From the Archives: Black Stories

Country Roads has always been dedicated to delivering the best of the South Louisiana and Mississippi experience to our readers. Like all of America, these places would not exist without the labor and contributions of African Americans. The stories of this region—how it was built, the art that defines it, the songs that we sing of it—these are so often Black stories. Since the beginning we've worked, though sometimes imperfectly, to celebrate the work of African Americans today and yesterday, from Shreveport to New Orleans, and beyond. Here, we've brought together some of the best of these stories—profiles on icons like Leah Chase, Tank and the Bangas, and Ernest Gaines; articles on Creole trail rides, Baton Rouge's first black nurses, a Louisiana fashion designer who dresses Lizzo, Michelle Obama, and Gabrielle Union; and much more. 

MUSIC

Lake Charles Jazz: Jairus Daigle, on inspiration, improvisation, and the extraordinary power of musical education

Jairus believes that the violin is uniquely suited to the performance and interpretation of jazz. “Classical music is very disciplined,” he said. “Learning it teaches you everything you need to know about reading and rhythm and all the technical exercises that go along with that. But with jazz, you take all that muscle memory you learned in classical and you infuse it with a freedom of speech. Not only can you be the front guy, like the sax or the trumpet, you can also be part of the rhythm section because you can play chords and double stops. So you can do certain rhythms as well.” 

Noel Jackson's Music Satisfaction: A welcoming wavelength on Baton Rouge's WHYR

“Tell everybody that radio is happening again, Saturdays on WHYR,” he says, his voice rising. “It’s me and you, making our dreams come true, here on Noel Jackson’s Music Satisfaction, where Southern soul and rhythm and blues continues.”

Still the King Bee: William Gambler thinks his stepfather, Slim Harpo would be amazed to know that his music is still loved

William Gambler was nine years old when Slim Harpo came into his life. Born James Moore in 1924 in Lobdell, Louisiana, Slim would later become famous as the harmonica player, singer, and composer of such tunes as “I’m a King Bee,” “Rainin’ in My Heart,” and “Baby Scratch My Back.” But when Gambler met him, he was just a hard-working man who liked to play harmonica, or harp.

Huey "Piano" Smith: John Wirt's biography delves into the life of the pioneer rhythm & blues musician

Wirt's biography was long overdue recognition for Smith, one of the seminal figures in the early New Orleans R&B music of the 1950s. A pianist, singer, composer, arranger, and producer, he created songs that have become R&B classics. The best known are 1957’s “Rocking Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu;” 1958’s comic call-and-response “Don’t You Just Know It” and its flip side “High Blood Pressure;” and 1959’s infectious “Sea Cruise.”

Tabby Gets His Hat: Remembering Baton Rouge's most famous bluesman

Around 1994, WBRH 90.3 FM introduced Tabby's Blues Box, an immensely popular radio show that aired on Saturday afternoons. Every Thursday, Tabby squeezed into a tiny recording booth at Baton Rouge Magnet High School to tape the show with engineer/producer Rob Payer.

Listeners loved the talk as much as the music, for Tabby was a raconteur par excellence, a man seemingly incapable of uttering a boring sentence. Between cuts of Guitar Slim, Raful Neal, Slim Harpo, and Buddy Guy, he warned young people against fighting with the boss, hanging out with the wrong crowd, and cheating on their loved ones. Best of all, he talked about Baton Rouge in the old days.

Follow That Byrd: How Professor Longhair got his second chance at stardom

Before New Orleans piano stars Fats Domino, Allen Toussaint, Dr. John, and Huey Smith released their hits in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, Professor Longhair set the template for them and many others. From 1949 through 1964, Byrd recorded such influential classics as “Mardi Gras in New Orleans,” “Tipitina,” and “Big Chief.” 

Out with a Bang: Tank and the Bangas bring home-grown goodness from New Orleans to America's ears

Perhaps you remember Pop Rocks. The crumbled, effervescent candies came in foil packets, and when you poured them on your tongue, the rocks started to pop and fizz, which would escalate until a moment of panic took over and you realized: that’s the point. That borderline off-putting, strangely delightful sensation is exactly what makes Pop Rocks a legendary treat. This is the best way to describe Tank and the Bangas. 

Ain't Down No More: The life and music of Little Freddie King

When King performs, he likes to gussy up in eccentric, colorful suits. A plastic skeleton hangs from his mic stand, and skull and crossbones adorn his guitar strap. He wears shades indoors. He is short and compact, but with the presence of a giant.

