The Association of St. Augustine High School Alumni - DFW 

2020 Mardi Gras Ball

About the Mardi Gras Ball

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The Association of St. Augustine Alumni – DFW Chapter’s Annual Mardi Gras Ball is a premier fundraising gala and major social event focusing on raising awareness and support for our alma mater’s 69-year mission of educating and molding deserving young black men in the city of New Orleans to become leaders equipped to improve the world. This exclusive, “must-attend” event is designed to be one of DFW’s finest evenings of fun, good food, glitz and glamour that will have attendees feeling like they are in New Orleans enjoying the pageantry of Mardi Gras.

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Based on New Orleans traditions, the BALL is known for its food and music including Carnival Indians and a Brass Band. For our inaugural event, we are honored to have Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Mr. Dean Baquet to serve as our Grand Marshall. Mr. Baquet is the executive editor of the New York Times and is also a proud 1974 graduate of St. Augustine High School.

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Event Details

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The annual Mardi Gras Ball is the DFW Chapter’s largest and most significant event each year. The event targets local DFW professionals, corporations, small businesses and other community-based organizations. For five (5) hours attendees will experience the flare of New Orleans hospitality, music, food and fun. When complete, everyone will have learned a little bit about the cause of helping St. Aug to continue its mission and how their support improves the lives of students and their families.

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When: January 11, 2020 - 7:00 PM – 12:00 AM

Where: Ruthe Jackson Center – Grand Prairie, TX

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The Event Venue

The Ruthe Jackson Center

3113 S Carrier Parkway  Grand Prairie, Texas 75052

Your Entertainment

Michelle N. Gibson the Artist

George Mccullum II

Larry Lampkin

D.J. Professor Breez

Why Sponsor?

Photo of St. Aug Marching

100 legendary

band director

Edwin Hampton.

Black and white photograph of

St. Augustine High School

basketball team located in

the National Museum

of African American History and

Culture, Washington, D.C.

Sponsors of this event will gain access to a ground floor opportunity to market their brand, products or services to professionals from across the DFW area and from cities across the US. Our fellow chapter in Atlanta has been hosting their Mardi Gras Ball for 15 years and now attracts over 1,500 guests annually to their event. While we have chosen to cap attendance to our inaugural event at 400 in order to ensure that we produce the right experience, we fully expect to grow our event to the scale of our brethren in Atlanta. Professionals who attend this event will come from all walks of life and are consumers of all types of goods and services. We encourage you to take a look at this unique opportunity to support our ‘party with a cause’ and grow with us over the coming years.

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Photo of the World-Famous St. Aug Marching 100 performing on

Mardi Gras Day.

2020 Mardi Gras Ball - Sponsorship Packages

2020 Mardi Gras Ball - Ad Specifications
Ad Sizes Available - Width x Height in Inches

Dean P. Baquet  is an American journalist. He has been the executive editor of The New York Times since May 14, 2014. Between 2011 and 2014 Baquet was managing editor under the previous executive editor Jill Abramson. He is the first black American to serve as executive editor.

In 1988, Baquet won the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Journalism, leading a team of reporters that included William Gaines and Ann Marie Lipinski at the Chicago Tribune which exposed corruption on the Chicago City Council.

Our 2020 Grand Marshal

Dean Baquet

Early life and education

Baquet was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on September 21, 1956. He is the son of well-known New Orleans restaurateur Edward Baquet and a member of a prominent New Orleans Creole family.

Baquet graduated from St. Augustine High School in 1974. Baquet studied English at Columbia University from 1974 to 1978; he dropped out to pursue a career in journalism.

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Career

Baquet was a reporter for The Times-Picayune of New Orleans, Louisiana. In 1984, he joined the Chicago Tribune, where he won the Pulitzer, before joining The New York Times in April 1990 as a Metropolitan Desk Reporter. In May 1992, he became the special projects editor for the Business Desk. In January 1994, he held the same title; however, he operated out of the executive editor's office. In 2000, he joined the Los Angeles Times as managing editor, and in 2005 became the editor for the newspaper. Baquet was fired in 2006 after he publicly opposed plans to cut newsroom jobs.

In 2007, Baquet rejoined The New York Times, where he held positions as the Washington Bureau Chief, national editor, assistant managing editor, and the managing editor.He was appointed to the Managing Editor position in September 2011,[serving under executive editor Jill Abramson, and promoted to executive editor on May 14, 2014.

In 2017, Baquet defended the decision to publish confidential photos from the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing investigation shared by UK intelligence and law enforcement with their US counterparts. In response, the UK restricted intelligence sharing with the US.

Baquet joined the Board of Directors of the Committee to Protect Journalists in 2003.

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Notable stories

Baquet was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting in 1988, in recognition of a six-month investigation that he conducted alongside Chicago Tribune reporters William C. Gaines and Ann Marie Lipinski documenting corruption and influence-peddling in the Chicago City Council in a seven-part series. Baquet was also a finalist for the 1994 Pulitzer Prize.

As managing editor at the Los Angeles Times, Baquet was involved in the newspaper's decision to publish, a few days before the 2003 California recall election, an article raising concerns about containing "a half-dozen credible allegations by women in the movie industry" that Arnold Schwarzenegger, a front-runner in the election, had sexually harassed them.The newspaper debated whether to withhold publication until after the election, ultimately deciding not to do so.

