http://www.delcotimes.com/articles/2009/02/23/life/doc49a2842169dc7808611546.txt
Sure, the majority of people marching in Tuesday's parade and riding the 40 floats, will wear, as they always have, blackface, huge afro wigs and grass skirts. But Zulu, the primarily black Mardi Gras organization, once denigrated by the more serious of white Carnival groups, now claims influence extending all the way to the Barack Obama administration, where New Orleans native and former Zulu queen Desiree Glapion Rogers is the White House social secretary.
Do they still throw coconuts at parade goers?
The Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club has been an honored if off beat feature of Mardi Gras in New Orleans for decades. Zulu was originally all black and blue collar, but in recent years has admitted whites, professionals, and affluent businessmen.
Despite Zulu's new cachet, by long tradition, to spoof the elitist features of Mardi Gras, Zulu members on parade wear grass skirts and minstrel style black-face makeup with white highlights. As a concession to tamer times, Zulu members no longer throw their prized painted coconuts to parade crowds but pass them out along the route.
Here is the official history note for Zulu:
http://www.kreweofzulu.com/Krewe-Of-Zulu/History-Of-the-Zulu-Social-Aid-&-Pleasure-Club.html