Carnival Memphis (formerly known as the Memphis Cotton Carnival), is a series of parties and festivals staged annually since 1931 in
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...
by the centralized Carnival Memphis Association and its member krewes (similar to that of
Mardi Gras
Mardi Gras (, ) refers to events of the Carnival celebration, beginning on or after the Christian feasts of the Epiphany (Three Kings Day) and culminating on the day before Ash Wednesday, which is known as Shrove Tuesday. is French for "Fat ...
) during the month of June.
Carnival salutes various aspects of Memphis and its industries, and is reigned over by current year's secretly selected King, Queen, and Royal Court of Carnival.
Royalty
The Royal Court is made up of young women from Memphis (princesses), mostly around the age of nineteen, typically having completed their first-year of study in college, and their escorts. Members of the Court not from the city of Memphis are known as "Ladies of the Realm." Members of the Court sometimes carry special titles such as the "King's Princess," in which she is selected by the King himself to bear this title, as is a "Queen's Princess," a "President's Princess", and princesses representing various social clubs in Memphis, such as the "Princess of the Memphis Country Club" or the various krewes within Carnival. The male escort of the princess representing the various social clubs normally bears the masculine form of the title as well, making one in this instance be the "Prince of the University Club." The Queen is a young woman who is at least a few years older than the court, typically being the age one would be having finished two to three years in college. The King is traditionally much older than the court, and is a prominent leader from the current year's saluted industry. "Carnival" is usually held during the first week of June, commencing the Friday after
Memorial Day
Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) is a federal holiday in the United States for mourning the U.S. military personnel who have fought and died while serving in the United States armed forces. It is observed on the last Monda ...
, beginning with the
Crown
A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, partic ...
&
Sceptre
A sceptre is a staff or wand held in the hand by a ruling monarch as an item of royal or imperial insignia. Figuratively, it means royal or imperial authority or sovereignty.
Antiquity
Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia
The ''Was'' and other ...
Ball and ending with the Grand Carnival Ball. During this time the Grand Krewes of Carnival also hold their own events and parties celebrating their King, Queen and Court, along with the entire revelers of Carnival Memphis.
Governance and Krewe system
Carnival Memphis is put on by the Carnival Memphis Association, which is governed by a
Board of Directors
A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...
, (vacancies are filled by the other members of the Board), a President (elected annually by the Board members), and an Executive Director, who manages the daily aspects of the association.
The Carnival Memphis Association organizes, plans, budgets, and promotes the King, Queen, and Royal Court, as well as many of the events staged during Carnival week. However, the Grand Krewes (once known as secret societies) also stage their own festivities throughout the year, elect their own royalty, manage their own
budget
A budget is a calculation play, usually but not always financial, for a defined period, often one year or a month. A budget may include anticipated sales volumes and revenues, resource quantities including time, costs and expenses, environmenta ...
, and have their own membership requirements. Most of these organizations bear
Egyptian
Egyptian describes something of, from, or related to Egypt.
Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to:
Nations and ethnic groups
* Egyptians, a national group in North Africa
** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of years of ...
names in accordance to tradition originally set out by the Mystic Memphi, and in conjunction with Memphis being the sister city of ancient
Memphis, Egypt
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, caption = Ruins of the pillared hall of Ramesses IIat Mit Rahina
, map_type = Egypt#Africa
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. The twelve Grand Krewes that Carnival Memphis recognizes are the Mystic Society of the Memphi, Osiris, Sphinx, RaMet, Ennead, Phoenix, Aani, Ptolemy, Kemet Jubilee, Ptah, Luxor, Queen Bees. The Secret Order of the Boll Weevils is a support group of Carnival that is not a Grand Krewe. The Grand Krewes of Memphi, Osiris, RaMet and Sphinx are "old-line" Grand Krewes and were all started in the 1930s as the original secret societies of the Memphis
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus ''Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor perce ...
