amistad research center

For more than three decades, hip hop and bounce music traditions in New Orleans have been central outlets for creativity, celebration, social critique, community gathering, and political and expressive art in the city. The indigenous New Orleans bounce music tradition, born at block parties, dance clubs, and other community gatherings, had until very recently been little heard outside the city. Since Hurricane Katrina, bounce has become a force of its own, gaining massive pop

Last week, I wondered where time went because it finally sunk in that I was facing my own ten year high school reunion. Then I came across a 1981 article in The Wiley Reporter (a publication of Wiley College) about Lillian B. Dunn making plans to attend her seventy-fifth­ college reunion with other members of the class of 1906. Born barely a generation removed from slavery, I marveled at what she experienced over her long life. The Times-Picayune summarized it best: 18 presid

When the former Miro School in New Orleans was renamed the Valena C. Jones Normal School in 1918, it was in recognition of Jones’ “outstanding ability as a teacher and for her uplifting influences among the people of her race.” The school became the fourth public school in New Orleans named for an African American. However, it would not remain the only school named after educator Valena C. Jones as her native city of Bay St. Louis would also honor her with the same recognitio

Dorothy Mae (Delavallade) Taylor was an authoritative political figure in New Orleans and Louisiana, whose fiery rhetoric shook the old guard political establishment in the 1970s to the 1990s. Born August 10, 1928 to Charles Henry and Mary Delavallade, Dorothy Taylor was a lifelong resident of New Orleans. Her career in public service began with the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) of the Orleans Parish School Board. At that time, school segregation relegated Black children t

The social activism of sisters Oretha Castle Haley and Doris Jean Castle began when they were still young women. They came from a working class family. Born in Tennessee, the young sisters moved to New Orleans with their parents and brother around 1947. The girls’ father, John Castle, took a job as a longshoreman, and their mother, Virgie Castle, found employment as a bartender and waitress at Dooky Chase restaurant, which operated as a hub for civil rights activism in New Or

There are few records available documenting the contributions of the Women’s Auxiliary of Flint-Goodridge Hospital, but what is known about the group’s work is a significant part of New Orleans women’s history. The auxiliary was established in 1932, as a fundraising organization to benefit the only African American hospital in the city, Flint-Goodridge Hospital. Its founding members were Marie Burbridge, who served as president of the auxiliary for twelve years, Lydia Sindos,