11/24/2025
"Over the past 75 years, more than a dozen Black proprietors have run the First and Last Stop Bar, a longtime gathering spot for 7th Ward neighbors and Black-masking Indians. But earlier this month, a new owner posted an eviction notice on the door.
"For nearly a third of her life, Carolyn Monnie Cushenberry, 74, has been focused on the First and Last Stop, the small bar that sits on the corner of Pauger and Marais Streets in the 7th Ward.
"But now the bar and much of her life’s work has been sold from underneath her, by owners who felt like family to her. 'I’m hurt and I’m devastated,' said Cushenberry, as she tried sell a beer cooler and tables on Facebook Marketplace, preparing for a likely closure. 'It seems like my 20 years of being here was snatched away from me.'
"The uncertain future hits hard in the Black-masking Indian tribes that have been based at the bar for nearly a century. ;When I heard about it, I sat down and I cried,' said Tyrone 'Pie' Stevenson, 66, big chief of the Monogram Hunters tribe, which leaves the First and Last Stop on Mardi Gras morning in its new suits, gathers there on St. Joseph Night, and holds regular, often weekly, 'Indian practices' there to practice traditional music and dance as Mardi Gras approaches."
A historic 7th Ward bar faces eviction as new ownership threatens a century of Black cultural traditions, exposing New Orleans’ deep racial wealth divide.