Carnival. However, Memphi considers its history traceable to the 1870s as the original promoters of the Memphis Mardi Gras, although it became defunct during the time that span between the last Mardi Gras and its restoration as a Cotton Carnival secret society. Membership requirements and financial commitments are normally more complex when one wishes to join one of the older krewes, as compared to the newer krewes, that may have little or no membership process. Memphi and Osiris are all-male organizations, with some exceptions. Memphi allows their past queens to become members after their reign, following their belief that "once a Queen, always a Queen!."
Each Grand Krewe is independently governed by a Board of Directors, and elects its own executive from within its membership. The title of the executives differ from krewe to krewe, mostly known as "General Chairman," or "Chairman". The King and Queen of Carnival Memphis are kept secret until an announcement usually in early February. A few of the old-line Grand Krewes keep their royalty a secret throughout most, if not all of Carnival. The Sublime Ouro (the King) of Memphi is not announced until the Wednesday night of Carnival Week to his own krewe members. The King of Osiris is announced on the last day of Carnival Week.
History
Mardi Gras era
In the 1870s, Memphis was looking to regain its economic vitality and prosperity. Along with much of the South and the nation as a whole, Memphis was suffering from the devastation of the
Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
and
Reconstruction
Reconstruction may refer to:
Politics, history, and sociology
*Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company
*'' Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Unio ...
. In 1872, the city of Memphis celebrated Mardi Gras, keeping with the traditional
Christian
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
liturgical calendar
The liturgical year, also called the church year, Christian year or kalendar, consists of the cycle of liturgical seasons in Christian churches that determines when feast days, including celebrations of saints, are to be observed, and which ...
just before the season of
Lent
Lent ( la, Quadragesima, 'Fortieth') is a solemn religious observance in the liturgical calendar commemorating the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring temptation by Satan, according to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke ...
, similar to what was practiced in
, and other cities. The celebration was the brainchild of local businessmen such as David P. Hadden and former Confederate soldier
Colton Greene
Colton Greene (July 7, 1833 – September 23, 1900) was an American businessman and soldier. He served as a Confederate general during the American Civil War, mostly leading cavalry units. After the war he pursued several successful civic proj ...
, who in 1871 proposed the idea in response to the
''Memphis Daily Appeal'''s call for ideas and plans to boost the city's economy and business community.
The celebration rivaled those of New Orleans. Greene—best remembered as the founder of the Memphis Mardi Gras—also founded the Mystic Society of Memphi that funded and organized the social events of the carnival. With the help of Hadden and others, “Greene persuaded railroad companies to lower fares during the celebrations, hired fashionable artists and costumers and succeeded in attracting huge crowds for the grand parades.” Over the course of the years, more secret societies, or “
krewe
A krewe (pronounced "crew") is a social organization that puts on a parade or ball for the Carnival season. The term is best known for its association with Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans, but is also used in other Carnival celebrations ar ...
” systems formed and were instrumental in planning and staging the big parade and elaborate balls and parties to celebrate and serve as the face of the festive season.
The carnival featured colorful costumes, inspired by the cultures of classical antiquity: Greece, Rome, and Egypt. Playing on the Egyptian roots of its name, Memphis artists and designers used imagery in floats, invitations, and flyers to give the party a mystical feeling. The festival had its own inventive origin story, created by artists such as Memphis artist
Carl Gutherz
Carl Gutherz (January 28, 1844 in Switzerland – February 7, 1907 in Washington, D.C.) was a painter, part of the Symbolist movement in the United States during the 19th century.
Biography
He came to the United States with his parents in 185 ...
. Gutherz was commissioned to create elaborate invitations to society parties and balls, which created interest and envy. Sketches of floats and events by Gutherz appeared in national magazines and publications and were essential the success of Memphis Mardi Gras. A ''Memphis Daily Appeal'' account of the first Memphis Mardi Gras estimated 20,000 people attended in a city of slightly more than 40,000.
The 1872 Memphis Mardi Gras featured a Ku Klux Klan float. This float, as reported in the ''Memphis Daily Appeal'' and the pro-Klan ''Memphis Avalanche'', was the Klans response liberal sensitive of Northern Whites who thought of the Klan as a violently racist organization.