HISTORY & CULTURE

Cane & Dust: The tradition of horse-riding clubs within le monde creole

Trotting through the hot dust of the trail and the shade of the sugar cane, the riders inhabit a world where trail rides are no longer borne of economic necessity; but the gatherings are also more than just a party. For riders such as the Andrews, both members of the “Wealthy and Rogue” riding club in Opelousas, the trail is a place where values are instilled, memories built, and wisdom extended to future generations.

Facing Difficult History: A book that shows museum workers—and all educators—how to help audiences confront graphic, violent historical subjects

"There was always a reticence or anxiety in taking on the project of developing exhibits and programming to interpret American slavery," Rose said. "Best practice really needed to be examined closely because, more than it being a sensitive topic, it was a difficult topic. It was a difficult topic for curators and museum personnel to learn about. It's a part of American history that only in recent memory, certainly since just the middle of the twentieth century, was beginning to show up in our history books and our popular culture." So Rose, who earned her Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction from LSU, set about establishing a framework for helping museum workers, visitors, and educators—all learners—engage with these difficult subjects. 

Cold Cases: LSU"s Cold Case Project tracks down details of Civil Rights-era murders, one case at a time.

“The team’s primary focus is to bring closure to African American communities that have lingered for decades without fully knowing what federal agents learned about the deaths of their family members and friends,” said Shelledy. “Agents at the time did their best to solve these vicious killings but were thwarted by intimidated witnesses, Klan-sympathizing local lawmen, and white juries that refused to convict whites of murdering blacks.”

Breaking the Color Barrier: Joann Forbes honors Baton Rouge's first black nurses

Inspired by her mother Ida Henderson, one of the first African-American nurses to work at the Baton Rouge General Hospital on Florida Street, Joann Forbes is pushing hard for recognition of the women she calls “trailblazers” and “pioneers.” 

Who They Were: From fragments, Laura Plantation builds archives for individual slaves

Laura doesn’t try to tell “The Story of Slavery in the United States” or even of Louisiana; instead, it tells the story of the individuals, enslaved or free, who lived there and whose lives intertwine with each other and with the site’s history. It’s easy to imagine all slave lives as substantially similar, and in some ways they must have been, but to speak of “the slave experience” ignores real differences between individuals.

Murder, She Rewrote: Another look inside Goat Castle finds justice for its victims

In 2010, Dr. Karen L. Cox, professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, had settled into the Mississippi State Archives in Jackson to learn all she could about the Natchez Pilgrimage, the tour of antebellum homes which was celebrating its eightieth anniversary that year. Archivist Clinton Bagley had another recommendation for her research, Cox recalled in a recent interview: “‘If you really want to understand Natchez,’ he told me, ‘You should look into Goat Castle.’”

Julian T. White: The First of Many: A new LSU mural honors the university's first Black professor

For many, the year 1971 doesn’t seem too long ago, but for the history of Louisiana State University, it marked a pivotal moment that changed the makeup of the school forever. It marked the year it hired its first Black professor, the Alexandria-born and Urbana-Champlain-educated architect Julian T. White. This summer, the College of Art & Design teamed up with the Baton Rouge-based Walls Project and the LSU Foundation to commission a mural in White’s honor, a three-panel goliath celebrating his thirty-three years in education and acknowledging the mark he's made since his passing in 2011. 

A Conversation with a High Priest of Vodou: Demystifying one of Louisiana's most mysterious and misunderstood faiths

“We just want to worship God, honor the Spirit, and help the poor people  … That’s all we wanna do in Vodou.”

A Slave Called Prince: The legacy of Prince Abd al Rahman Ibrahima lives on in Natchez and far, far beyond

In a genealogical study conducted in 2007 by Natchez historian David Dreyer, he estimated that there must be hundreds, and likely thousands, of living individuals across the world whose veins flow with the blood of warriors and kings, as well as American slaves. This is because their ancestor, Prince Abd al Rahman Ibrahima, was all of these things. 

The Praline Ladies: The 18th century free women of color behind New Orleans' signature sweet

It was Black women, some of whom made pralines in the kitchens of those who enslaved them, that created the iconic New Orleans version of the praline candy.

