Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Fall 2007 - (Page 44)

New Orleans’ Faubourg Tremé Rooted in Tradition While a number of prominent New Orleanians emerged from the community of free people of color, in 1860 their primary trades were carpenters (257), laborers (145), cigarmakers (171), shoemakers (151), laborers (145), and draymen (101). After the Civil War, people of color moved to the forefront in calling for expansion of democratic rights. In Congo Square, the site for African dancing of old became a new focal point for political activity. On June 11, 1864, dressed in red, white, and blue, thousands in New Orleans’ black community freely gathered to cheer the Louisiana Constitutional Convention’s official adoption of the Emancipation Proclamation. American flags waved and church An illustration of Parish Prison on Basin Street, printed in Jewell’s Crescent City, 1879. place literature, By 1890, Tremé was apoliticswheretradition coalesced. culture, music, protest, and HISTORIC NEW ORLEANS COLLECTION bells rang as the 4th Colored U. S. Calvary and black veterans of the 1815 Battle of New Orleans led an array of social aid societies, political clubs, dignitaries, teachers, first-time students, and marching bands through the city streets. “Is not Emancipation a fixed fact?”queried The Era newspaper. The following year, New Orleanians mourned for Abraham Lincoln in Congo Square. “Go on any plantation,” spoke the Reverend George W. Levere, chaplain of the 20th Regiment of the United States Colored Troops, “and you will see every man of African descent with tears in his eyes, saying his prayers to God, and lamenting this national calamity and affliction. Let the name of Abraham Lincoln be blessed forever.” In 1867, a protest against segregated mule-drawn streetcars led to their integration until 1902. By 1890, Tremé was a place where literature, culture, music, protest, politics and tradition coalesced. The Ida Club on North Claiborne between Dumaine and Saint Ann Streets advanced “music, literature, and the drama.” The Crusader newspaper printed poems, fiction, and nonfiction in French and English. Tremé hosted “grand dancing festivals” given by benevolent and social organizations with proceeds often going to widows, funds for libraries, and other social causes. For an admission price of 15 cents, Professor Joseph Moret’s String Band performed at Congregation Hall on North Claiborne near Ursulines. The Big Three Social Club held a dancing festival for their chapel fund at the Friends of Hope Hall on Tremé Street to the music of Tio and Doublet’s String Band. Protests for constitutional rights took place at these same halls. Local Republican Party meetings and the formation of a nascent civil rights group called the American Equal Rights PHOTO BY KEITH WELDON MEDLEY 44 LOUISIANA ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES\Fall 2007

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Fall 2007

Contents Friends & Letters Editor’s Column Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Big Charity: A History of New Orleans’ Public Hospital Historic New Orleans Collection Making Groceries: A History of New Orleans Markets New Orleans’ Faubourg Tremé: Rooted in Tradition Jazz Notes Louisiana Association of Museums Chinatown New Orleans Louisiana Foodways A Question of Secession Louisiana Architecture Louisiana State Museum The Unnatural History of Cypress Parish Terra Incognita Bookstand Sound Advice Forum

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Fall 2007

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