association at their coronation ceremony.<br />From the back of a pickup truck along the Joe Cain Procession route, a family<br />waits to see the royal motorcade of the Mobile Area Mardi Gras Association.<br />Vanessa Shoots, a lawyer and historian who attended this year’s Mobile Area Mardi Gras Association ball,<br />recalled struggling to find a good viewing spot while attending a parade a while back with her daughter.<br />The Mobile Mardi Gras Parading Association says the Mobile area has 72 participating organizations, called mystic societies, celebrating this year.
