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McCrory's Five-and-Dime
The former McCrory's lunch counter at 1005 Canal Street was a site for protest during the New Orleans civil rights movement.
Civil Rights Activists Protest Woolworth’s Department Store
On September 9, 1960, seven local university students staged a sit-in at Woolworth’s department store located at 1031 Canal Street to protest the store’s refusal to serve Black people at the lunch…
The Beaurepaire Family: Freedom to Slavery and Back Again
The house today marked 727-729 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…
Henry Bibb and The Slave Pens of New Orleans
During the major slave-trading season, September through May, yards surrounded by high brick walls called slave pens bustled with activity in the areas surrounding the French Quarter. Slave traders…
The Levee: Gateway to Uncertainty
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,…
Maroons in Antebellum New Orleans: Independence at Any Cost
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…
A. L. Davis Park
Civil Rights activists used African American purchasing power to press equality.
New Zion Baptist Church
On February 14, 1957, New Orleans' New Zion Baptist Church hosted a meeting of local pastors. The Reverend Martin Luther, Jr. was in attendance, and by the end of the day, the Southern Leadership…
Sit-Ins and Marches at City Hall
During the 1960s, Jim Crow laws confined Black New Orleanians to second class citizenship: white owned businesses, restaurants, hotels, and other establishments denied accommodations for Black…
McDonogh Day Boycott: May 7, 1954
Paper Monument Project #002: On May 7, 1954, Lafayette Square was the site of one of the South's earliest organized civil rights protests centered on equality in public schooling. It was also one of…
The Funeral of André Cailloux: Fallen Captain of the Louisiana Native Guards Buried July 29, 1863
Paper Monument #002: Thousands lined Esplanade Avenue to witness the funeral procession for Captain André Cailloux, the one of the early organizers of the Louisiana Native Guards, the first all-black…
The Hermann-Grima House
The Hermann-Grima house at 820 St. Louis Street is a Federal-style mansion built in 1831 for Samuel Hermann, a German-born immigrant who moved to New Orleans in 1810. The lot on which it stands has a…
The Greater New Orleans Bridge Number 2
In 1983, archaeologists of Coastal Environments, Inc. conducted extensive testing and excavations for the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development in the areas of the proposed east-bound…
Congo Square/Armstrong Park
During 1977 and 1978, the University of New Orleans conducted an archaeological project within what is now Armstrong Park. It focused on two areas, the Jazz Complex, a small area around what had been…
St. Anthony's Garden
Saint Anthony’s Garden is located just behind the landmark St. Louis Cathedral in the heart of the French Quarter. The space is easily identifiable by the large iron fence and the statue of Jesus…
Dorothy Mae Taylor
Paper Monument Project #007: Dorothy Mae Taylor was the first Black woman elected to Louisiana State Legislature, celebrated for her tireless work to end discrimination by Mardi Gras krewes.
Henriette Delille
Paper Monument Project #003: Henriette Delille, a free woman of color, founded the Sisters of the Holy Family in 1842. The sisters were devoted to the care of impoverished enslaved people and free…
St. Augustine/Tremé Plantation Site
During 1998 and 1999, the Greater New Orleans Archaeology Program, under the direction of Christopher Mathews, undertook testing and data recovery at the St. Augustine Site (16OR148), in the Tremé…
Coffee in New Orleans
In the nineteenth century, the port of New Orleans grew from a colonial supply depot into the second largest port in the country and the fourth largest in the world during the 1840s. European…
Beignets
Enjoyed with a hot cup of New Orleans’ chicory coffee, the beignet, pronounced “bayne-yay”, is the official doughnut of Louisiana. True to an American migration story, the beignet’s journey to…
French Market
The French Market is a notable location right at the edge of the French Quarter. The market was built in 1791 and has continued to be a historic and important location for the people of New Orleans.…
Faulkner's House
William Faulkner was born in New Albany, Mississippi in 1897, and frequently used his familiar Southern surroundings as the setting for many of his works. Faulkner was an American novelist and poet…
Sit-In at McCrory's: September 17, 1960
Paper Monument Project #004: 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…
St. Louis La Nuit: Soldier, Slave, CItizen
Paper Monuments Project #017: Freed from slavery for extraordinary service by his French planter “owner,” La Nuit’s was in the vanguard of black entrepreneurial men and women who claimed civic…