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.Thehippies brought the drug subculture of the Quarter forward from the shad-ows, and aside from the colleges, the Vieux Carré became even more knownas the place to get dope of various kinds.70Southern authorities, still fighting desegregation, looked defiantly at thetelevised mayhem in Berkeley and Chicago.They believed their culture would 1961 1971: culture and counterculture 89be tough enough to resist any countercultural onslaught.The South s tradi-tions of militarism, patriarchy, and hard-shell religion would surely suffice tokeep hippiedom, and associated kooky ideas, away from young whites.Theywere very, very wrong.A number of festivals and happenings around the country had con-vinced many young people that all such events should not only be admis-sion-free, but also catered with food, wine, and drugs gratis.71 The old slogan Mardi Gras The Greatest Free Show On Earth! was now being taken alltoo literally by young folks who arrived, many penniless, in the Big Easy look-ing for this famed free show.The 1969 film Easy Rider portrayed New Orleansas amenable to drinking and tripping young people.The hippies thought thelaissez les bon temps roulez (let the good times roll) reputation and visiblealternate lifestyles meant tolerance for their kind as well.They were also very,very wrong.It was not simply their garb or hairstyles that gave offense.The Quarterhippies were far more visible than the Beats who clustered in coffeehouses,usually off the tourist track.Large numbers of young people lolled in Jack-son Square,72 parks, and neutral grounds any open green space strummedguitars, drank jug wine, smoked pot, smashed bottles, and annoyed the resi-dents and older, so-called legitimate tourists alike, especially at Carnival.73Carnival 1970 was early, with Fat Tuesday falling on February 10.The usualcrowds were swelled by larger numbers of young people than ever before, andthe city s well-oiled Mardi Gras machine was strained.An encampment ofcars and sleeping bags sprang up on the lakefront.It was raided by police,who arrested 88 as a warning to other loiterers to stay home.74 Anothersweep along the riverfront across from Jackson Square netted 103 arrests.75This Carnival seemed to be not just rowdy but more violent than ever before.The nadir came when trumpeter Al Hirt, riding a float in the Garden District,was hit in the lip by a flying brick.76 Although no one was arrested, the attackwas commonly blamed on hippies and epitomized a Carnival season thatleft tradition keepers and civic leaders aghast.77 That the hooligans might havebeen the respectable rowdy collegiates of yore was suggested by the opinionof observers that the worst part had been over the weekend, with Lundi Grasand Fat Tuesday relatively quiet, since college students were mostly back inschool on those days.78At least the rowdy collegiates of recent memory had arrived withmoney and went back to school when Carnival or spring break was over.Thevisible hippies were not the paying customers whose shenanigans and vices 90 1961 1971: culture and counterculturewere catered to by the tourist milieu and usually indulged by the police.79Unlike the respectable establishments with their usual array of tourist-dependant, corruption-protected vices, no one was paying the police totolerate long-haired kids tripping on LSD or passing joints around GeneralJackson s statue.80 Businesspeople and the authorities fretted that these veryvisible drifters might harm the tourist trade a cardinal sin in the city sslim catechism of condemnations.Their arrival at Carnival provoked extraanger, since no one was allowed to tamper with the linchpin of the city s tour-ist industry and very soul.The normally serene Mayor Schiro was disturbedenough to say, Unless the public takes some responsibility for controllingthis hoodlumism, I am afraid that Mardi Gras will go out of existence. 81After the tumult of Carnival 1970, the city s authorities and pundits feareda second hippie invasion. A group of counterculture leaders and sympa-thetic establishment figures formed the Mardi Gras Coalition, which discour-aged young people from coming to Carnival and attempted to find lodgingand emergency services if they chose to arrive.82As in other places, antiwar demonstrations took place in New Orleans.Many of these centered around college campuses where ROTC was a tradi-tion and the induction centers where draftees entered the maw of the mili-tary.Like cops in other cities, the NOPD used plainclothesmen, photographicsurveillance, and agents provocateurs to harass the demonstrators.83Many of the resident hippies supported themselves by selling NOLAExpress, a so-called underground paper started in 1969.Ironically, the all-sacred paying tourists were eager buyers of the paper.84 NOLA Express featuredantiwar screeds and exposés of local links to the military-industrial complex.85It also had images authorities deemed too shocking for Bourbon Street
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