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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dannyalcatraz" data-source="post: 9855132" data-attributes="member: 19675">There’s also an element of demonstrating the importance of taking the high road.  Leading by example, as it were.Some History:Many of the oldest Mardi Gras Krewes (social clubs) of New Orleans were segregated.  Someone sued to desegregate them on the grounds that- although they were nominally private- their connections to NOLA’s power networks and their sweetheart deals with the city (regarding the parades, etc.) rendered their privacy a mere artifice of exclusion.  The courts agreed, and gave them a choice: desegregate or remain private while ceasing operations as parade krewes (among other things).Most of the sued krewes opted for privacy and continued segregation, so many it threatened Mardi Gras, and thus, NOLA’s tourism industry.  In response, native son Harry Connick, Jr. called a BUNCH of his celebrity friends and created the Krew of Orpheus, a fully integrated Krewe.However, there was a reciprocal countersuit targeting the Krewe of Zulu, which had been formed as an all-black club in response to being denied membership in the older, whites-only krewes.  They opted to desegregate.  When my family was most involved in Zulu, there was one white member- a known Klansman.  No Krewe doors, meetings or gatherings were barred to him…though he rarely showed his face.Other examples: while focused on UT Law’s minority students, neither La Raza nor The Thurgood Marshal Legal Society barred membership to anyone based on race.</blockquote>

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