Alexandra Kennon
The Louisiana Civil Rights Museum
From the 1967 Bogalusa to Baton Rouge March, to the sit-ins organized by Southern University students in 1960, to Freedom Fighters strategizing over bowls of Leah Chase’s gumbo—civil rights history was made all across the Louisiana landscape. The Louisiana Civil Rights Trail marks many such locations, reminding visitors of the courage and tenacity that carried Black Louisianans through the eras of slavery and Jim Crow to today. On October 8, the Louisiana Civil Rights Museum opened in the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, providing a space to educate the public about all of Louisiana’s groundbreaking and heartrending civil rights history with the help of images, text, and audio and video components.
Offering such an intentional home for this history so prominently in downtown New Orleans is important, according to Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser, “To tell the story of what we've discovered through the Civil Rights Trail, and much of what the country and other states brag about started right here—those heroes that stood up and sat down right here in Louisiana, deserve the recognition.”
Nungesser was particularly moved to share such stories after a Civil Rights Trail plaque was presented bearing the name of local civil rights trailblazer Dr. Johnnie Jones. “...to be able to recognize Dr. Jones, and see him cry seeing his name on that plaque…” Nungesser recalled. In the wake of Jones’ death in May of 2022, the urgency to recognize figures like him while they are able to appreciate the honor is evident.
[Read our 2022 memorial story on Dr. Johnnie Jones, here.]
The hope is that the Louisiana Civil Rights Museum will serve as a starting point from which visitors can explore other sites on the Louisiana Civil Rights Trail. “We're on a mission to get as many of these stories captured as possible. But I thought it was important to open this museum now, as a kick-off point. I'm hoping to see one- two- and three-day tours all over Louisiana, much like they do in Alabama and Mississippi, that will help bring tourists all over the state,” Nungesser said. “But not only for their tourism dollars—it'll tell a story.”
The state is also creating accompanying educational materials that will be available to download and utilize by schools, churches, and at home, “To capture these moments and tell the story from the people that lived it,” according to Nungesser. The fact that the launch-point for it all is centered in the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center named for New Orleans’s first African American mayor—whose son and mother attended the ribbon cutting on October 7—is particularly special.
“It's going to be something that will live on for generations,” said Nungesser.
Learn more at louisianastatemuseum.org/louisiana-civil-rights-museum and louisianacivilrightstrail.com.
