Streets on the Table Episode 6: Dr. Norman C. Francis
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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 presented itself. Filling the gap, public history graduate students at the University of New Orleans created projects to illuminate the work of the Street Renaming Commission.
Produced by the Midlo Center for New Orleans Studies, Streets on the Table is a podcast that reflects on the historical relevance of both the old and new street names. Hosted by two UNO graduate students, the podcast highlights the lives and histories unrecognized in the commemorative landscape.
In this episode, guest researcher Ariel joins Eddie and Lauren at Xavier University to discuss her research on Dr. Norman C. Francis.
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Dr. Norman C. Francis sits next to the street sign named in his honor.
Source: Staff Editorial, "Our Views: Norman C. Francis Parkway is a big improvement," The Advocate, 3 February 2021, accessed 28 July 2022, https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/our_views/article_a0e39bd6-6287-11eb-bbbd-47b701f5185b.html.
Before the unveiling of the Jefferson Davis statue on Hagan Avenue in 1911. Children, seen behind the statue, costumed to form a Confederate flag.
Source: “Davis statue unveiled with much ceremony," The Times-Democrat, New Orleans, Louisiana, 23 February 1911, Newspapers.com, https://www.newspapers.com/image/?clipping_id=104267481&fcfToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJmcmVlLXZpZXctaWQiOjE2NjI1OTk4OCwiaWF0IjoxNjU2NjE4MDY1LCJleHAiOjE2NTY3MDQ0NjV9.R_wAoc3uh0rZOkp-QBPKYNiwLGRL5ZxKMpuIH_Ybpno.
Human Confederate flag.
Historian Karen L. Cox explains how children participated in Confederate monument unveilings by “pulling the cord to unveil a monument, dressing in the colors of the Confederacy, forming a living Confederate flag, and singing ‘Dixie.’” Involving children in such ceremonies helped solidify the Lost Cause narrative. Karen L. Cox, Dixie’s Daughters : The United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Preservation of Confederate Culture (Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida), 2003, 65. | Source: VCU Libraries Commons, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Human_Confederate_Flag._(16214796524).jpg.
The Southern Poverty Law Center’s 2019 “Whose Heritage: Public Symbols of the Confederacy” Report includes a chart tallying how the number of Confederate monuments coincides with years when Jim Crow was heightened.
Source: The Southern Poverty Law Center, “Whose Heritage: Public Symbols of the Confederacy” Report, 01 February 2019, https://www.splcenter.org/sites/default/files/styles/splc_large_rectangle/public/com_whose-heritage_timeline_breaker2019.jpg?itok=2k6qaTAK×tamp=1549050831.
An image captures Parkway Bakery in 1987 on the corner of what is now Hagan Avenue and Toulouse St.
Source: Judy Rabouin Tarantino, Parkway Bakery, The Historic New Orleans Collection, Permanent Collection, 1987, http://hnoc.minisisinc.com/thnoc/catalog/1/106182.
Xavier University circa 1939.
Source: Charles L. Franck Photographers, Xavier University, 7325 Palmetto Street, 1939, The Historic New Orleans Collection, Charles L. Franck Studio Collection, http://hnoc.minisisinc.com/thnoc/catalog/1/54674.
Xavier University in more recent years. *The link includes a slide show of more photos of the campus.
Source: Xavier University Pedestrian Art Mall & Gallery, Holly and Smith Architects, https://www.hollyandsmith.com/portfolioproject/xavier-university-pedestrian-art-mall.
In 2006, The White House awarded Dr. Norman C. Francis the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Source: Shealah Craighead, White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Norman_Francis_awarded_2006_Presidential_Medal_of_Freedom.jpg.
This photo of Canal Street includes McCrory’s, where four student members of the Congress of Racial Equality staged a sit-in, protesting segregation in New Orleans.
Source: Charles L. Franck and Nancy Ewing Miner, Mayfair; Katz & Besthoff; McCrory's; Allens, 1001 - 1017 Canal Street, 24 September 1955, The Historic New Orleans Collection, Charles L. Franck Studio Collection, http://hnoc.minisisinc.com/thnoc/catalog/1/56771.
Rudolph “Rudy” Lombard, pictured above, played prominent roles in civil rights activism. He participated in nonviolent direct action protests, pursued legal action, and convinced Norman C. Francis to provide housing to Freedom Riders at Xavier University.
Source: Ralph Uribe, Photo of New Orleans CORE chairman Rudy Lombard, The CORE Project, accessed July 13, 2022, http://www.thecoreproject.org/omeka/items/show/57.Streets on the Table Episode 6: Norman C. Francis
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