Stories tagged "African American": 104
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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…
Battle of Algiers
In the last years of the 18th century, enslavers feared that the practice of enslavement would soon end. It could have, if not for the advent of the cotton gin, which created immense demand for…
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…
Couvent School
Paper Monuments Project #022: Catholic Institution, the first community school dedicated to the education of children of color in the Deep South opened its doors in 1848 Funds for the creation of the…
Desire Standoff
Paper Monuments Project #002: The New Orleans chapter of the Black Panther Party and multiple branches of law enforcement within the Desire housing projects in the city’s Ninth Ward engaged in one of…
Ashé Cultural Arts Center
Ashé's mission is to use art and culture to support human, community and economic development.
Comité des Citoyens
Comité des Citoyens, most famous for being the group that organized member Homer Plessy's violation of railroad segregation laws on a train in 1892, was a group that advocated for black New Orleanians…
San Malo Maroons
Paper Monuments Project #010: The San Malo Maroons have the most remarkable and extensively documented history of runaway slave communities in the Western Hemisphere. The Spanish authorities were…
St. Louis La Nuit: Soldier, Slave, CItizen
Paper Monuments Project #017: Freed from slavery for extraordinary service by his French planter “owner,” La Nuit’s was in the vanguard of black entrepreneurial men and women who claimed civic…
Sit-In at McCrory's: September 17, 1960
Paper Monument Project #004: In September 1960, the New Orleans chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality, or CORE, staged two high-profile sit-ins in an attempt to desegregate Canal Street lunch…
Henriette Delille
Paper Monument Project #003: Henriette Delille, a free woman of color, founded the Sisters of the Holy Family in 1842. The sisters were devoted to the care of impoverished enslaved people and free…
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.
The Funeral of André Cailloux: Fallen Captain of the Louisiana Native Guards Buried July 29, 1863
Paper Monument #002: Thousands lined Esplanade Avenue to witness the funeral procession for Captain André Cailloux, the one of the early organizers of the Louisiana Native Guards, the first all-black…
Sit-Ins and Marches at City Hall
During the 1960s, Jim Crow laws confined Black New Orleanians to second class citizenship: white owned businesses, restaurants, hotels, and other establishments denied accommodations for Black…
New Zion Baptist Church
On February 14, 1957, New Orleans' New Zion Baptist Church hosted a meeting of local pastors. The Reverend Martin Luther, Jr. was in attendance, and by the end of the day, the Southern Leadership…
A. L. Davis Park
Civil Rights activists used African American purchasing power to press equality.
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…
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…
McDonogh 19: Desegregation of the New Orleans School System
On November 14, 1960, three African American girls Leona Tate, Tessie Prevost, and Gail Etienne walked into McDonogh 19 Elementary School to attend their first-grade classes, integrating the…
Romance or Power Imbalance? The Hazeur Family
A wealthy man, Louis Hazeur De Lorme (ca. 1760-1828) was a highly respected man in his community. He shared a large indigo plantation with his brothers-in-law, Francois and Louis Xavier three and half…
The Eagle Saloon
As the site of Buddy Bolden performances and Louis Armstrong's youth, the Eagle Saloon is one of the most significant early jazz landmarks still remaining in New Orleans.
The Iroquois Theater
Louis Armstrong won a talent show as a youth after dipping his face in flour and performing at The Iroquois Theater.
Leland University
Founded in 1870, Leland University was created with the purpose of educating free black people living in Southern Louisiana. Originally meant to educate only freemen (black people that were free prior…
“Confined in the Dungeons”: Orleans Parish Prison and Self-Emancipated People
Located in Treme, the original Orleans Parish Prison stood where the Municipal Auditorium and Louis Armstrong Park stand today. From the 1830s to 1895, the prison housed individuals accused of crimes,…