Stories by author "Kathryn O'Dwyer, Editor": 82
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Stepping to the Rhythm: The Amphitheater and National Pan-Hellenic Council Plots
The Amphitheater at UNO, along with the stretch of Leon C. Simon Drive along the front of campus, is another site used by Black Greek letter organizations for artistic expressions. The Amphitheater is…
Keep Marching On: Black Greek Organizations Performances on Leon C. Simon Drive
The half mile stretch of Leon C. Simon Drive, that forms the front boundary of the University of New Orleans’s campus, was a central performance space for Black Greek letter organizations in the 1980s…
A Way of Their Own: Black Greek Organizations at UNO
Black Greek letter organizations at UNO play an essential role for African American students as they do across the nation. Black Greek organizations provide a safe space for African Americans where…
Dawn of a New Tradition: Black Greek Letter Organizations
On a stroll around most college campuses, you may see students wearing shirts, hoodies, and sweaters with a number of letters from Greek alphabets in a variety of colors. These students are members of…
Edgar Joseph Edmunds: Teacher Defies New Orleans's Racial Segregation of Schools in 1875
Edgar Joseph Edmunds was born January 26, 1851, in New Orleans to Edgar and Rose Euphemie Foy Edmunds, free people of color. Edmunds graduated fifth among a class of over 200 students at the…
Gordon Plaza Residents' Present Day Political Activism
For decades, residents of Gordon Plaza engaged (and continue to engage) in political activism to spread public awareness about toxic contamination in their neighborhood. Residents hope to achieve fair…
Freedom Riders at Xavier University
Imagine sitting on a bus, hearing loud shouts from outside. You look out the window to see a giant mob of segregationists throwing anything they can get their hands on at you. These are the scenes…
The Lalaurie Mansion
Madame Delphine MacCarthy Lalaurie was a wealthy New Orleans socialite and notorious enslaver. In 1832, Madame Lalaurie moved into a neoclassical mansion at the intersection of today’s Royal and…
Robert R. Moton Elementary School
This building, now boarded up and abandoned, once served as the elementary school for residents of Gordon Plaza and Desire neighborhoods. Opened in 1987, Robert R. Moton Elementary School was built on…
Confetti Park: Where Imagination, Fun, and Magic Fill the Air
Confetti Park is a whimsical, magical playground for kids.
Landscape architect Christopher Friedrichs and sculptor Steve-Kline designed Confetti Park in 1996 on land that was a legacy of the…
Algiers Folk Art Zone & Blues Museum
The Algiers Folk Art Zone & Blues Museum, which is located directly across from the Mississippi River levee at 207 Leboeuf Street, was founded by Charles Gillam in 2000. A self-taught sculptor,…
Zora Neale Hurston: Dust Tracks on the Road in Algiers, LA.
On August 6, 1928, Zora Neale Hurston wrote a letter from 7 Bellville Court, Algiers, Louisiana, to Langston Hughes in which she writes "I have landed in the kingdom of Marie Laveau and expect to wear…
Maroons in Antebellum New Orleans: Independence at Any Cost
The term ‘Maroon’ refers to enslaved people who ran away from slave owners and remained in the south to join or establish independent, hidden settlements. Maroons utilized the area’s topography to…
The Levee: Gateway to Uncertainty
During the mid-1800’s ships tightly packed the port of New Orleans, according to historian Walter Johnson, “one could walk deck to deck from one end of the city to the other.” All along the docks,…
Henry Bibb and The Slave Pens of New Orleans
During the major slave-trading season, September through May, yards surrounded by high brick walls called slave pens bustled with activity in the areas surrounding the French Quarter. Slave traders…
The Beaurepaire Family: Freedom to Slavery and Back Again
The house today marked 727-729 Burgundy Street, relatively unchanged since the early 1800s, has a history that reflects the tricky navigation of enslavement and freedom by a family called the…
Hotel Monteleone
In 1886, Antonio Monteleone purchased what was to become the Hotel Monteleone in New Orleans. Since 1886, four generations of the Monteleone family have owned the hotel, making it one of the last…
Harmony Club
The Harmony Club of New Orleans was an elite men's social club. Though it was not completely sectarian, it was understood to be for the Jewish elite of the city. Founded in 1872, the club moved…
Boston Club
The Boston Club was a social club founded in 1841 through which rich, white men could enjoy the popular card game called “Boston.” [1] Members of The Boston Club organized and rented rooms in their…
Bell Theater
The Bell Theater was originally located at Bell and Dorgenois Streets, where it operated between 1914 and 1921. In the early years, the theater served not only as an entertainment venue, but was…
Imperial Theatre
The Imperial played an important role not only in the history of New Orleans theaters but also in the history of one of the city’s most prominent theater families, the Brunets.
The Founding of Tulane University
Tulane University is often cited as being founded in 1834 by seven young medical doctors and it is true that Tulane’s earliest roots lie in the school founded by these seven. However, the institution…
Orpheum Theater
Built in 1918 to replace the older Orpheum, the new Orpheum Theatre opened with great pomp and circumstance on February 5, 1921, with a matinee performance in the afternoon. [1] However, according to…
St. Roch Cemetery, Plagues, and Germans in New Orleans
Established in 1875, St. Roch Cemetery lies just north of the Faubourg Marigny in the St. Roch neighborhood.
The founder of St. Roch Cemetery was Father Peter Leonhard Thevis, pastor at Holy…