In the fall of 1963, Ben Franklin High School became the first New Orleans public high school to integrate. Fourteen African American students, all of whom met Franklin's stringent admissions…

Bernard Walter Lomax was a Mardi Gras Indian who lived from 1927-1955. In 1950 he composed "Shallow Water," a song that is still popular with Mardi Gras Indians today. The words "Shallow Water" are…

The Greenville encampment is a notable site for African-American military history. In 1866, Major General Phillip Sheridan, commander of the Department of the Gulf, organized a regiment of African…

After the Confederate retreat and Admiral Farragut's capture of New Orleans and the surrounding area by May 1, 1862, federal forces continued to use the fortifications and even improved them…

Valena Cecelia MacArthur Jones is a notable Louisiana educator. Born in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi in 1872, MacArthur Jones moved to New Orleans to attend Straight College is 1892. [1] Straight…

Ironically, for Joseph Narcisse (one of the 55 black students to first integrate LSUNO in1958) becoming part of history started right after his graduation from St. Augustine High School, when he…

As a former resident of the Desire neighborhood, I am taking the opportunity to defend the integrity of our African-American community in the Upper Ninth Ward. These photographs depict our…

Constructed in 1822 under the direction of architect Simon Bernard, Fort Wood was thought to be impregnable to enemy troops attacking in the narrow straits of lakes Borgne and St. Catherine. In 1851,…