CLICK HERE to listen to the audio version.

Few are more excited to ride this Mardi Gras season than the krewe of NOMTOC. NOMTOC, stands for “New Orleans’s Most Talked of Club.” But then you say you’ve never heard of ‘em?

“That’s probably a combination of their ambition, and a name. They wanted to be known, they wanted people to recognize who they were.”

That’s James Henderson Jr., NOMTOC’s President since 2012, and a NOMTOC member for roughly 40 years.

NOMTOC formed in 1951 on the West Bank, in Algiers. Racial issues, claims Henderson, kept the krewe from getting a parade permit until 1970.

“It was an outlet for African Americans,” Henderson explains. “They didn’t have an outlet over here. There was the Krewe of Alla, but we didn’t participate, we weren’t welcome to that. There was the Krewe of Chocktaw; we weren’t welcome to that. So yes, they were doing it for themselves.”

Today, NOMTOC remains proudly working class. Participation is open to everyone, with fees under $500 per year. As a result, the parade club boasts over 400 members of all races and genders.

But only the 65 African American male Executive Board members belong to NOMTOC’s Jugs Social Club. President Henderson explains the origins of the Jugs.

“Their first party they had little brown jugs, and the theme is the little brown jug… And that was it.” Henderson laughs. “I think it alludes probably to drinking.” CLICK HERE to read the rest of the piece at WWNO…

Or CLICK HERE to listen to the audio version.

Or watch this footage of Edna Karr’s marching band facing off against the band from Landry-Walker at 2015’s NOMTOC parade: