More Than Just A Dress
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The Mobile Azalea Trail Maids participating in the Magic Kingdom's annual Easter Parade at Walt Disney World.
Easter Sunday 2019 |
As some of you know the Azalea Trail Maids came under scrutiny early Friday morning when blogger 'Growing Mobile' shared his thoughts on how the dress worn by the official ambassadors for our city are viewed as racially insensitive through his eyes; and it is well within his rights to view them in any way he chooses. According to the June 12th article posted on Bama News Now, the author described the dress as something straight out of "Gone with the Wind, "a sign of the past when slavery flourished throughout the South, and that Mobile should distance itself from the program. Needless to say, it ruffled a few layers of fabric.
When the program was created in 1934, the Trail Maids, as they are more commonly known, served as the hostess for the annual Azalea Festival (est. 1929) promoting the newly established Azalea Trail. Originally the time one would spend as a Trail Maid would only be for a few days, but since the program was rebranded in the late 40's, the reign of a Trail Maid has gone on to last from early May until the following April and serve as the official ambassadors for the City of Mobile. The Trail Maids spend their year at community events and even participate in parades and events all over the country. Such events in the past have included the Tournament of Roses Parade, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Chicago's Thanksgiving Parade, the Marietta (Ga.) Freedom Parade, both of Obama’s Inaugural Parades, and for the past 43 years have been the feature attraction for Walt Disney World's Easter Parade throughout the Magic Kingdom.
Currently the court consist of 50 high school seniors chosen from the many schools and communities throughout all of Mobile County with each high school receiving a set amount of nominations for the court based on their enrollment numbers. There are only 100 nominations for the court, so the higher the enrollment, the more nominations your school receives and the lower the enrollment, the fewer nominations your school receives. Each nomination consist of an evaluation of the candidate's grades, school and community involvement, and how well they can handle a 3-4 minute interview with out-of-town judges. With that being said, the young ladies that receive an interview are typically the cream of the crop of their respected communities.
To provide you an idea of what I mean, the 2018/2019 Court of Azalea Trail Maids consisted of six valedictorians, two salutatorians, an additional fifteen finished in their school's top 10, eight were selected as All-County athletes, an All-State volleyball player, five signed athletic scholarships, one received a fellowship to study the Arabic language in Morocco, and the court as a whole received more in scholarship offers than the majority of Mobile's 24 public and private high schools.
The same can almost be said about the 2019/2020 court which had six valedictorians, three salutatorians, an additional 10 finished inside their school's top 10, a few All-County athletes, including one who helped lead her team to the state finals in soccer, a couple drum majors, multiple young ladies scored above a 28 on the ACT, and once again they combined to received more in scholarship offers than the majority of Mobile's public and private high schools.
Now, let's move on to the current 2020/2021 court. One knows how to play six instruments, another one scored a 30 on the ACT when she was a freshmen, one of them is a drum major, many of them are dual-enrolled or have been accepted into early college enrollment programs, one has been a three sport varsity athlete since her freshmen year, a few others were selected All-County, are members of their school's HI-Q teams, and are on track to receive more in scholarship offers than the previous two courts.
So, now that you've gotten the gist of who the Trail Maids are, let's discuss their attire.
Each of the 50 young ladies are assigned one of six colors: blue, green, yellow, peach, and lavender, with one of the girls trading in her original assigned color for pink. Why pink? Well, this young lady wears pink for two reasons. Reason number one is that pink is the predominate color of the azaleas throughout Mobile. Reason number 2 is that she was chosen by the out-of-town judges to serve as the queen of the court based on their opinion of her being that she best represent everything Mobile. Each Trail Maid is given an abundance of fabric in their assigned dress color, along with a parasol and hat, and a 15 page packet of paper that has all the rules and regulations for their dresses, which are all custom tailored to fit them and are designed by the individual Trail Maids themselves. The process from a roll of fabric to completed dress takes around four to five months.
While the dresses each of these young ladies wear often receive criticism from outsiders, I have never experienced a time when people, regardless of their race or ethnicity, weren't in awe whenever the Trail Maids were out and about. Didn't matter if they were a two year old little girl or a grown adult, there was always someone asking to take pictures with the Trail Maids, wanting to hold their parasols, wear their hats, learn the curtsey, or just interact with them and for out-of-town visitors it was always asking what and who they were. I remember during the one year I was able to chaperone the Trail Maids during their trip to Orlando and the people inside the Magic Kingdom just flocking to them as if they themselves were Disney princesses.
