The museum celebrates the history and culture of the Lower Ninth Ward, the area of New Orleans that suffered the worst of Hurricane Katrina and the levees that ultimately failed to protect the city. It was founded in 2011 by Dr. Caroline Heldman and Ian Breckenridge in response to the slow rebuilding efforts in the ward. Though small, the museum serves as important link to the past. Its exhibits are dispersed in six rooms and feature photographs and information about the neighborhood since the 1700s, when it was a colony for escaped slaves. Other topics include the role the ward played during desegregation, important historical figures from the area, the ward's legacy of community social justice and activism, and Hurricane Katrina and his aftermath. In addition, the museum has recorded over 60 oral histories from residents in the ward. Lastly, the museum also serves as an important community center, offering after school programs from children such as workshops in arts and crafts, poetry, and youth leadership.
On June 7, 1892, a 30-year-old African-American man named Homer Plessy purchased a ticket and proceeded to board a segregated East Louisiana Railroad passenger train car at Press and Royal Streets in New Orleans. Rather than sitting in the designated “colored” section, Plessy in a section on the rail car designated to seat whites only. After a planned altercation with the train conductor, Plessy refused to give up his seat and move to the colored only car. The train was stopped and he was arrested immediately by a private detective hired for the planned cause. Plessy was arrested for breaking Louisiana's Separate Car Act of 1890 which required the segregation of rail passengers traveling on intrastate railroads.
At The Backstreet Cultural Museum, visitors can find an amazing assortment of memorabilia indigenous to Mardi Gras, jazz funerals and other traditions found only in New Orleans. The museum houses the city’s largest collection of brilliantly colored and elaborately designed Mardi Gras Indian costumes hand made by local artisans costing upwards of $10,000 a piece. In this simple setting, the museum also houses an enormous collection of still photos and video footage of Mardi Gras Indians, jazz funerals and second lines.
The museum is presently closed pending a Five-Year Capital Campaign that will provide vital support for an ambitious and visionary facilities expansion that includes increased gallery and collections management space, meeting facilities, a reading room, a gift shop, coffee shop/cafe, a new kitchen, updated restrooms facilities, and refined landscaping.
Le Musee de f.p.c. is a historic house museum dedicated to educating visitors on the culture and history of free people of color in New Orleans. Free people of color, abbreviated f.p.c., is a term used to describe Blacks who were born free before the Civil War. New Orleans was home to the largest population of free people of color during the time. The museum is located in the historic neighborhood of Treme on Esplanade Avenue. Le Musee houses a collection of art pieces, furniture, and documents that represent the valuable history of free people of color in the city.
Dooky Chase’s Restaurant in New Orleans, Louisiana has been a hotspot for Creole cuisine since 1941. Chef Leah Chase opened her restaurant in an era when there were few fine dining establishments in New Orleans that were either integrated or open to people of color. Chase served generations of civil rights leaders, and the restaurant has also been graced by leading celebrities and political leaders. Dooky Chase’s was the first white tablecloth eating establishment for African American patrons. Leah Chase also defied the segregation laws of the time by allowing both white and African American patrons to dine and come together and talk over her award-winning food.
The historic Carver Theater was constructed in 1950 to house concerts, plays, off-broadway shows, films, conventions, graduations, Mardi Gras balls, dance recitals, corporate events and private parties. The theater is named after the famous African-American scientist, George Washington Carver. Recently remodeled, following damage from Hurricane Katrina, the theater was resold and now functions today much as it did in the 1950s.
Built in 1851, the church dates back to 1844 and it's association with the Free African Society dates even further, to 1787. Historic St. James is the first African Methodist church established in the Deep South and today the St. James African Methodist Episcopal Church is believed to be the oldest predominately African American denomination in the United States.
Congo Square is an area located in Louis Armstrong Park, which is located in the neighborhood of Tremé, in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was created during the French and Spanish colonialization of Louisiana. On Sundays when Slaves did not have to work, they would gather here and establish markets, play music, and have singing and dancing. This tradition continued after Louisiana became part of the United States, and further immigration and the addition of various cultures to the area helped create a very culturally diverse area of the city, which became a very popular tourist destination. In 1970, New Orleans began having a Jazz and Heritage Festival at Congo Square which still occurs today.