CUISINE

Chef Serigne Mbaye: The young chef explores the Senegalese foundations of Creole cuisine

Chef Serigne Mbaye had never been to Louisiana, or indeed the South, before he arrived in New Orleans two summers ago and took up a position plating desserts at Commander’s Palace. Yet there was home—Senegal—in the beignets, the fritters, and the gumbo of this new city. Over three hundred years after his ancestral countrymen were forced across the Atlantic Ocean into enslavement in French colonial Louisiana, Chef Serigne can easily recognize how familiar flavors and traditions wove into the state’s creole culture. 

Chef Leah Chase: Sitting Down with the Queen of Creole Cuisine

There’s a New Orleans woman who has been immortalized in a Ray Charles song, a Disney film, and a 2012 revival of A Streetcar Named Desire. Along the way she also picked up the title of “Queen of Creole Cuisine.” But Chef Leah Chase is more than the art works that have used her name and likeness. She’s flesh and bone and sitting right across from me at Dooky Chase, the establishment erected in 1940 by her in-laws and transformed by young Leah into a full-fledged restaurant. 

Small Town Chef: Hardette Harris—making a name for the indigenous foods of North Louisiana

Traditional north Louisiana dishes like crunchy tomato and cucumber salad, cabbage or collards cooked with smoked ham hock or turkey neck, rice and gravy, and fried chicken are equally important to the full Louisiana culinary experience, and are often left off the plate in the minds of newcomers. This struck a nerve with Harris, and she has since dedicated her work to preserving and promoting the classic dishes that have fed people of the area for generations.

 Sharp-Shuckers: Experts offer insight into the fine art of freeing oysters

Though he’s not from Florida, Cash is a proud hand shucker. He holds the oyster, cupped end up and hinge pointing toward him, between his thumb and forefinger as he pries open the shell. He finds this route to be the quicker. “The table shuckers, we call that the handicap method,” joked Cash. 

Taken to Church: In Natchez and beyond, good things come to those who wait

At the helm of their extensive culinary project is Chef Ashley Allen, a transplant to Natchez from the Virgin Islands. Chef Wallace tapped Chef Allen to join the project: “I’ve known Chef Ashley a long time,” he said. “We worked together about twenty years ago, and I remembered his incredible skills, art, and nurturing ability. I called him about the project and asked if he’d be interested in coming to Mississippi to make the vision a reality—to create a dynamic restaurant group of diverse people and kitchens with a goal to educate, employ, and provide the foundation for entrepreneurship.” 

COLLECTORS

Petal Power: Sophie White has created a barely contained wilderness of flowers in her small yard

“I like blues, pinks, magentas. Those are my colors,” said White, whose yard and front porch are bursting with plants of many colors, some in pots and some in the ground. She reels off the names: night-blooming jasmine, kalanchoe with red blooms, asparagus fern, begonia, bleeding heart, delicate white alyssum, orange and yellow cosmos. 

Portraits with Purpose: Art Collector Jeremy Simien focuses on rare depictions of Creoles of color

Simien particularly focuses on gens de couleur libres, free men and women of color who were either born free, liberated, or purchased their own freedom during the antebellum period. 

“They were people of various degrees of African descent,” said Simien. “At one time, they accounted for a fifth of the population of New Orleans, owned a third of the property in the Vieux Carré [French Quarter], and had an eighty-percent literacy rate. This important group included planters, skilled tradesmen, inventors, real-estate developers, and speculators.”

The Square Collection: An exploration fo the African American experience in one man's artful home

Larry Square said that what ultimately draws him to a piece is its historical significance—“I look for things that tell a story.” While his collection is striking in its diversity—sculpture, paintings, sketches; of abstract, expressionist, realist, and modern styles—it is tied together by its overwhelming expression of the African American story, featuring nationally renowned artists like Jacob Lawrence, John T. Scott, Annie Lee, Charles Dickson, Elizabeth Catlett and many more. “I wanted to have something we could relate to,” he said. 

ARTISTS

Artist Randell Henry: A portrait of the Baton Rouge artist as a young man

His journey began at age 10, when, in the fifth grade, he and a few other students at South Scotlandville Elementary competed in drawing. “We’d stay in the classroom at recess and copy the ‘Draw Me’ characters from magazines,” said Henry during a recent visit at his Southern University office. “I remember drawing a pirate with an eye patch."

