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Ethnic Studies
“The study of regionalism,” writes anthropologist William R. Ferris, “is the study of the relation between people and the places in which they live.” This book explores the history of the area located in Louisiana’s “French triangle,” detailing the history of the people who migrated to the area, including the colonial French, Germans, Acadians, refugees from Santo Domingo, and immigrants from the French Revolution. Erath, chartered in 1899, typified many of the small rural towns in Louisiana. The first settlers moving to Erath arrived in 1781.
Germans formed the largest foreign-speaking ethnic group of nineteenth-century Louisiana, larger than all the others combined. During the antebellum period, an estimated 12 percent of the New Orleans population was German, making the city the largest German colony below the Mason-Dixon line. Some later settlements moved upriver between New Orleans and Donaldsonville, near Lecompte, and in north Louisiana near Minden. Today, descendents of these immigrants make up over a fourth of the population. Hardcover.
Steeped in musical influence, racial dynamics, and culinary significance, the Ninth Ward has distinguished itself as one of New Orleans’ most influential communities.
The sprawling marshland of the lower Mississippi has spawned one of the most interesting indigenous cultures in all America—the Cajuns. Since the eighteenth century, they have clung to their ways, including their remarkable French-based patois, their deep love of the land and water around them, their world-famous cuisine, and their enviable love of life. Paperback.
Many black neighborhoods in New Orleans are perceived by outsiders as areas of decay. However, to photographer Michael P. Smith, these neighborhoods remain the preserves of a rich cultural heritage. Paperback.
This photographic tribute displays the rich cultural tradition behind New Orleans’ St. Joseph altars and their delicious dishes. While examining the spiritual significance of the altars and the accompanying foods, McCaffety also discusses their cultural importance to both Sicilian Americans and the people of New Orleans. Hardcover.
Booker T. Washington believed that every man and woman deserved a chance, regardless of their skin color. This classic work of literature relays the story of a man born into slavery who, once freed, pursued education and racial equality. Originally published in 1901, the new edition of Booker T. Washington’s autobiography features a foreword from media personality and advocate for the advancement of African Americans, Mychal Massie.
In June 1892, a thirty-year-old shoemaker named Homer Plessy bought a first-class railway ticket from his native New Orleans to Covington, north of Lake Pontchartrain. The two-hour trip had hardly begun when Plessy was arrested and removed from the train. Though Homer Plessy was born a free man of color and enjoyed relative equality while growing up in Reconstruction-era New Orleans, by 1890 he could no longer ride in the same carriage with white passengers. Plessy’s act of civil disobedience was designed to test the constitutionality of the Separate Car Act, one of the many Jim Crow laws that threatened the freedoms gained by blacks after the Civil War. This largely forgotten case mandated separate-but-equal treatment and established segregation as the law of the land. It would be fifty-eight years before this ruling was reversed by Brown v. Board of Education. Hardcover.
In June 1892, a thirty-year-old shoemaker named Homer Plessy bought a first-class railway ticket from his native New Orleans to Covington, north of Lake Pontchartrain. The two-hour trip had hardly begun when Plessy was arrested and removed from the train. Though Homer Plessy was born a free man of color and enjoyed relative equality while growing up in Reconstruction-era New Orleans, by 1890 he could no longer ride in the same carriage with white passengers. Plessy’s act of civil disobedience was designed to test the constitutionality of the Separate Car Act, one of the many Jim Crow laws that threatened the freedoms gained by blacks after the Civil War. This largely forgotten case mandated separate-but-equal treatment and established segregation as the law of the land. It would be fifty-eight years before this ruling was reversed by Brown v. Board of Education.
This is the ePub/eBook version of this title. This is not the print edition.
In the summer of 1973, Forest Hammond, known as “Saint,” was supposed to be receiving his high school diploma. His friends and family expected that he would be looking forward to college life and possibly dreaming of a career as a professional athlete. He wasn’t. Instead, on the very day of his class’s graduation, Hammond was being initiated into a drastically different reality—he was being badly beaten in the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison by twelve inmates.