Side by Side: Free People of Color in West Feliciana Parish

As part of the East Baton Rouge Parish's Special Lecture Series, Evelyn L. Wilson, former Southern University Professor of Law, will present a discussion on the lives of free people of color who lived in pre-Civil War West Feliciana Parish. She'll discuss how they came to be free, and how they made their livelihoods. The rural area of West Feliciana was heavily invested in slavery before the war, but because of the cosmopolitan nature of its port, migrants, immigrants, transient visitors, and lax enforcement of restrictive laws made it an acceptable place in which a free person of color could live. The integrated neighborhoods and tension-free white/black relationships mitigated the racial animosity expressed in Louisiana's laws. Free. 2:30 pm at the Main Library. ebrpl.org.