Nola Resistance 64 Parishes

Published: March 1, 2020 Last Updated: June 1, 2020 “We, in 1963, we had a vision on the right to vote, and desegregation. What is your vision?” —Ronnie Moore, interviewed for NOLA Resistance Oral History Project, September 27, 2017 A cornerstone of the project was making the contents of the oral histories easily accessible for researchers, students, and the general public. The full audio and a searchable transcript for each interview are available at hnoc.org/nolaresistance.

An additional set of ten thematic videos—each approximately three to four minutes in length—is also available. The videos feature project participants—including Leona Tate, Dodie Smith-Simmons, Don Hubbard, Katrena Ndang, Dr. Raphael Cassimere Jr., and Malik Rahim—speaking to the larger stories that knit their experiences together. The result is a powerful recounting of pivotal moments and events from the local civil rights movement. Another critical component of the project is curricula for middle and high school students. THNOC’s education department developed three lesson plans from the oral histories: “Stories of Resistance,” “Young Leaders of New Orleans,” and “Integrating McDonogh 19.” According to Curator of Education Jenny Schwartzberg, each lesson “prompts students...

The lessons, also available online, help students cultivate critical–thinking skills, further develop their reading comprehension abilities, and gain experience in assessing different types of historical sources.” 520 Royal Street New Orleans, LA 70130 www.hnoc.org Telling Louisiana’s stories, in print and online Encompassing an award-winning quarterly print magazine, website, and encyclopedia, 64 Parishes represents the next chapter for two flagship LEH initiatives: Louisiana Cultural Vistas, a print magazine published by the LEH for nearly 30 years,... Launched in 2018, 64 Parishes brings together the print magazine and the encyclopedia, with thousands of stories reflecting Louisiana’s complicated, fascinating history and vibrant culture in one place, fully accessible and free of charge... Event celebrates the winter issue and Grambling State’s hall of fame baseball coach, Wilbert Ellis

Best Magazine among nominations across seven categories Explore our oral history project featuring testimony from individuals who were active in the fight for racial equality in New Orleans between 1954 and 1976. Explore our oral history project featuring testimony from individuals who were active in the fight for racial equality in New Orleans between 1954 and 1976. The modern African American civil rights movement brought about immense cultural change in New Orleans. The fight for racial justice included voter registration drives as well as efforts to end segregation and curtail discrimination in schools, on public transportation, and in businesses. Local chapters of CORE, the NAACP, and NAACP youth council led the movement.

This oral history project, funded in part by a National Park Service grant, records testimony from individuals who were active in the fight for racial equality in New Orleans between 1954 and 1976. For more information, access the full audio and transcript for each oral history. The project documented a number of historic events and themes in the interviews with the activists who took part. The ten short videos below highlight these stories from the civil rights movement in New Orleans. Courtesy of The Historic New Orleans Collection Louisiana Legislators in 1868.

Unidentified Reconstruction comprises the post-Civil War period in US history together with the federal policies that were implemented during that time to bring secessionist states back into the Union and to determine the status of... The politics of Reconstruction profoundly affected life in Louisiana, but because so much was at stake, it also played a disproportionately large role in shaping national opinion and federal policy toward the defeated South... Within the context of the region, Louisiana was an enormous prize. It was home to New Orleans, the South’s largest and most prosperous city and the crucial juncture between the commerce of the vast Mississippi River Valley and the rest of the world. And the countryside of the state featured some of the richest and most productive soil in the nation.

Louisiana also held out the promise of being equally fertile ground for the growth of Republicanism in the South. Louisiana had been a bastion of the Whig Party before the war, was home to protectionist-minded sugar planters, and enjoyed a comparatively large and well-educated free Black population. For these reasons, the Republicans fought with singular tenacity for control over the state. Defeated white southerners, on the other hand, were just as unwilling to meekly forfeit dominion over a society where they had once ruled. Such conditions guaranteed that the struggle for control of Louisiana would be particularly intense. Indeed, it is no wonder that Reconstruction lasted longer in the Louisiana than it did anywhere else, spanning the fifteen-year period between the spring of 1862 and the early months of 1877.

Although only the southern portion of Louisiana, including New Orleans and Baton Rouge, fell under the sway of the federal government during the Civil War, events in occupied Louisiana had a large impact on... President Abraham Lincoln believed there was a deep reservoir of southern unionism and desired the speedy return of seceded states to the Union. As a consequence, he established his Ten Percent Plan, under which a Confederate state might rejoin the Union once 10 percent of its free white men had sworn their loyalty. Occupied Louisiana became the scheme’s first proving ground when Lincoln ordered General Benjamin Butler to hold elections in New Orleans during the fall of 1862 in order to fill the two seats in the... These oral histories, funded in part by a National Park Service grant, record testimony from individuals who were active in the fight for racial equality in New Orleans from the 1950s through the 1970s. You can listen to their stories and read the associated transcripts in our online catalog or in person at the Williams Research Center Reading Room at 410 Chartres Street, New Orleans, LA 70130.

Call (504) 598-7171 to make an appointment. The ten short videos below highlight stories from the Civil Rights Movement in New Orleans. WATCH NOW For African Americans, living in Jim Crow New Orleans meant facing dehumanizing racial segregation and degrading personal interactions on a daily basis. Confronting these inequities head on was one of the many ways civil rights fighters pushed back. During the early 1960s, civil rights fighters pushed for enforcement of the federal ruling to provide integrated facilities for interstate travel by organizing bus trips known as “Freedom Rides.” New Orleanians, including members of...

Dodie Smith-Simmons recalls her experiences as a Freedom Rider, including the day when a colleague told her to “get Bobby Kennedy on the phone.” The Castle family, including Oretha and her sister Doris Jean, were leaders of the local civil rights movement. Their family home, dubbed “Freedom House,” served as a place for visiting freedom fighters to meet, plan, eat, and rest. Dooky Chases’s Restaurant, where family matriarch Virgie Castle worked, provided food to demonstrators and a place for leaders of the movement to convene. Throughout 1960 and ’61, demonstrators protested unequal hiring practices and services for African-Americans at Canal Street businesses. Dr.

Raphael Cassimere Jr., then a leader of the local NAACP Youth Council, recalls these efforts. The controversial chaos of the Angola Prison Rodeo Coach Wilbert Ellis and the legacy of Grambling State University baseball Ferrara’s poetry captures the aesthetic beauty of life in Louisiana Join us on December 4 in Ruston to celebrate the release of 64 Parishes’ winter 2025 issue 64 Parishes Magazine has received eight 2025 Excellence in Journalism award nominations across seven categories, including Best Magazine, from the Press Club of New Orleans

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