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Helen Meaher is the fourth of five daughters in the Meaher family. All three of her older sisters were debutantes in the white Mobile Mardi Gras Court, but Helen will be the first Queen of this generation of Meahers. Helen’s grandmother was the 1935 white Mardi Gras Queen. One of Helen’s ancestors smuggled the Clothilde into Mobile. The white Mardi Gras queen in 2007 is a petite, drifty young woman named Helen Meaher, whose ancestors were slave owners and traders and whose family still controls most of the land in an all It so happens that in 2007, the queen selected by MCA is Helen Meaher, whose grandmother was queen in 1935. In fact, the other queen of Mardi Gras, grade school teacher Stefannie Lucas, has The 2007 Mardi Gras shown in "The Order of Myths” carried an unusual historical resonance. The Carnival Association queen, Helen Meaher, is descended from the captain of the last slave ship to arrive in North America, while an ancestor of the Mardi Gras Association queen, Stefannie Lucas, was a slave on that ship. mardi gras queen helen meaher in director margaret brown’s the order of myths. courtesy cinema guild. COURTESY CINEMA GUILD. Though she may appear to casual observers as simply a gifted young chronicler of Southern culture, Margaret Brown’s talents extend beyond that. Most of the white revelers including the queen and king, Helen Meaher and Max Bruckmann all of whom appear significantly wealthier than the black participants, are either vaguely or keenly aware But the narrative takes an unexpected twist when it is revealed that this year’s white Mardi Gras queen, debutante Helen Meaher, is the direct descendent of an outlaw who ran the last slave ship to enter the United States, more than 50 years after a federal ban abolished the slave trade. “I think you’ll learn a lot of history,” says a grim-faced dressmaker (black) to Mardi Gras queen Helen Meaher (white) early in The Order of Myths.Mobile, Alabama, has two separate Mardi Growing up in Mobile, Alabama, Margaret Brown '94 couldn't wait to get out of state. Two years ago, though, the filmmaker returned to tell the story of the city's two annual Mardi Gras celebrations—one white and one black. Brittain Youngblood '07 was among the court of 2007 Mardi Gras Queen Helen Meaher (above). The documentary, The Order of Myths, is out on DVD in January, followed by a PBS Mobile’s 2007 Mardi Gras celebration carried a deeper racial underpinning than most. The Mobile Carnival Association’s 2007 queen, Helen Meaher, is a descendant of Capt. Tim Meaher, who piloted the last slave ship to arrive in North America, and the Mobile Area Mardi Gras Association’s queen, Stefannie Lucas, is descended from a slave on that ship. The white Mardi Gras queen that year was Helen Meaher of the Meaher family in Descendent, which is the family that brought the last slave ship to America on a bet almost 50 years after the slave But then we filmed throughout Mardi Gras and then, after Mardi Gras, we were filming with Stephanie Lucas, the Black Mardi Gras Queen, and her grandparents. And her grandfather, Barry Malone said, “Oh, my people were descended from her people’s ship,” meaning Helen Meaher. Queen Tasha's Ladies Several ladies will be attending Queen Tasha Montae Lang as she reigns over this season's festivities of the Mobile Area Mardi Gras Association. First, Brown’s mother pointed out that the family of the white Mardi Gras queen, debutante Helen Meaher, had built Clotilda, the last known ship to smuggle slaves to the United states in 1860. Then, the filmmaker heard from the Black Mardi Gras Queen’s grandfather that his ancestors were brought on that ship to be sold here. MARDI GRAS QUEEN HELEN MEAHER IN DIRECTOR MARGARET BROWN’S THE ORDER OF MYTHS. COURTESY CINEMA GUILD. Though she may appear to casual observers as simply a gifted young chronicler of Southern culture, Margaret Brown’s talents extend beyond that. The Mardi Gras Queen of the White Mardi Gras the year that I filmed it was Helen Meaher, who is of the Meaher family. After Mardi Gras was over, we found out Stephanie Lucas, who was the Black Mardi Gras Queen, that her grandfather was descended from the Clotilda. The ancestors of Black Mardi Gras queen Stefannie Lucas were brought to Alabama on the Clotilda, the last known ship to land on U.S. shores with enslaved Africans (well after the practice had been outlawed); the white queen, Helen Meaher, was descended from the Alabama family that owned the boat. “At that time, I had heard that Helen Meaher, the white Mardi Gras queen that year, was descended from this family that brought the last enslaved people into the country,” she explained Download this stock image: THE ORDER OF MYTHS, foreground: Mardi Gras Queen Helen Meaher at her coronation, 2008. ©The Cinema Guild/courtesy Everett - HCJB1A from Alamy's library of millions of high resolution stock photos, illustrations and vectors. There’s a scene in which the Black Mardi Gras queen, Brown recalls Helen Meaher’s mother referring to the Meahers as “the family that brought the last slave ship.” “It was a whisper
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