The ''Memphis Avalanche''s description of the float:
Those mythical terrors to negroes, the Ku-Klux were well represented. . . In every instance they were in black, with high hats of a conical shape. Each hat bore the skull and cross bones and the terrible letters K. K. K. in white. As they marched along, the Negroes ovedback. Many of the K. K.s had rope lassos, and it was a favorite bit of pleasantry to lasso a Negro. No violence was offered, but the contortions and grimaces of the captives were highly amusing.
The float was an attempt by the Klansmen to poke fun at the medias depiction of the Klan. Historian Elaine Parsons says the float depicted outrages by the Klan to ridicule the newspapers that reported outrages by the Klan.
An article excerpt from the ''Memphis Daily Appeal'' notes a white man on the float impersonating a “spade,” a derogatory term for African Americans. The float, occurring a mere six years after the
1866 Memphis Massacre, re-emphasized that the celebrations were for White citizens only.
![1878 Memphis Mardi Gras poster](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/1878_Memphis_Mardi_Gras_poster.webp)
Though the celebration of Memphis Mardi Gras saw great success, the massive
Yellow Fever
Yellow fever is a viral disease of typically short duration. In most cases, symptoms include fever, chills, loss of appetite, nausea, muscle pains – particularly in the back – and headaches. Symptoms typically improve within five days. In ...
outbreak and the decline of the city in the 1880s cause the gradual decline of Mardi Gras. By roughly the turn of the century, the party was over. The legacy lived on in other Memphis events with a revival during the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
. Mardi Gras was reincarnated in 1931 as the Cotton Carnival, and the new celebration became one of the biggest parties of the South, remaining a culturally significant event that Memphis celebrates to this day.
[The remains of Memphis Mardi Gras can be found on the Memphis Public Librarie]
DIG Memphis page
Memphis Cotton Carnival
During the early twentieth century, great interest developed in creating a citywide event like Carnival, and re-establishing the Mystic Memphi. As more and more influential Memphians became actively interested, Memphi and the Memphis Cotton Carnival Association were established in the early 1930s. The efforts were conducted to bring a sense of excitement and life back to the city of Memphis and its people. However, rather than following the Lenten calendar and being held strictly to celebrate Mardi Gras, designers decided that this festival would promote something else, Memphis' primary asset at the time-cotton. During this time, Memphis and the Mid-South region, like the rest of the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, were in the throes of the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
. Many were out of work and the region's cotton was selling for pennies a pound. The prosperity of the Mid-South was dependent on cotton and measures had to be taken to increase the use of this precious commodity. At the same time, the Memphis Chamber of Commerce was having trouble raising money to compete with other cities in the South, such as
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
and New Orleans. A. Arthur Halle and a group of businessmen called on Herbert Jennings, a downtown theatre manager for a donation. Jennings agreed to contribute and shared an idea that he believed would help promote business and draw attention to cotton. To help publicize an upcoming movie, Jennings offered local retailers the opportunity to display cotton goods in his theatre and planned to encourage them to use their own store windows to promote cotton clothing. Halle was intrigued by the idea and envisioned a larger citywide promotion and called upon Everett R. Cook, who was President of the
Memphis Cotton Exchange
The Memphis Cotton Exchange is located in Downtown Memphis, Tennessee, downtown Memphis, Tennessee, Memphis, Tennessee, United States, on the corner of Front Street and Union Avenue. It was founded in 1874 as a result of the growing cotton market ...
at this time. Cook was invited to come to the theatre to hear the ideas. Those ideas quickly grew into a plan for a grand celebration with a King, Queen and Royal Court that would involve people from all over the Mid-South. The idea was to promote the use and wearing of cotton products which would lead to increased demand and stimulate sales. It worked, as people began to demand more cotton products from socks to ball gowns.
