Cotton Carnival Memphis History

Carnival salutes various aspects of memphis and its industries and is reigned over by the current year s secretly selected king queen and royal court of carnival.

Cotton carnival memphis history. The annual pageant was sponsored by the national cotton council ncc memphis cotton carnival and the cotton exchanges of memphis new york and new orleans. By the 20th century memphis was the largest inland cotton market in the world. History of carnival memphis in 1931 memphis and the mid south like the rest of our country were in the throes of the great depression. The secret order of boll weevils was founded in 1966 as a secret society.

The maid of cotton pageant began in 1939. The cotton market had actually begun as early as 1826 when 300 bales made their way to town and by the start of the civil war nearly 400 000 bales a year were sold in memphis. The memphis cotton carnival is born during the early twentieth century great interest developed in creating a city wide event like carnival and re establishing the mystic memphi. In early 1931 arthur halle and a group of businessmen founded a festival to promote cotton and memphis.

All that was left was to see to it that the skyway patrons found their way somewhat rockily to their guest rooms or out to their cars for the tipsy drive home through the quiet streets of early morning memphis. It worked as people began to demand more cotton products from socks to ball gowns and the rest as they say is history. The pageant was held in memphis tennessee in conjunction with the carnival until the 1980s. Carnival memphis formerly known as the memphis cotton carnival is a series of parties and festivities staged annually since 1931 in memphis tennessee by the centralized carnival memphis association and its member krewes similar to that of mardi gras during the month of june.

The peabody had lived through cotton carnival friday 1939 and survived. Today s carnival is usually held the first week of june. Afterwards the king and queen made their way from the barge to the horse drawn royal carriage and led the great parade down main street. During the depression a group of memphis businessmen formed the first cotton carnival to promote the use and wearing of cotton products which would in turn lead to increased demand and stimulate sales.

As more and more influential memphians became actively interested memphi and the memphis cotton carnival association were established in the early 1930 s. Because of segregation blacks could not participate. In 1880 3 4 of the nation s cotton found its way to the memphis bluffs. The first cotton carnival was held in march but soon moved to may a warmer month.

Boll weevils carnival memphis. Over the years this special group of men has evolved into a support group for what is known today as carnival memphis.