Broken Time: The dexterous improvisations of sculptor Martin Payton

“People think improvisation is making something up on the spot, when really it’s about arriving at that spot damn well prepared,” explained Payton. “When I go to the scrap yard, climbing around … shapes call to [me] like certain phrases might call to a writer. Sometimes those pieces will lay around for years. But that’s the process. I never enter the studio with a title and a form in mind… I try to put my heart into it.”

Roadside Attraction: Juanita Leonard blends folk art with religious ministry

Visits to Juanita Leonard’s house begin with prayer. The self-taught artist has built a chapel on her property in rural Montgomery, Louisiana, some twenty miles from Natchitoches, and ushers guests inside it as soon as they arrive. Laying hands on each person and speaking confidently to Jesus, Leonard stands between two rows of makeshift pews painted with crosses and scripture. The artist has been scavenging materials to construct sculptures, paintings, and even buildings for decades, as part of a mission to connect people around her to God. “My art is about pulling people in who are driving by, so I can tell them what the spirit of the Lord wants me to say,” she said. 

Folk Art Quilts: Judith Braggs creates fabric art based on memories of her plantation childhood

Braggs has made a name for herself as a fabric artist, creating brightly colored patchwork wall hangings of people and activities she knew growing up: baptism in False River, crawfishing, picking cotton, feeding chickens, jumping rope, having her hair combed. “They’re all based off memories,” she said. “Just old stuff. I always liked the Quarters.”

Don Cinone: Pointillism and passion for nature combine in Don Cincone's paintings

“Inspiration is everywhere. The problem is we aren’t listening,” Cincone declared. “Growing up I learned the endless information and knowledge that is to be found in the natural setting. That, as many others have thought, is the greatest university in existence.”

An Angel in Ascension: Artist and poet Malaika Favorite has returned to her roots in Louisiana

Following her father’s example, Favorite soon found her voice, protesting the Vietnam War and speaking at Free Speech Alley in front of the Student Union. “David Duke used to make speeches there, and I’d make speeches against his speeches.”

She joined the Baptist Student Union, which sent her to Salt Lake City and Hawaii on missions. Back home, she realized that white Baptist churches didn’t want her as a member. “One time I went to Istrouma Baptist with a white couple. An usher came up and told us, ‘You can’t come in here; kindly leave.’

“That stayed with me,” she said. “It was like a contradiction. I couldn’t believe Christians would behave like that. I stopped going to the Baptist Student Union and became militant. 

Demond Matsuo: Baton Rouge artist Demond draws together the disparate and discarded into new, fully realized ideas through collage

“I’m making combinations of fractured ideas and putting them together to create new ideas,” he explained, crediting his twin passions for ancient mythology and video games for shaping the fantastical creatures that float above the black backgrounds of his canvases. Although he is a painter first, Demond loves collage for the ability it gives him to transform discarded materials from a series of disparate and disconnected objects, into a fully realized idea—in much the same way our minds draw upon many disparate thoughts and experiences to arrive at an understanding of the world that surrounds us. 

The Divine of Nine: St. Martinville artist Dennis Paul Williams exhibits his work at home for the first time

The works in The Divine of Nine reflect this paradoxical combination of improvisation and narrative, colors melding and bursting delicately across the page, overlaid with stark, sketched figures and faces—Williams’ subjects appear to move, to touch, to hold each other, to connect and join. And in some of his paintings—Williams applies an additional ethereal quality—a light, sparkling mirage of swirls and silhouettes depicting objects of nature—birds, fruits, flowers, frogs, and often spirit-like figures observing the sketched faces beside them.  

For the Bold: Baton Rouge native Christopher John Rogers makes his mark on the New York fashion scene

Though his work is constantly evolving, Rogers’ commitment to the glamour of sophisticated conspicuousness is a constant. At his and his team’s second New York Fashion Week show in February 2019, he memorably described his designs to Vogue’s Rachel Hahn as “mid-century cotillion balls, debutantes, and quinceañeras, but as if those celebrations were thrown in a neolithic site like Stonehenge, and then Dr. Seuss drew them.”

The Color of New Orleans: Terrance Osbourne spikes the palette of familiarity

The artwork itself is unmistakably his, dominated by cityscapes, waterworlds, and parade routes churning with color and verve. Street scenes attain a human-like character, while the humans—when they do appear—turn into something akin to mythologies, the embodiment of the spirit of New Orleans, where Osborne was born and raised. 

