History of the Second Line

from Where Y'at Spring Restaurant Guide - March 2020

Artists of Jackson Square

SECOND LINE PARADES: The History of the Tradition that Transfixes Tourists and Denizens Alike

By Donald Rickert

We’ve all seen them—second line parades. A grand marshal with an uplifted umbrella dancing during the undertaking, while celebrators or mourners follow, dancing as well, whirling and twirling handkerchiefs while they do so. It’s a familiar image ingrained into the imagination of nearly everyone in New Orleans.

FISH... so FRESH they swim to my door daily!

This Lenten Season, come to Andrea’s for the freshest seafood. Red Snapper, Speckled Trout, Dover Sole Tuna, Cioppino “Bouillabaisse”, Salmon, Pompano and much more.

Come celebrate a Sicilian menu the whole month

Northern Italian Seafood Restaurant & Catering Quality & Tradition

3100 19TH ST. AT RIDGELAKE & CAUSEWAY • 834-8583 Open 7 Days • Lunch, Dinner & Sunday Champagne Brunch Banquet Facilities Available • www.andreasrestaurant.com

52 Spring Restaurant Guide | Where Y'at Magazine They occur often enough that it’s not unusual here. Sometimes, when there’s a local celebrity death, people show up en masse. For example, there were epic second line parades for Dr. John, Fats Domino, and Leah Chase, to name a few. Aside from Bourbon Street, jazz, and liberal liquor laws, one of the things most identified with New Orleans is second line parades.

These spectacles are seen quite often for weddings and funerals. The brass band, or second line, often led by a grand marshal, follows the “first line,” either mourners—specifically, the family members of the deceased—in a jazz funeral, or the newlywed couple after a wedding.

But where did this tradition come from? Like most things shrouded in mystery, it depends on who you ask.

Some, such as Richard Brent Turner in his book Jazz Religion, the Second Line, and Black New Orleans, argue that the tradition is an evolution from traditional West African circle dances, and that it was brought to New Orleans by the slaves. Here in New Orleans, it morphed from a circle dance into a procession—becoming a forward-moving line, as we see today.

Other narratives point to the era immediately following the Civil War. While New Orleans itself was virtually uninvolved in the Civil War for the Confederacy, since it was occupied by the Union Army in April of 1862 until the end of the war, there were ramifications nevertheless.

One unforeseen circumstance that arose was that insurance companies refused to cover the formerly enslaved, and there was virtually no place where these former slaves could secure a loan. To combat this issue, African Americans formed benevolent societies and social aid and pleasure clubs within their own neighborhoods. These neighborhood organizations offered the aforementioned “social aid” to the freed slaves, including loans and insurance. These groups would perform charitable works, host social events, and help members pay health-care costs and funeral expenses when needed. Sometimes, these clubs and groups would use the second lines as a sort of advertising. Also, these groups often included a brass band for funeral services as a celebration and veneration of the members who had died. Plus, there was often one parade with music per year for each group.

Some of these clubs still exist today, including the Money Wasters Social Aid and Pleasure Club, Golden Trumpets Social Aid and Pleasure Club, Jolly Bunch Social Aid and Pleasure Club, the Original New Orleans Lady & Men Buckjumpers, and, of course, Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club, but they don’t typically function the same way that the original benevolent societies and social aid and pleasure clubs did in the 19th century.

Nowadays, second line parades are most associated with funerals and weddings. Since New Orleans is a popular wedding destination, this is one tradition that tourists getting hitched can easily participate in—not so much with the funerals. The celebration of the recently departed is solely for New Orlenians. That is, unless it’s for a celebrity. Second lines are now a celebration, either for the affirmation of life or the passing of one, but that was not the only reason originally. No longer used as advertisements, these parades are now solely for the souls of New Orleans and are a part of the culture and tradition that make this city what it is— magnificent.