WeevilWorld.com
Title
The Secret Order Of Boll Weevils
Description
The Secret Order of Boll Weevils was chartered as a Non-Profit organization in 1966 by Dr. Charles R. Riggs. He and three other veteran Carnival participants, Percy Roberts, Albert Mallory, and Robert Mangum, were the original four Weevils that made quite a splash during the 1965 Cotton Carnival parade. Dressed in army fatigues, with paper sacks over their heads, our heroes drove up and down the parade route in an old Jeep with wanton disregard for the Parade Marshall’s directions. They would stop, jump out and assault the Carnival Royalty with brooms in an attempt to sweep them off of their floats. Naturally this caused much anger and consternation amongst the Royalty who pleaded for help from the police, who fortunately were unable to catch our daring founders to administer justice. Thus began a long and illustrious history of ridiculing the "High Society" of Memphis and their cohorts.
So in 1966 it was made official, we became the Secret Order of Boll Weevils, a permanent thorn in Cotton Carnival’s side. We were not initially welcomed by Carnival because we were, and still are, a separate and secret organization who will not disclose its members to their association. Everyone always suspects who might be members, but they never know for sure until a Weevil is "unmasked".
The Hierarchy of Weevils: his "Evil Eminence" is our Commander. The most recent "Unmasked" Weevil is the Field General for Carnival Week and is responsible for directing the rest of the Weevils around town. Then there are unmasked Weevils who have already served in this capacity, who are still active in our organization, and are allowed to show their faces while in costume or on the vehicles. Finally there are the workhorses of the Weevils, the current "Masked Weevils", they are the ones who are not to be known to anyone outside the membership. They must be ever vigilant to keep their identities a secret, otherwise they must face "The Punishment".
