Type Women's organization Website sweetpotatoqueens.com | Official language English | |
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Headquarters Jackson, Mississippi, United States | ||
Sweet potato queens take rose parade by storm
Sweet Potato Queens is a women's organization based in Jackson, Mississippi, that has over six thousand registered chapters in over twenty countries.
Contents
- Sweet potato queens take rose parade by storm
- Tuts underground s world premiere of the sweet potato queens musical
- Organization
- Sweet Potato Queen Books written by Jill Conner Browne
- References
Tuts underground s world premiere of the sweet potato queens musical
Organization
The Sweet Potato Queens concept has been explained and made popular by a series of books by Jill Conner Browne, born in Tupelo and raised in Jackson, who came up with the idea in 1982. (Browne is the author of a number of books which form the backbone of the Sweet Potato Queen "movement.") It involves a belief in a sisterhood that promotes self-esteem and positive thinking, appealing to mostly middle-aged middle-class women. As John Ray, the ordering manager at Politics and Prose in Washington once said of the Sweet Potato Queen books, "they began to empower women." In 2005, almost ten thousand women dressed up in costumes and came to Jackson for the annual Hal and Mal's St. Patrick’s Day parade, proceeds from which benefited a local children’s hospital.
Each local chapter assumes its own theme and designs its own costumes. Some of the chapters participate in parades and fund-raisers in their local communities.