During my time volunteering with the program I can't recall a single incident when I meet someone who viewed the attire the Trail Maids wore as racially insensitive; or at least not to my face. While some have criticized the program with claims that the Trail Maids are Mobile's way of holding on to the mentality of the Old South, those who do so typically do it online or in print. They claim the dresses remind them of the antebellum period when slaves drove the southern economy. While I understand where they may get the idea that the style of the dresses could be tied to one of the worst periods of American history, I can tell you that they're not. I'm not saying this in denial or to cover up the idea that the antebellum south was the motivation behind it, I'm saying this because the style of a Trail Maid's dress is historically inaccurate for that period of time. The current style of dresses could be more associated with Elizabethan or Victorian period style of dresses than anything resembling the Old South. Whether it's known or not, the Jaycees overseeing the program are consistently turning down appearance request and donation from organizations that do promote the Old South ideology. It's not what the program is or ever will be about. In addition to that, the hoop dress has been around since Elizabeth I was reigning as the Queen of England... IN THE 16TH CENTURY!
Let's talk about why hoop dresses are used, shall we? Originally the Trail Maids wore tea dresses. While I don't know exactly when they Jaycees decided to change to hoop dresses, I do know that the dresses themselves have become more "hoop-ie" with more ruffles in the designs since sometime in the mid-1990's and are constantly evolving as the years go on. The dresses while designed to look flattering, are also designed in a way that makes the young ladies wearing them feel empowered, and in a way to keep them safe. Safe? Yes, safe.
When hoop style dresses were created, they allowed women a sense of control when it came to their social interactions. Believe it or not, the hoop design doesn't allow for many unwanted close interactions with people, especially men, as it's a little difficult to get close to someone without reconfiguring the dress or pushing parts of the dress in one direction so that you can go another. Don't believe me, just look at a picture of two Trail Maids standing next to one another and you'll notice they're both leaning into one another or standing three feet apart. In addition to close interactions, the dress doesn't allow for easy loading and unloading on most forms of transportation without taking the entire dress off and folding it up into a giant garment bag, which is an inconvenience to do. Let's not forget that each dress weighs anywhere between 30-50 pounds by itself.
In addition to hoop dresses being around for centuries, the style of dress during the antebellum period, as well as many other periods throughout history, were known to have been worn by members of all social classes and races. The same can be said for the Trail Maids as the young ladies who participate in this program come from different schools, communities, social classes, and ethnic backgrounds. Don't believe me? Well, the previous four queens of the Azalea Trail have been an African-American from a predominantly white high school, a Native-American from the local Choctaw tribe in the northern portion of the county, a Caucasian from an independent city school system, and a African-American from a school that has been labeled as "failing" by the state on multiple occasions and serves one of the more impoverished areas in southwestern Alabama. However, what do these four young ladies have in common? They're all genuine, caring, intelligent individuals who use their platform as a way to unite their community with the other communities throughout Mobile.
During my time with the Trail Maids I have witnessed some of the quietest girls thrive and in a year develop a level of self-confidence that they may have not thought was possible. For some of them, the first out-of-town appearance in July is the first time they've been away from their family or even outside of Mobile County. Not to mention the fact that they're doing it with a group of girls they hardly know. I've witnessed some of these girls from different ends of the social spectrum develop friendships that honestly probably never would have been possible if it had not been for them being a part of the Azalea Trail. I remember during our trip to Disney in 2019, a group of four Trail Maids from four different schools, from four different Trail groups spend every day together throughout the entire five day span. Do you think these girls would have been friends had they not met through the program? I doubt it.
In my opinion, the best part of the Azalea Trail is the amount of diversity within the court. The girls are exposed to those who think differently than them, with different aspirations, different upbringing, and different experiences throughout their lives that they share with one another, thus allowing them to develop a better understanding of how the world works and that while they may all come from different backgrounds, it doesn't take them long to realize that they really are more alike than they originally thought.
While we are at a time in our lives where we should be learning not to judge people for what they are but rather getting to know them for who they are, I ask that those of you who view the Trail Maids in a negative manner to hide whatever prejudices you have towards the program and get to know the young ladies as individuals. Because if you do, you'll discover that these young ladies are much more than just a dress! They’re our future doctors, engineers, lawyers, teachers, nurses, entrepreneurs, CEOs, and military service members.
