When I saw this program come up for sale on eBay on Shrove Monday, my eyes popped out of my head! It even had a “buy it now” price, which surprised me. I thought surely, something like this would be up for bid. You’d better believe I bought it as soon as my fingers could hit the keyboard! It came in last Friday.
What this is, is a paper program from the 1942 Monroe Mardi Gras celebration held in the African-American community. It is mainly a booklet full of ads. There are about three photos (one of Frank Perkins himself!), a couple of poems and a thank you from the club. I was hopeful there would be photos of the royalty or of some of the past years celebrations, but no luck. Not even names for the royalty! What it gives us though, is a firm year when it all started and information on the local businesses in the community that were flourishing during the WWII era. This is a priceless piece of our history.
I gave the booklet to the library Monday morning and my boss had it digitized and uploaded on the Louisiana Digital Library website when I got back from lunch! Enjoy!
https://www.louisianadigitallibrary.org/islandora/object/oplib-orv%3A120
Ouachita Parish History Tidbits 