Cook expressed his vision this way: "Carnival is to promote business for everybody and should not be used by any one group. It is for all of the stores and all of the people, for all kinds of professions and businesses, for the city as a whole regardless of the size of the business, the social standing, wealth, prestige, family background or anything else that would tend to make anyone feel that he or she would not be invited to participate in Carnival."
The fanfare and excitement that centered around the Cotton Carnival climaxed throughout the mid-to-late twentieth century. During this time, the event stretched several weeks during the months of May and June, and had incorporated much more than it had originally set out to do. The Memphis Cotton Carnival Association had become a very centralized governing body, which along with the participating krewes, was becoming a festival that could not be rivaled anywhere in the South except New Orleans' Mardi Gras (in which it brought in as many numbers). While the series of street parades in downtown Memphis continued to be held, in addition to the numerous parties at many of the city's most elite social clubs continued, the event started to form a new face of entertainment that dubbed it the "South's Greatest Party" for all to enjoy. The Carnival and its krewes held on to the traditional aspects of Carnival, but entertained onlookers with such musicians as
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...
,
Waylon Jennings
Waylon Jennings (June 15, 1937 – February 13, 2002) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. He pioneered the Outlaw Movement in country music.
Jennings started playing guitar at the age of eight and performed at age f ...
, and
Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis (September 29, 1935October 28, 2022) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Nicknamed "The Killer", he was described as "rock & roll's first great wild man". A pioneer of rock and roll and rockabilly music, Lewis made ...
, welcoming guests from all over the United States, and from all over the world. By this time it had truly become the city's most important and celebrated event, participated by Memphians and Mid-Southerners from all
socioeconomic
Socioeconomics (also known as social economics) is the social science that studies how economic activity affects and is shaped by social processes. In general it analyzes how modern societies progress, stagnate, or regress because of their local ...
backgrounds. In addition to the Music Festival, its most intriguing and popular event was the ''Arrival of the Royal Barge''. This event was very much a "sight to see" in which the King, Queen, and Royal Court, along with the royal pages, guards, and other participants would all ride in on a beautifully decorated
barge
Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels ...
on the Mississippi River, docking in downtown Memphis for all onlookers to revel and awe over. With elaborately designed and well-lit backdrops, along with the night sky being lit up with an array of fireworks, this was truly a wonder for everyone present. The entire city, it seemed, gathered along the
Mississippi
Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...
riverbanks on a spring evening to attend the Royal Barge Landing, walk along the Carnival midway, and watch the Carnival parade. Many national publications and media covered the fanfare, and the Association even crowned a Maid of Cotton to tour the globe and promote cotton fashions.
Decline
The
assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. left Memphis devastated in many different ways, one aspect being the state of its downtown. As urban sprawl began to be more and more common, with businesses and residents moving away from the city's inner core, the public events that were once staged by the Cotton Carnival became few and far between. Parades slowly became a thing of the past, as did the arrival of the Royal Barge. The city of Memphis municipal government acquired the "float factory" once used to manufacture the elaborately decorated floats, and mainstream Memphians and Mid-Southerners grew less and less interested in staging this event. Also, other festivals began to form that took the place of Carnival, such as the
Memphis in May
Memphis in May International Festival is a month-long festival held in Memphis, Tennessee. The festival, which is saluting Ghana in 2022, honors a specific foreign country every year and features many events. The ''Beale Street Music Festival'' ...
International Festival, and its highly anticipated
Beale Street Music Festival
Memphis in May International Festival is a month-long festival held in Memphis, Tennessee. The festival, which is saluting Ghana in 2022, honors a specific foreign country every year and features many events. The ''Beale Street Music Festival'' ...
.
Over the years, however, Carnival's luster began to fade along with the declining role of cotton in the area. The national press gradually lost interest, and the Maid of Cotton Pageant was moved to
Dallas, Texas
Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County w ...
