The four young women marching on Christian Street in this image from the 1941 Labor Day parade were part of the celebratory color guard for the Quaker City Drum and Bugle Corps, a subgroup of Philadelphia’s Improved Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of the World (IBPOEW). The IBPOEW began in 1897 as an African American alternative to the racially restrictive Order of Elks. The Philadelphia IBPOEW Quaker City Lodge #720 began in 1926 and accepted thousands of working-class African Americans as members. Members of the Quaker City Lodge and their children participated in the Drum and Bugle Corps, wearing elaborate costumes and performing routines to provoke the crowd’s excitement.