Reid Mitchell

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Reid Mitchell | Carnival and Katrina | The Journal of American History, 94.3 | The History Cooperative

Carnival and Katrina

In 1878 yellow fever hit the lower Mississippi River valley hard. The epidemic killed over thirteen thousand people from New Orleans to Memphis, Tennessee, and beyond. Over four thousand people died in New Orleans alone. Many Carnival organizations refused to celebrate, but the Krewe of Rex decided to parade. "Our friends everywhere would prefer to see us giving evidence of life and energy than to have us sitting in sack-cloth of ashes." The krewe argued that the arrival of Rex in New Orleans would "dispel the gloom" of the epidemic and attract tourists. But the Republican newspaper the New Orleans Louisianian said that "we are about to get supreme contempt as a silly people, or a tender pity as madmen who know no better."¹	1
In 2005 Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. In New Orleans, a debate over the propriety of celebrating the next Carnival season soon followed. Few if any of the debaters were likely to know that the debate itself was almost a Carnival tradition. Part of the 2005 argument was conducted along monetary lines. Would New Orleans attract more money by holding Carnival? Or would Carnival chase national sympathy and thus national money away? Just as the Krewe of Rex had in 1879, supporters of Carnival, including, sporadically, Mayor C. Ray Nagin, claimed that the celebration would bring money into the city, a city that has long relied on tourism as its major industry. City officials claimed that Carnival brings $1 billion worth of business annually. The New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation argued that holding Carnival "was our opportunity to let the rest of the nation know that we are once again ready to host a special event." The city councilwoman Jacqueline Brechtel Clarkson said, "We can't afford to miss a beat."²	2
Others disagreed. Some local opposition stemmed from concern about how the rest of the nation would view New Orleans's swift revival of Carnival. Would Carnival discourage national support of the city's recovery? A sergeant in the 205th Engineers, Louisiana National Guard, complained that the sacrifices made by his unit "while trying to rebuild the New Orleans metro area" had not been made to "show the world that Mardi Gras is back." "What are we trying to prove?" he asked. "That despite any obstacle we can still get drunk and vomit on Bourbon Street?" He added, "Believe me, the money and support from around the country will really pour in."³	3
Others thought Carnival too unseemly for a city that had been struck with disaster. Just before Mardi Gras, the New Orleans rabbi Edward Paul Cohn wrote, "Too little time has passed since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita for us to celebrate Mardi Gras. I believe it ought to have been canceled." Taking note of the problems facing New Orleans, Cohn pointed to the national audience as well. "How pathetic and out of touch we will appear to those who tune in to witness this desperate and exhausting charade," he said. "They will wonder, 'Are these the folks who so tearfully speak of their need for national assistance? I guess they are over it now.'"⁴	4
Many African Americans, including New Orleanians, suspected that the city had been neglected by the administration of President George W. Bush because New Orleans had a black—and Democratic—majority. Carnival might not improve the city's image in the eyes of the government or the American public. The president of Louisiana's branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) said that having Carnival would send the "wrong message." On aol Black Voices, an African American–oriented Web site, jimi izrael raised the question, "Who really benefits from Mardi Gras anyway: the people or the business establishment?" As advocates of holding Carnival emphasized its monetary returns, it was perhaps inevitable that he would frame his argument in terms of cash, not culture. izrael saw little benefit in holding Carnival "on hallowed ground." "After all," he said, "people died in New Orleans."⁵	. . .

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