Pigeon Town Steppers bring a pastel party to NOLA Easter | Entertainment/Life

Residents in the 17th Ward “way Uptown” — along with plenty of visitors — greet Easter Sunday with a sense of anticipation. Not for the Easter bunny, but for something far more New Orleans: the Pigeon Town Steppers and their annual second-line parade.

Each year, the Steppers transform their neighborhood streets into a display of style, pride and pageantry.

Around 1 p.m., the door swings open at a familiar spot, and the crowd squeezes together with everyone trying to get the best view.

The horns begin to blare through the air as the first Stepper bursts on the scene, prancing and waving two large, fluffy feather fans. Cheers rise. Heads turn. Phones go up. The group’s “pretty colors” for the year are revealed as he moves to the rhythm.

One by one, more members follow, each receiving their own round of applause.

Then Joseph “Rollin Joe” Henry makes his appearance.

His decorated wheelchair rolls forward, then spins, the front wheels lifting briefly off the ground as the crowd roars. He turns, dips and rolls with the music, commanding the moment as much as any dancer on foot.

“Ain’t no feeling like when you come out that door,” Henry wrote in a 2020 essay for the Historic New Orleans Collection. “Everybody out there waiting to see you, waiting to see your colors, the pretty colors.

“It still gives me butterflies every year.”

The Steppers’ outfits are symbols of pride and investment. The members design their own gators — imported from Mori, Italy — with each pair costing about $1,400. The two-toned shoes match their gator belts and the bands wrapped around their hats. Their suits are tailor-made too. This year, even the fabric came from Mori.

Henry and his younger brother, Sylvester, were among the 20 founders of the club in 1994, serving as president and vice president. After two years of going “renegade” without permits or a charter, they worked with a member of the Lady Buck Jumpers to make the parade official.

The group chose to parade on Easter because other Sundays were taken. Now 32 years later, Henry is still president and the last surviving founder. Sylvester died in February 2025.

The second-line parade route changes, but always goes through Pigeon Town, Gert Town and Hollygrove. It ends at the Merry-Go-Round Hall, home of the Young & True Friends Benevolent Association, a precursor to the Steppers.

Henry’s grandmother, Edna Henry, belonged to the Young & True Friends, founded in 1881. The 500-member association once was one of the largest in the city. It stopped parading in 1994.

Henry was asked to take over the Young & True Friends charter, but he couldn’t at the time. “It would have been nice to keep it going,” he said.

Instead, he started the Pigeon Town Steppers Social Aid & Pleasure Club.

They continue the second-line tradition to honor those who came before them, Henry said. “We want to keep fighting to keep it going. Sometimes you can’t let it go because of the love for it. I don’t ever want to give it up. I want to pass it down to the younger generations.”

At age 12, Henry was riding his bike two blocks from his grandmother’s house when a stray bullet hit him. He has been in a wheelchair ever since.

“I didn’t know about being paralyzed,” Henry recalled. “It wasn’t easy. I didn’t have a lot of things that (disabled people) have now. I’ve always been an athletic person. I didn’t want to be left out. That has always been my mindset.”

Despite this life-changing injury, Henry refused to sit on the sidelines. He set out to do everything his friends did, and he still does today. When he’s not spinning himself through the second-line crowd, he takes a push from his friend Jamal Hall.

Instead of competing with other clubs, the Steppers work to improve every year.

“We keep the pastel colors because it is Easter,” Henry said. “Our goal is not to disappoint our fans. We put on a show. It’s what they want to see.”

And this Easter Sunday, as the colors dance and the brass band marches down the street, the fans will experience another spectacular moment.

Tammy C. Barney can be reached at [email protected].