Stories tagged "Politics and Law": 85
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The Gex Pottery Site at the Lafitte Housing Project
In 2009-2010, archaeologists from ESI excavated the remains of a pottery from one of the blocks during the Lafitte Housing Complex renovation along what used to have been the Carondelet “Old Basin”…
A New Orleans Story
The Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) case is well-known in United States history. As the Supreme Court case that established the doctrine of “separate but equal,” it ushered in the Jim Crow era of legal…
Madame Josephine Decuir
By the 1870s, steamboats carried passengers up and down the Mississippi River, docking in the ports of major cities like New Orleans. Here, in July 1872, Captain John Benson denied Josephine Decuir…
Louis A. Martinet and Albion Tourgée
Louis A. Martinet was a key player in the fight for civil rights in New Orleans. Born December 28, 1849, his multiracial identity as the son of a free woman of color and a Belgian man placed him…
Streets on the Table: Introduction
In 2019, the New Orleans City Council launched a city-wide effort to change the names of streets honoring white supremacists. While the city implemented its renaming efforts, a clear need for an…
The Cabildo: The Archaeology of a Colonial-Era New Orleans Prison
The excavations at the Cabildo represented a rare opportunity to recover archaeological evidence of Colonial era governance, particularly in the realm of punishment. Modern conceptions of the prison…
The Cabildo
Today, the Cabildo is a facility of the Louisiana State Museum, but the courtyard of the Cabildo was the location of a city prison complex for nearly two hundred years, across French, Spanish, and…
“Don’t Wear Your Good Shoes Up Here”: The Arcadia and Alamo Dance Halls of Prohibition Era New Orleans
In the 1920s and 1930s, the second floor of 1001 Canal Street was home to the Arcadia and Alamo Dance Halls. These dance halls served as a space for thirsty men in New Orleans to cut loose at the…
Economy Hall
Soon after Union forces seized New Orleans from the Confederacy in 1862, calls for equality reverberated among free people of color. Hundreds assembled at frequent mass meetings and rallies at Economy…
Residence of Jean Baptiste Roudanez
Jean Baptiste Roudanez (1815-1895), a free man of color, served as publisher of L’Union, the South’s first black newspaper, and the New Orleans Tribune, America’s first black daily newspaper. Dr.…
Mechanics' Institute Massacre
On July 30, 1866, black Republicans attempted to reconvene the Louisiana constitutional convention in an effort to secure voting rights. Held at the Mechanics' Institute, a large crowd of black…
New Orleans Tribune Offices After November 1866: Growing Readership in the Reconstruction Era
In November 1866, the Tribune moved from its offices on Conti Street to 122-124 Exchange Alley. These new digs were in the shadow of the St. Louis Hotel (site now occupied by the Omni Royal Orleans…
L’Union, the South’s First Black Newspaper and New Orleans Tribune, America’s First Black Daily Newspaper
You are standing in front of the L’Union and the New Orleans Tribune building, the birthplace of civil rights history in the Crescent City. Here, surrounded by the howling madness of the Civil War,…
Oscar James Dunn
Black civil rights activist and Reconstruction Era politician, whom W.E.B. Du Bois called, "an unselfish, incorruptible, leader."
Lincoln Beach
Paper Monuments Project #020
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…
Gordon Plaza Deemed EPA Superfund Site
By 1985, just four years after the first residents moved into Gordon Plaza, state environmentalists recommended testing soil and air in the Gordon Plaza subdivision to determine the extent of…
Constructing Gordon Plaza
In the 1970s, under the administrations of Mayors “Moon” Landrieu and his successor “Dutch” Morial, the city planned and built housing for elderly and low-income families on the former site of…
Local Residents Demand Closure of Agriculture Street Landfill
Throughout the 1950s, the local community suffered from horrible stenches, pest infestations, and smoke emanating from Agriculture Street Landfill (ASL). Spontaneous combustion commonly occurred at…
Agriculture Street Landfill Opening and Operations
In 1909, Agriculture Street Landfill (ASL) opened to accommodate trash produced by half of New Orleans residents. ASL occupied 95 acres of previously undeveloped swampland surrounded by Abundance…
Algiers Courthouse
Built in 1896, this Moorish-influenced Richardsonian style building was built on the site of the former Duverje plantation, which was completely destroyed, along with approximately 200 other homes and…
John Thompson: Resurrection After Exoneration
Paper Monument Poster #044: John Thompson was an exoneree, a death-penalty abolitionist, an orator, and an idealist. The injustice he suffered was a New Orleans story, but John Thompson became a…
Dorothy Mae Taylor
Paper Monument Project #007: Dorothy Mae Taylor was the first Black woman elected to Louisiana State Legislature, celebrated for her tireless work to end discrimination by Mardi Gras krewes.
Civil Rights Activists Protest Woolworth’s Department Store
On September 9, 1960, seven local university students staged a sit-in at Woolworth’s department store located at 1031 Canal Street to protest the store’s refusal to serve Black people at the lunch…