Founded in 1961, Preservation Hall is a musical venue in the French Quarter to protect, preserve, and perpetuate traditional New Orleans jazz. The Preservation Hall venue presents intimate, acoustic New Orleans jazz concerts over 350 nights a year featuring ensembles from a current collective of 100+ local master practitioners. On any given night, audiences bear joyful witness to the evolution of this venerable and living tradition. It is also a record label recording studio and a non-profit foundation.
This Federal-style mansion was built by slaves and free people of color between 1830 and 1831 for the family of Samuel Hermann. The Christian Women's Exchange acquired the property in the 1920s and used operated a boarding house for single, low-income women until the 1970s when it was converted into a house museum. The same charitable organization operates the museum, although they changed their name to the Women's Exchange in 1998 to emphasize their desire to serve women of all backgrounds and faiths. The museum tells the story of the people who built, lived, and worked in this home over the past two centuries. It also preserves and shares historic furnishings and artwork representative of New Orleans in the 19th century.
Prior to the completion of the Omni Hotel in the 1950s, this was the site of the St. Louis Hotel. During the antebellum period, the St. Louis Hotel was one of over fifty places where slaves were bought and sold.
A popular tourist destination, this small park in Bourbon street honors some of New Orleans' best and well known musicians. It is operated and maintained by the New Orleans Musical Legends Foundation, Inc., which was founded in 2000. There are several life-size statues of these musicians, including Al Hirt, Pete Fountain, Fats Domino, Chris Owens, Ronnie Cole, Louis Prima, Allen Toussaint and Irma Thomas. Live jazz is played here everyday and the park is free and open to anyone. There is a cafe at the far end of the park.
Canal street was the city's main shopping area in the 1960s. However, Jim Crow law allowed lunch counters to refuse service to African Americans, which made up 40% of New Orleans population. On September 9th, 1960, white and Black members of the New Orleans chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) defied those segregation laws at Woolworth's lunch counter. The students were arrested for holding the sit-in at the Canal Street location. However, the event contributed to the historic Civil Rights Act in 1964.
Union Bethel A.M.E church was organized in 1866, serving the city's newly freed Black population following the Civil War, and upon the passage of the 13th and 15th amendments. This Gothic Revival building was completed soon thereafter. The church, according to their website, is said to have been where Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke out to the congregation in December of 1961 and called for "a new emancipation proclamation." He then urged the President of the United States to issue an executive order to make segregation unconstitutional by way of the 14th amendment. In 2004 during the 75th birthday commemoration, President George W. Bush spoke before the congregation about King's legacy. Suffering much damage during Hurricane Katrina, renovations were completed in 2007, the same year the church was placed on the list for the National Register of Historic Places.
Now an apartment building for people 62 years or older, the Flint-Goodridge Hospital was the first hospital in New Orleans to admit African American patients. It was founded in 1911 but the building was not constructed until 1931. It was a part of the new Dillard University and as such served as a training school for doctors and nurses. During the 1930s the hospital was the only one to offer internships to Black physicians in training. The hospital played a significant role in improving the health and wellbeing of the Black community in the city. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. The building was renovated in 2007 to convert it to apartment housing.
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, St. Peter A.M.E. Church is one of the oldest African American congregations in New Orleans. The church itself is important for its architecture, Black history, and its association with social and humanitarian causes. It was originally built in 1858 and underwent significant modifications in 1890 and 1924.
Amistad Research Center holds a combined total of fifteen million documents related to the history of African Americans, making it the largest repository of its kind in the United States. The library began with the support of the American Missionary Association, an organization that worked throughout the South and attempted to help former slaves during the era of Reconstruction. The manuscripts and other materials of the AMA form the cornerstone of the research collection. These 19th century materials reveal a great deal about the history of former slaves throughout the South and are essential genealogical resources for many African American family historians. The Center's holdings have grown dramatically since the 1980s, and now include over 800 separate collections that together represent hundreds of thousands of documents and photographs related to the history of the Jim Crow Era, early 20th century, and modern civil rights movement. The center has a small gallery space that includes rotating exhibits drawn from their collections.
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More than any major city in America, New Orleans demonstrates the mixing of diverse peoples and cultures. With nearly a hundred entries that are either explicitly dedicated or at least related to African American history and culture, we selected a handful of entries that tell the story of people of African descent within the center of New Orleans.