Things Worth Keeping, Forever: Kewon Hunter captures both the vibrant motion of NOLA and the serene beauty of its outskirts

Hunter's body of work is a vibrant tribute to a subject historically excluded from the canon—unbridled black joy. Urban scenes profuse with beauty, power, community, and charisma populate his feed. “I just love documenting my people, and I want to capture them in a good light,” Hunter said. “I love to see them beautiful, happy, enjoying themselves. It’s what drives me.”

The Ties That Bind: Tom Whitehead celebrates the life of artist Clementine Hunter in a new biography

“For me Clementine’s story is more than pictures on boards,” he writes in the book. “It is the story of the most remarkable person I ever met. . . . She was not educated, she never traveled, she never had an art lesson, but Clementine Hunter taught me much. I learned from her that intelligence, wit, and talent arise sometimes from the least likely among us.”

Perspectives: For Veretta Moller, applied art equals inspired spaces

“Coming from the fashion industry, texture is so important. To know what your experience is, you need to have all your senses utilized.” —Veretta Moller

Letitia Huckaby: Quilted Legacies Along Highway 19

Huckaby is drawn to how relatable fabric is; how universally nostalgic. Regardless of background, nearly everyone has some quilt or piece of embroidery that has been passed down through generations.

Terrance Osborne: New Orleans Culture, Concentrated

Much like New Orleans brass band music, Osborne’s work is bold and vibrant, grabbing the viewer and pulling them in, demanding their participation as loudly and warmly as a trumpet line or a bass drumbeat. 

WRITERS

Welcome to Braggsville: An interview with Ernest J. Gaines Award-winner T. Geronimo Johnson

"I think it’s possible to want to write about race, but to be unable to do so convincingly—either because of a lack of sensitivity or just from a lack of experience. So beyond language use is an idea of emotional experience and the worlds you’re exploring. It’s not that you’d necessarily read a sentence and know the race of the writer, but at the end of a larger work you’d understand whether the writer knows what they’re talking about." 

Artist & Activist: Poet Donney Rose uses his words to effect social change

“White people don’t realize that [excessively aggressive policing] has a ripple effect,” said Rose. “We don’t need to fix policing just to stop black people dying. We have to fix policing for everyone. When they act like they are above reproach or above the law it creates a danger for everyone. Hyper-masculine, toxic policing is a danger to everyone. People are out in the streets with the power to make unjust arrests, backed up by empowered institutions and an empowered legal system.

“I challenge anyone: Don’t turn away from that. It’s only a matter of time before you become compromised by it. No matter what your race is, your liberties can be compromised.”

John Warner Smith: Louisiana's first black Poet Laureate

“Sometime in the early ‘90s, a window opened and poetry said, ‘Here I am,’” said Smith. “I was drawn to poetry unexpectedly. I started reading a lot of poetry and dabbling in some writing, and  by the late ‘90s, I was well on my way. I didn’t know that I was a poet, but I knew that poetry was something I needed to do. I needed to write poetry.” 

A Legacy of Literary Excellence: In the wake of Ernest J. Gaines passing, this year's Award of Literary Excellence winner Bryan Washington joins a lineage of impactful African American writers from the South

“These are stories set in a Latin and black community in Houston, narrated by a voice often marginalized by society,” says Anthony Grooms, a professor at Kennesaw State University and one of the judges who selected Lot as this year’s winner. “It can be rare to see these types of stories in the canon of Southern fiction, and Bryan’s style delivers an honest presentation of life without being cliché.”

Remembering Ernest Gaines: A friendship founded on a love for words

He was not a showy or dramatic reader of his own work, but his quiet voice underscored both the humor and the pathos of his characters, who range from a young boy to an old woman. He didn’t need pyrotechnics. His words were enough. I think everyone in the room that day knew we were in the presence of a master storyteller.

The Prevailing Power of Poetry: With an AAP Fellowship, Louisiana Poet Laureate John Warner Smith will share the wealth of words

 “Poetry is a genre that touches hearts like no other genre does." —John Warner Smith, Louisiana’s Poet Laureate

This is Your Time: With the rise of a new civil rights movement, Ruby Bridges turns to America's youth

In a year marked by its new civil rights movement, Bridges’ story of bravery and disruption in the face of inequality remains as pertinent as ever. In This Is Your Time, she retells it for a new generation—one whose world, though changed, remains shaped by the same forces of inequality and unrest that placed her in the history books sixty years ago. 

