Historical scenes from Washington D.C. Mardi Gras Dance.
 

Recently Smithsonian.com featured pictures from the Omega Psi Phi Mardi Gras Dance in Washington D.C., photographed by the late Addison Scurlock, who chronicled social happenings in the African American community. 80+ years later, Alpha Omega Chapter's Mardi Gras Dance is still a major "happening" in D.C. (On 8 Feb 2013, it was held at the Washington D.C. Hilton.)

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/arou...#ixzz2LdAN0Iuj

These pics are significant in that is shows a very rare slice of African American life. Pause and consider: the Mardi Gras Formal of 1930 here took place after the stock market crash of October 1929, which plunged the nation into the Great Depression. During this time many people lost most of their wealth, and a vast majority of Black Americans lived in abject poverty even in the economic boon era of the "Roaring Twenties".