In 2006, Brian Ross and Vic Walter of ABC News reported that Baquet and Los Angeles Times managing editor Douglas Frantz had made the decision to kill a planned Times story about NSA warrantless surveillance of Americans, acceding to a request made to him by the Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte and Director of the NSA Michael Hayden.[20] Baquet confirmed that he had spoken with Negroponte and Hayden, but said that "government pressure played no role in my decision not to run the story" and that he and Frantz had determined that "we did not have a story, that we could not figure out what was going on" based on highly technical documents submitted by a whistleblower.[20] Baquet's decision was criticized by Glenn Greenwald, who said that Baquet had "a really disturbing history of practicing this form of journalism that is incredibly subservient to the American national security state."

In January 2015, in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo shooting, Baquet called Marc Cooper, a journalism professor and blogger at the University of Southern California, "an asshole" on Facebook. Cooper had criticized the New York Times for not publishing the cartoons of Muhammad, in the context of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy.

In the aftermath of the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Baquet explained to National Public Radio that some mainstream media outlets were too secular for their own good. "I think that the New York-based and Washington-based ... media powerhouses don't quite get religion. We have a fabulous religion writer, but she's all alone. We don't get religion. We don't get the role of religion in people's lives. And I think we can do much, much better. And I think there are things that we can be more creative about to understand the country."Baquet later characterized an article in which the New York Times public editorquestioned whether the Times' prior coverage of President Trump's possible Russia ties had been unnecessarily and overly cautious as a "bad column" that comes to a "fairly ridiculous conclusion".

In May 2019, Baquet said in defence of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange: "Obtaining and publishing information that the government would prefer to keep secret is vital to journalism and democracy. The new indictment is a deeply troubling step toward giving the government greater control over what Americans are allowed to know."

Our 2020 King

Vernon R Mullen

Vernon Mullen was born in the Calliope Projects in

New Orleans on Louisiana Ave., before moving to

Bienville Ave. in Faubourg Treme.  He attended

St Katherine Catholic School before transferring to

the Westbank where his family moved to Harvey

off Manhattan Blvd., then a dirt road. He attended

All Saints Catholic School in Algiers for five years before

testing to attend the Eight Grade at St Augustine High

School (St. Aug). Vernon passed the entrance exam

and became part of the second St. Aug Eighth Grade

Class in 1962. Vernon played basketball at St. Aug

for three years and was captain of the Eighth Grade

and Freshman Teams. Vernon spent five years on the

St. Aug Track Team and quit basketball to focus on

his studies.

Vernon’s Dad died when he was 12 years old and his mother raised seven children alone. He was unable to pay the $15 per month tuition so St. Aug allowed him to cut the lawns to pay for his tuition and fees. Vernon cut the lawns for five years and  now drives by to inspect the lawns whenever he is near the school. Vernon says he was unable to pay his lunch fee so St. Aug allowed him to pick up trays and wipe tables to cover his lunch fee. Vernon worked at St. Aug during the summers to get funds to pay for other school expenses.

After St. Aug Vernon attended Xavier University and with his advanced study at St. Aug had little difficulty in receiving his Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting. Vernon engaged in work-study at Xavier to cover his college expenses.

After Xavier, Vernon accepted a position with Johnson & Johnson Medical Products, Inc. in Sherman, Texas. He began his career at J&J as a production supervisor before moving into human resources where he recruited other students from Xavier. Vernon spent 15 years at J&J in Sherman and in Arlington, Texas and worked in several different J&J Divisions including Arbrook, Ortho Diagnostics and Surgikos. Vernon left J&J and  assumed the position of Vice President of Human Resources at the Dallas Market Center. He was later elevated to Executive Vice President and worked for the Trammell Crow Family at the Market Center for 15 years. During that time, Vernon served as President of the 1500 member Dallas Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM), where he is also a life member.

Vernon left the Dallas Market Center and spent 15 years as Assistant Vice President Office of Equal Opportunity and Minority Affairs for the University of Texas (UT) Medical Center. During his stay at UT Southwestern, Vernon was presented the EVE Award for Exemplary Voluntary Efforts in diversity programs by then U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, now U.S. Secretary of Transportation.

Vernon recently served as Vice President of Human Resources for Corsicana Bedding Company in Corsicana, Texas while working for Resources Group Professionals (RGP) as a senior consultant in human resources management.

Vernon has been active in civic and community affairs. He is a past Trustee and/or Board Member of the following organizations:

The Catholic Foundation of Dallas

The Dallas Arboretum

Advisory Board of Circle Ten Council Boy Scouts of America

Dallas Urban League

Dallas Museum of Art

Dallas Museum of Science (The Science Place)

Children’s Medical Center Hospital

Children’s Medical Center Foundation

Dallas County Community Relations Commission

Dallas Association of Business

Ft. Worth Community Leaders and Citizens Council

Mid-Cities Association of Business

Ursuline Academy Parents Board

Jesuit College Preparatory Parents Board

Vernon is the recipient of the Whitney M. Young Jr.  Service Award for outstanding service in scouting to youth in rural and low-income communities and also The Silver Beaver Award for distinguished service to the Boy Scouts of America.

Vernon firmly believes that he would not have accomplished his career success and his success in civic and community affairs without the support and direction he received during his five years at St. Aug. Vernon says that the main reason he continues his support of St. Aug is so other young African males can receive the same opportunities he received.

​Hotel Accommodations

LaQuinta Inn & Suites by Wyndham
2131 Interstate 20 West
Grand Prairie, TX 75052
214-412-3220

GROUP ROOM RATES

 For room reservations, Please call the hotel directly at 214-412-3220

and reference the St Augustine High School Dallas Alumni Group.

Our Sponsors

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The Kings of Mardi Gras

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Donations welcomed

All proceeds raised will help support a student scholarship fund for St Augustine High School in New Orleans, LA. Non Profit 501c3 filling information available upon request.