Gabriel Bump on Belonging: Gabriel Bump receives the 2020 Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence

Presented as a coming-of-age love story slash dark comedy, Bump’s prose is simple yet tender, dry without being detached as Claude explores the titular theme of belonging. There’s an element of reality (not realism) in Bump’s narrative structure that seems to reflect his own upbringing on Chicago’s South Side, lending a distinctive legitimacy and veracity to his cast of characters and their dialogue.

DESTINATIONS

The Civil Rights Trail: A new initiative makes possible Southern pilgrimages, on the ground or online 

A motel. A department store. Elementary schools, high schools, and universities. The ruins of a grocery store, where fourteen-year-old Emmett Till shopped in 1955. The courthouse where his murderers were handily acquitted. Encompassing more than one hundred destinations across fourteen states and fifty cities, the newly launched U.S. Civil Rights Trail highlights places and spaces for necessary conversations about racism. “The line that brings all these sites together is, what happened here changed the world,” said Lee Sentell, director of Alabama Tourism.

"You Have to Understand ...": At Laura Plantation, Norman Marmillion asks visitors to follow the story of Creole culture's development in the commingling of West African, West European, and Native American cultures

The full impact of Laura, billed as a “Creole heritage site,” is felt in the sobering, immense amount of detail compiled about the plantation’s residents over two hundred years, particularly in the new permanent exhibit, “From the Big House to the Quarters: Slavery on Laura Plantation.” But all the site-specific research that Norman Marmillion, wife Sand (a cultural anthropologist), and historian Katy Shannon have completed would not have come to pass had they not been chasing down a trickster rabbit, one whose relevance to popular culture had almost faded when the Marmillions acquired Laura in 1993. “We caught the tail end,” said Norman.

Blue Front Cafe: Jimmy "Duck" Holmes minds his legacy

The Blue Front Café’s owner, blues singer-guitarist Jimmy “Duck” Holmes, keeps his place simple. Tourists seek an authentic juke joint experience. On a recent, especially hot summer day in Bentonia, Holmes received blues pilgrims from Australia, the United Kingdom, California, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin. “It’s every day,” he said, sitting at a small table in the café for a recent interview. “They’ll read about this old place and they can’t believe that it’s still here. See, it’s 90 percent original.” 

A Long Look at Montgomery: Civil Rights and sizzling barbecue in the Alabama capital 

“This is the spot where Rosa Parks was arrested for not giving up her seat. This building that you’re facing was the original slave markets,” Williams told us. “That building, the Winter Building, that is where the telegraph was sent directing [General G.P.T. Beauregard] to fire on Fort Sumter, starting the Civil War.” 

Southern Grind Cofé

"'My desire to be in this community is really about people always speaking about why things shouldn’t be here, as opposed to why things need to be here. That narrative has been going for a minute. This is a very unique community—it’s deeply rooted, has a rich, rich tradition, and is made up primarily of African Americans. I wanted to make sure that I ingratiated myself with the people in the community around me, so I try to speak to everyone and develop some sort of relationship.'"

River Road African American Museum: The Donaldsonville museum shines light on Black perspectives and achievements in the region.

A quaint blue building situated in the heart of Donaldsonville holds more history than one can imagine. Settled in the middle of what many call Louisiana’s “plantation country,” the River Road African American Museum (RRAAM) sets out to tell the stories and histories of the region’s Black communities—as Todd Sterling, the River Roads African American Museum’s Board President puts it: “The ascension, the success part, the family part, the cultural part, and the contributions to America and the contributions to Louisiana.”

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Drawing all of these stories together, and reflecting intentionally on how we as a publication can best amplify the call for equality, we are brought to recognize ways in which we have also failed. Though we've always worked to include the African American experience and work as an integral part of our storytelling—looking through our archives, we recognize that these stories are most often told by white writers and photographers. So, as a very small step in our efforts to do more to help Black voices be heard, we at Country Roads continue to be committed to actively seeking out more diverse voices, ensuring that our magazine best represents the historical and cultural experience of this region. 

If you are, or if you know, a writer or photographer of color in the Louisiana/Mississippi region who would be interested in contributing to Country Roads, please contact our managing editor Jordan LaHaye at jordan@countryroadsmag.com.