{"id":3303,"date":"2025-03-07T15:57:19","date_gmt":"2025-03-07T15:57:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/?p=3303"},"modified":"2025-07-10T15:23:17","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T14:23:17","slug":"64-parishes-recording-louisianas-history-of-civil-rights-activism-at-grass-roots-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/?p=3303","title":{"rendered":"64 Parishes: Recording Louisiana\u2019s history of civil rights activism at grass-roots level"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Lee Sartain, Senior Lecturer in History.<\/em><\/p>\n

History at university is all about the detail \u2013 but not so detailed as to lose the overall plot.\u00a0 How do people in hundreds of towns and cities across a country combine in order to create<\/em> a movement?\u00a0 What is it that affects their everyday lives in order for them to become<\/em> a movement?\u00a0 This grassroots approach to the African American civil rights movement has been the recent historical trend \u2013 the lives of activists in communities across the nation that form change <\/em>and may never be heard about by most people but are intimately connected to social revolution and national reform.<\/p>\n

\"Photograph<\/a>

African American slave photo from Laura Plantation, Louisiana.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Louisiana, a deep southern state, is unlike most other states in the Union \u2013 firstly, it is the only place in the US to have parishes rather than counties and this reflects its French and Spanish colonial past.\u00a0 Purchased by President Thomas Jefferson in 1803, Louisiana became gradually more Americanized, coming to represent an important region for trade along the Mississippi River, a centre for musical innovation and creativity, and the oil trade.\u00a0 It was also known for its brutal slavery and racial apartheid system.\u00a0 Challenging white supremacy was no easy task and studying the individuals and groups that finally saw the toppling of apartheid is both a task of acute detail and national synthesis.<\/p>\n

My work has been focused on one of the oldest American civil rights organizations, the NAACP, mainly in Louisiana, Maryland, and, for personal reasons, New Mexico (I love typing Albuquerque \u2013 but I spell it wrong every time).\u00a0 The encyclopaedia entries I have undertaken for 64 Parishes<\/a> (an online database) shows the breadth and depth of Louisiana citizens\u2019 commitment to the civil rights.\u00a0 They appear ordinary and extraordinary \u2013 reminding us that people in History are just living their lives and interpreting the world around them \u2013 who usually do not reflect on their own bravery whilst working for social betterment.<\/p>\n

\"Bogalusa<\/a>

Bogalusa civil rights march against police brutality, 1965. Source: The Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

My various entries on 64 Parishes<\/a> show women who were teachers, preachers, and entrepreneurs \u2013 leaders of their communities \u2013 who organized to bring down racial oppression during the 1920s to the 1960s \u2013 through local, state and national networks.\u00a0 Georgia Johnson, newspaper editor, caf\u00e9 owner, and legal terrier, was persistently harassed by police for single-handedly investigating the Alexandria riot in 1942.\u00a0 This was the largest social unrest in the wartime America that was suppressed as it was thought it would create propaganda for the Axis powers and show America in a racist light.\u00a0 Fannie Williams of New Orleans was a leading light in education in some of the most deprived parts of New Orleans and linked social reforms alongside civil rights activities.\u00a0 Delphine Dupuy of Baton Rouge was a long-time activist who helped organize the bus boycott of 1953 that became the template for the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955-56.<\/p>\n

\"Fannie<\/a>

Fannie C. Williams teaching sewing. Source: The Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Such lives shows the complex jigsaw of social activism \u2013 very much the approach undertaken in my third-year module, Civil Rights USA.\u00a0 Such social movements are never about just one person (invariably a man) but about social and economic changes that take decades to develop \u2013 by women often overlooked by the popular histories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Lee Sartain, Senior Lecturer in History. History at university is all about the detail \u2013 but not so detailed as to lose the overall plot.\u00a0 How do people in hundreds of towns and cities across a country combine in order to create a movement?\u00a0 What is it that affects their everyday lives in order for them to become a movement?\u00a0 This grassroots approach to the African American civil rights movement has been the recent historical trend \u2013 the lives of activists in communities across the nation that form change and may never be heard about by most people but are intimately connected to social revolution and national reform.   […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18,4],"tags":[45,815,820,98,707],"class_list":["post-3303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-public-history","category-research-in-focus","tag-race","tag-civil-rights","tag-louisiana","tag-twentieth-century","tag-united-states"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p91PlX-Rh","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3303"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3311,"href":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3303\/revisions\/3311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}