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New Orleans



  • Black New Orleans Chefs Rewrite a Whitewashed, Tourist-Driven Culinary Narrative

    A group of chefs is working to highlight the role of African-descended people, including enslaved Black people, creoles, and Haitian migrants, in creating the city's cuisine; food scholar Zella Palmer emphasizes that culinary ability and knowledge was among the skills targeted by traffickers who brought west Africans to New Orleans. 



  • New Orleans Urged to Rename Lee Boulevard after Music Legend Allen Toussaint

    “The City of New Orleans should prioritize celebrating our culture bearers, our diversity, and everything that makes our city special, not those who worked to tear us apart and represent a horrible history of racism that we are still dealing with today,” said City Councilor Jared Brossett.



  • The Homophobic Background to Jim Garrison's Persecution of Clay Shaw

    by Martin J. Kelly, Jr.

    Alecia Long's book argues that Jim Garrison's prosecution of Clay Shaw as a conspirator in the Kennedy assassination was steeped in homophobia and leveraged the defendant's inability to properly defend himself because of the illegality of homosexuality to make up for lack of evidence. 



  • Hurricane Ida Shows the Climate Dystopia Ahead for All of Us

    by Andy Horowitz

    "Structural problems need structural solutions. Don’t give charity to Louisiana because it’s unique. Demand that Congress take meaningful action, because Louisiana is not unique, and you may be next."



  • Mardi Gras is a Critical American Tradition — Even Without Parades

    by Olivia Durand

    Mardi Gras rituals and public celebration have reflected the efforts of some white New Orleanians to establish and preserve white supremacy and the efforts of Black and Creole residents to express demands for freedom; the festivities are not just a party but "the active performance of what American society cares about."



  • With Mardi Gras Parades Canceled, Floats Find a New Home

    In a development unseen since the city's Mardi Gras begain in 1857, New Orleans residents under COVID lockdown are turning their houses into parade floats, an informal support program for artists missing the yearly boost the parade season brings. 



  • How the New Orleans Streetcar Revival Left Bus Riders Behind

    A number of historical dynamics, including racial segregation and the growth of a tourist economy, account for decisions in the Crescent City that have refurbished a fraction of the old streetcar system at high cost while ignoring the health of bus systems that poor and working residents depend on, says NOLA transit historian Kevin McQueeney. 



  • Only Accountability Will Allow the U.S. to Move Forward

    by Mitch Landrieu

    Full accountability for the Capitol Riot is essential lest white supremacists and other extremists take the lesson that their actions are accepted and permitted. The white supremacist massacres of the post-Reconstruction period show that moving on without accountability is impossible. 



  • Why Hurricane Katrina Was Not a Natural Disaster

    by Nicholas Lemann

    Fifteen years ago, New Orleans was nearly destroyed. A new book by Tulane historian Andy Horowitz suggests that the cause was decades of bad policy—and that nothing has changed.


  • Unions Are Essential for Eliminating Racism

    A new study finds that unions don't just increase wages and benefits for workers on the job — union membership is also linked to diminished racist attitudes among white workers. If we want to defeat racism, building strong, democratic unions is essential.