New Orleans is an Indian town. When Frenchmen and Africans arrived in the bend of the Mississippi that would eventually be re-named New Orleans, they encountered a place that had been home to Native Americans for hundreds of years. We know from…

In September 1960, the New Orleans chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality, or CORE, staged two high-profile sit-ins in an attempt to desegregate Canal Street lunch counters. Integration had slowed to a standstill. “We were fed up,” said…

Henriette Delille, a free woman of color, founded the Sisters of the Holy Family in 1842. Under her guidance the early Sisters, all free women of African descent, devoted themselves to the care of the poorest of the poor, the enslaved and free people…

Dorothy Mae Taylor was the first Black woman elected to Louisiana State Legislature in 1971, with Oretha Castle Haley managing her campaign. Taylor served as an advocate for children, mothers, and the incarcerated, and was the builder of a network of…

Since its founding 150 years earlier, New Orleans had never seen anything like it: immense crowds of black residents, including members of thirty-some mutual aid societies, thronging Esplanade Avenue for more than a mile to witness the funeral…

John McDonogh was a wealthy businessman and owner of enslaved people during the early 19th century, when New Orleans was one of the nation's most prosperous cities. Upon his death in 1850, he donated much of his fortune to the education of "poor…

The term ‘Maroon’ refers to enslaved people who ran away from slave owners and remained in the south to join or establish independent, hidden settlements. Maroons utilized the area’s topography to evade capture. While one might expect maroons…

During the mid-1800’s ships tightly packed the port of New Orleans, according to historian Walter Johnson, “one could walk deck to deck from one end of the city to the other.” All along the docks, ships unloaded and loaded cargo daily. New…

The house today marked 727-9 Burgundy Street, relatively unchanged since the early 1800s, has a history that reflects the tricky navigation of enslavement and freedom by a family called the Beaurepaires. Louis Beaurepaire, a free man of color, bought…

Harriet Martineau, Saxe Weimar, and numerous other antebellum writers described New Orleans free women of color as promiscuous, seductive characters who sought partnerships with wealthy white men so they could live a life of leisure. Indeed,…

Jean Pierre Cazelar was the wealthy patriarch of a prominent free family of color in 19th century New Orleans. He intended that his real estate, possessions and slaves all be inherited by his five children. However, the Louisiana Civil Code of 1808…

Musician, educator, author and storyteller Danny Barker was born in 1909 in the rear building at this residence. At the time of Barker's birth, the lower French Quarter community was largely home to African American and Sicilian immigrant…

The Tio family is best known as a prominent contributor to early jazz of the 20th century, notably the addition of a “Mexican Tinge” to the genre. However, the Tios were, in fact, native New Orleanians who had lived in the city since the late…

A wealthy man, Louis Hazeur De Lorme (ca. 1760-1828) was a highly respected man in his community. He shared a large indigo plantation with his brothers-in-law, Francois and Louis Xavier three and half miles away from the city, where their families…

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

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…

Preservation Hall is a French Quarter concert hall with nightly performances by esteemed local jazz musicians. Established in 1962 by young Philadelphia natives Alan and Sandra Jaffe, the space provided a safe place for older jazz musicians to…