Louisiana

Will the Debt Ceiling Deal Derail Environmental Justice?

by Robert Bullard and Larry Shapiro

The idea of permitting reform—easing the environmental constraints on building new energy infrastructure—has been a bargaining chip in the debt ceiling negotiations. Reforms could help bring a green energy grid online, but it could also put more polluting industry in poor and minority communities. 

150 Years Ago, the Colfax Massacre Was the Largest Single Attack on Black People's Democratic Rights

by Gwendolyn Midlo-Hall and Keri Leigh Merritt

The horrific explosion of violence in April 1973, as white southerners refused to accept the results of the 1872 election, was the climax of years of federal abandonment of a commitment to protect the rights and lives of Black people, who were left to fight for democracy on their own. 

Will Louisiana Ban Study of Racism Outright?

Republican state officials in a party resolution appear to hold the position that "inglorious aspects" of American history are too divisive to be discussed in state institutions of highe education. 

Southern Republicans Want to Narrow the Census Definition of Black Identity – Why?

In a case that involves both the history of voting rights and exclusion and changes in the Census's recognition of complex ethnic identities since 1980, the Supreme Court may reverse a longstanding assumption about which voters are properly understood to be Black. 

Cajun Radio is Keeping Louisiana French Alive

"Cajuns were punished for speaking French in school, Cajun GIs left the region to fight in the world wars and learned English, the discovery of oil ushered in more English, and television further diluted the language."

EPA Will Finally Investigate "Cancer Alley" as a Civil Rights Violation

The EPA will investigate whethe the state of Louisiana granted emissions permits to chemical producers in ways that exposed Black communities to significantly higher cancer risk. 

Homer Plessy's Posthumous Pardon Finally Recognizes His Heroism

by Keisha N. Blain

"The decision to pardon Plessy and finally clear his record are the culmination of efforts by Keith Plessy, the great-great-grandson of Homer Plessy’s cousin, and Phoebe Ferguson, the great-great-granddaughter of John H. Ferguson, the Louisiana judge who upheld the state's Separate Car Act."

The Industrial Infrastructure Catastrophe Hanging Over the Gulf Coast

The flooding and destruction of the refineries and storage facilities along 52 miles of the Houston Ship Channel is a matter of if, not when, says environmental lawywer Jim Blackburn. 

Louisiana Governor to Decide Posthumous Pardon for Homer Plessy

Louisiana's Avery C. Alexander Act, named for a longtime state House member, calls for pardoning individuals who were convicted of violating laws establishing segregation or discrimination, but has seldom been invoked to do so. 

St. Malo, Louisiana, Site of Earliest Filipino-American Settlement, Threatened by Climate Change

More than a century ago, long before the Civil War, St. Malo was the first permanent Filipino settlement in the United States. Preserving the settlement's history is now a race against time. 

Cajun Punk Musician Louis Michot on Saving the Bayous

by Andy Horowitz

Can the DIY punk ethos of mutual aid, plus broadly distributed solar power, save the Louisiana Cajun country from the climate threat? 

The Challenges of Reclaiming Filipino Louisiana’s Centuries-Old History

“Filipinos in Louisiana are always being ‘discovered,’ says Randy Gonzalez. Someone will write an article, ‘I bet you didn’t know there were Filipinos in Louisiana!’ Ten years later, someone will write the same article. I wish that would stop one day.”

Bogalusa March, One of the Longest of the Civil Rights Era, Remembered in Louisiana

The 1967 march from Bogalusa to Baton Rouge covered 107 miles in response to racist violence in the state. It is now represented by a marker on Louisiana's new Civil Rights Trail. 

Remembering Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards, and his Merciless Roasting of David Duke

Edwin Edwards saved the state of Louisiana by attacking Duke as a hateful bigot, winning office despite a record of corruption. 

Martha White, who helped start the 1953 Baton Rouge bus boycotts, dies at 99

Martha White's defiance of customary segregation pushed the city's white bus drivers to strike demanding the repeal of a local desegregation ordinance. The ensuing boycott was a model for the Montgomery campaign two years later.

‘One Oppressive Economy Begets Another’

Slavery and Jim Crow deprived Black communities in Louisiana of wealth and power, and enabled contemporary environmental racism. But slavery-era cemeteries are becoming part of efforts by those communities to fight back against polluters. 

The First Asian American Settlement Was Established by Filipino Fishermen

The first Asian American settlement in what is now the United States was by Filipino sailors and indentured servants who escaped from Spanish ships in the Gulf of Mexico and established settlements in Louisiana. 

Unsung and Unknown — Graphic Biography Details Life of First Black Lieutenant Governor, Oscar Dunn

Professor Brian Mitchell's path into history began with a teacher's disbelief that one of his relatives had been the Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana. He now tells the story of Oscar Dunn in a graphic form to make it as widely accessible as possible. 

Forgotten Camps, Living History: Japanese Internment in the South

by Jason Christian

Camp Livingston, deep in the Louisiana pines, used to be the site of a World War II Japanese internment camp. Drawing from the memories of internees, the research of two Louisiana State University librarians and other historians, and the activism of survivors and their descendants, this story uncovers a buried piece of American history.

Black History is Often Shunned, Like the Book I Wrote

by Martha S. Jones

The historian of voting rights and Black women's activism examines the reaction to a planned discussion of her book through a Louisiana public library.