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 educational component to give context to the changes…

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 height of Prohibition. Prohibition, enacted in…

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 a concrete stage with a grass-covered stadium…

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 and 1990s. The stretch of sidewalk was the sight…

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 communal bonds form, perform service and activism…

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 Greek letter fraternities and sororities,…

“Weeds, snakes, and a contaminated lake.” These were the swimming conditions that New Orleans provided for African Americans prior to the opening of Lincoln Beach. In 1938, Sam Zemurray, president of United Fruit Company, deeded a 2.3-acre…

In 1425, at the young age of thirteen, voices spoke to a French teenager named Joan telling her to provide aid to Charles VII of France in his plight against the English during the Hundred Years’ War. Mounted on her steed, this teenage girl led the…

First appearing in 1909 as the Zulus, the group first had its origins in a club comprised of a group of Black men called “The Tramps.” Social groups such as the Tramps worked as communal bonds and financial insurance for members of the Black…

Long ago before there was Lee Circle, the circular park that connected Faubourg Santa Maria (today’s Central Business District) and the Lower Garden District in New Orleans was called Place du Tivoli. Also known also as Tivoli Gardens or Tivoli…

Juanita Pierre and her partner Leslie Martinez opened Les Pierres, the first Black lesbian owned bar in New Orleans, in the 1980s. Located on the corner of Pauger and Rampart Streets in the Marigny, their Saturday night crowd spilled out of the…

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 Duverje family and home of Algiers' first…

Musician, educator, author and storyteller Danny Barker was born in 1909 in the rear building at 1027 Chartres Street. At the time of Barker's birth, the lower French Quarter community was home to a large African American and Sicilian…

During the 1920s, the Lyric Theater was New Orleans premiere African American vaudeville theater. Formerly located at the downtown-lake corner of Burgundy and Iberville streets in the French Quarter, the Lyric Theater was touted as “America’s…

In the 1910s and 1920s, the Tango Belt was a popular entertainment section of the upper French Quarter, and where dance halls featured local jazz. Named after the Argentine dance that swept the globe in 1913, the Tango Belt spanned several blocks…

Standing at the intersection of Basin and Conti Streets and facing just west of St. Louis Cemetery #1, is the former location of the Storyville district in the Tremé neighborhood. From 1897 to 1917 New Orleans established a centralized prostitution…

The red brick building next door to The Eagle Saloon is the former home of The Iroquois Theater. This African American vaudeville and movie theater operated from 1911-1920. One of the first theaters to feature jazz in a concert setting, it was…

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 family-owned and operated hotels in New Orleans.…

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 clubhouse to play “Boston” as well as other card…

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 frequently the location of community organizing…