First Draft - Race and Ethnicity

January 18, 2021
By Nick Weldon, associate editor

150 years before Kamala Harris was inaugurated as the nation's first Black vice president, newspapers speculated that Louisianan Oscar J. Dunn could be up for the job.




December 22, 2020
By Teresa Devlin, marketing manager

On November 14, 1960, four six-year-old girls in New Orleans became pioneers in the national civil rights movement. While they were confronted by mobs of protestors in their own neighborhoods, well-wishers from across the country sent cards of encouragement.




October 21, 2020
Nick Weldon, associate editor

In the first presidential election after the Civil War, violence and voter suppression prevented Black voters from exercising their right. 




October 16, 2020
Molly Cleaver, editor

What do we mean when we talk about Cajun Country?  The answers are tied up in race, class, language, and, of course, history.




October 14, 2020
Margit Longbrake, senior editor

Amid the American Civil War, a new civil rights movement was forming in New Orleans—in French.




August 14, 2020
By Libby Neidenbach, visitor services trainer

Often, the story of women’s suffrage ends at the ratification of the 19th Amendment. Yet, for many women in the South, the fight did not end there.




June 12, 2020
By Pamela D. Arceneaux, senior librarian/rare books curator

When the City of New Orleans passed an ordinance to remove black prostitutes from Storyville, Willie Piazza fought back. Her challenge to segregation was an early, though fleeting, victory against Jim Crow.




June 3, 2020
By Eli A. Haddow, marketing associate

A new novel and a unique genealogical project are bringing fresh attention to the countless stories of separation and struggle all but forgotten in the tragedy of slavery. 




February 12, 2020
By Jenny Schwartzberg, curator of education

The Freedmen's Bureau was established, in part, to provide for the education of African American children. Records show that demand for that service was often too much for the system to handle.




February 6, 2020
By Aimee Everett, curator

During Reconstruction, Williams became actively involved in the fight for equity in education and the rights of African American women.






 

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