, where it exists today. For various reasons, the 1980s saw the name of the Cotton Carnival be changed to the Great River Carnival, and because of even less approval changed again to Carnival Memphis. The organization sited this was done because the community had grown in such tremendous ways, and that the Memphis economy had become more diversified and no longer centered exclusively around cotton. The king was beginning to be chosen from leaders in other aspects of commerce other than the cotton industry, and was no longer referred to as "King Cotton," but as simply King, or Rex Carnivali.
For years, the Cotton Carnival was, though not officially, for all intents and purposes for whites only. When a Beale Street dentist named Dr. R.Q. Venson took his nephew downtown to see a Carnival parade in 1934, complete with the marching bands and floats (which were for a few years in its existence pulled by black men), and asked him how he liked it. He didn't, his nephew replied, because "all the negroes were horses." Venson enjoined other black Memphians to hold their own separate event. As a result, the Cotton Makers' Fiesta was organized in 1934. The name changed to Cotton Makers' Jubilee and, as a protest to establish dignity and respect for Negro men and women, the first celebration was held the third week of May 1936. The Jubilee enjoyed its most successful years from 1948 to 1958. There were only two occasions in the celebrations past when no activities took place. The first such time was during World War II and the second occasion in 1968 due to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The organization briefly merged with Carnival Memphis in 1982 when it became known as the krewe Kemet Jubilee.
The King was, and still is, an older man who had ties with the industry being saluted that year, while the Queen was, and still is, a young, unmarried woman from one of Memphis' "better" families. That's one tradition, at least, that hasn't changed over the years.
The elitist charge came about from all the supposedly secret activities of the Carnival royalty and especially the various Grand Krewes, whose membership — and parties, especially — were by invitation only. Year after year, many outsiders would read
The Commercial Appeal
''The Commercial Appeal'' (also known as the ''Memphis Commercial Appeal'') is a daily newspaper of Memphis, Tennessee, and its surrounding metropolitan area. It is owned by the Gannett Company; its former owner, the E. W. Scripps Company, also ...
(Memphis newspaper) stories of fancy-dress balls and dinners and dances held by mysterious-sounding, Egyptian-themed Krewes, and wonder, why they could not attend those parties or have their daughters debut in these certain circles; this sense of separation within the Memphis community led to charges of elitism.
Carnival Memphis today
By the later twentieth century Carnival Memphis had the general reputation of having dwindled down to nothing but a series of formal debutante parties at the various private social and country clubs, consisting largely of the city's elite gathering together to promote an event that "was once, but no longer", and it was truly living out its twilight years. Gone were the parades, the grand parties, the fireworks, the midway, and the hustle and bustle of an entire metropolitan area to promote itself and to gather together to take part in such a great event.
However, as Carnival officials grew more and more aware about certain negative issues surrounding the event and its severely declining reputation, they began actually implementing steps over the years to bring outsiders into their realm. More and more Carnival events are now open to the public. African-American Memphians are beginning to take part, and Carnival had one black Krewe, Cotton Makers' (currently Kemet) Jubilee, from 1982-2007. Also, Carnival has begun selecting local charities and organizing special events just for Carnival krewes, with each charity receiving a monetary donation.
Seventy-four years later, the mission of Carnival remains much the same as it was in 1931-to recognize and promote an industry that has a major economic impact on the Mid-South community, and to promote the City of Memphis as a great place to live and work, and to cause an annual celebration in honor of that industry and the people of the Mid-South. The general motto of Carnival Memphis is "Convivium Cum Propositione," Latin for "The Party with a Purpose!". According to Jim Cole, who lived in Memphis from the mid-1950s to the early 1960s and attended numerous Cotton Carnivals, "Elvis Presley was a major headline entertainer during the mid 1950s".
Despite the efforts of many prominent Memphians, many Carnival Krewes have ceased operations in recent years.
References
External links
*
Grand Krewe of Ptolemy website
{{coord, 35.11144, -89.90409, type:landmark_globe:earth_region:US-TN, display=title
Culture of Memphis, Tennessee
Tourist attractions in Memphis, Tennessee
Carnival in the United States
Latin American festivals
Recurring events established in 1931
1931 establishments in Tennessee