How New Orleans leaders built a segregated city
Using schools as the building blocks, New Orleans leaders cemented residential segregation that persists today according to a new book
Just over 100 years ago, the first public high school for black students opened in New Orleans. The debut of McDonogh 35 was a grossly overdue advance for the city’s black population. But the choice of location was hardly accidental. In picking the Rampart Street corridor for the school’s location, the city’s school board made a strategic decision to semi-officially designate it a “black” area — understanding that might lead over time to the departure of the neighborhood’s white residents, and particularly its many Jewish small business owners — even though blacks comprised just 39 percent of the school’s closest neighbors in 1920. The white majority did indeed flee, and public disinvestment in the area’s stability and upkeep followed.
“In the decades following McDonogh 35’s creation … perhaps no section of New Orleans experienced as much demolition, residential displacement, and redevelopment as this one,” writes Walter Stern in “Race & Education in New Orleans,” a thorough and pointed history of the city’s schools up to the start of desegregation. CONTINUE READING: Book shows how leaders cemented segregation in New Orleans schools
Women at William Franz Elementary School yell at police officers during a protest against desegregation at the school, as three black youngsters attended classes at the school for the second day. Some carry signs stating “All I Want For Christmas is a Clean White School” and “Save Segregation Vote, States Rights Pledged Electors” Bettman/Getty Images
