These oral histories, funded in part by a National Park Service grant, record testimony from individuals who were active in the fight for racial equality in New Orleans from the 1950s through the 1970s. You can listen to their stories and read the associated transcripts in our online catalog or in person at the Williams Research Center Reading Room at 410 Chartres Street, New Orleans, LA 70130. Call
The ten short videos below highlight stories from the Civil Rights Movement in New Orleans.
For African Americans, living in Jim Crow New Orleans meant facing dehumanizing racial segregation and degrading personal interactions on a daily basis. Confronting these inequities head on was one of the many ways civil rights fighters pushed back.
During the early 1960s, civil rights fighters pushed for enforcement of the federal ruling to provide integrated facilities for interstate travel by organizing bus trips known as “Freedom Rides.” New Orleanians, including members of the local CORE chapter, trained riders and boarded buses as part of the effort. Dodie Smith-Simmons recalls her experiences as a Freedom Rider, including the day when a colleague told her to “get Bobby Kennedy on the phone.”
The Castle family, including Oretha and her sister Doris Jean, were leaders of the local civil rights movement. Their family home, dubbed “Freedom House,” served as a place for visiting freedom fighters to meet, plan, eat, and rest. Dooky Chases’s Restaurant, where family matriarch Virgie Castle worked, provided food to demonstrators and a place for leaders of the movement to convene.
Throughout 1960 and ’61, demonstrators protested unequal hiring practices and services for African-Americans at Canal Street businesses. Dr. Raphael Cassimere Jr., then a leader of the local NAACP Youth Council, recalls these efforts.
Registering African American voters was a key mission of the civil rights movement. Many local organizations worked to expand the electorate to include those previously affected by the de facto disenfranchisement of black voters that was a central element of the Jim Crow South.
The local chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) was one of the most active groups in the city and region during the early 1960s. Led in large part by students and young activists, New Orleans CORE participated in nonviolent direct action protests and registered voters across the city and state..
In the fall of 1970 the offices of the local chapter of the National Committee to Combat Fascism, an offshoot of the Black Panther Party, were violently raided by the New Orleans Police Department. Following the confrontation, organization members were arrested and placed on death row. Malik Rahim describes his experience during and after the episode.
In November of 1960, six years after the US Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown v. Board of Education found segregation by race in public education to be unconstitutional, New Orleans’s public schools began the process of integration. That fall, four young girls—Leona Tate, Tessie Prevost, Gail Etienne, and Ruby Bridges—integrated two elementary schools in the Ninth Ward, McDonogh 19 and William Frantz.
Civil rights fighters often used group singing to fortify and unite themselves in the face of dangerous work. Much of the repertoire borrowed from spirituals, offering messages of hope and inspiration through music.
In 1963, local civil rights leaders from across the city came together to organize a march on city hall. An estimated 10,000 protesters from across the city, and from many different organizations, participated in the protest.
(b. 1947)
A civil rights advocate and New Orleans restauranteur who as a student at St. Augustine High School participated in the integration of high school sports.
(b. 1933)
A retired nurse and the mother of Pam Foreman Testroet, one of two white children who continued to attend William Frantz Elementary School immediately after it was desegregated in 1960.
(b. 1942)
A civil rights advocate and award-winning artist with degrees from Southern University at New Orleans and the Maryland Institute of Baltimore. During the Civil Rights Movement in New Orleans he was an active member of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).
(b. 1943)
A retired educator and civil rights activist who served as secretary of the NAACP's Youth Council.
(b. 1942)
Professor emeritus of history at the University of New Orleans (UNO). Cassimere became the first Black instructor at UNO in 1971. In the early 1960s, he was the president of the New Orleans chapter of the NAACP Youth Council, overseeing protests, sit-ins, and boycotts of stores and restaurants in support of the Civil Rights Movement.
(b. 1940)
A civil rights activist and community organizer. Dennis participated in the 1961 Freedom Rides and in the 1964 Freedom Summer and was a field secretary for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). He is the founder and director of the Southern Initiative Algebra Project.
(b. 1954)
A civil rights advocate and longtime employee of the United States Postal Service, Stripling was one of three Black children to desegregate McDonogh 19 Elementary in the Lower Ninth Ward.
(b. 1931)
Educator, civil rights pioneer, and leader who served as president of Xavier University from 1968 to 2015. In 2006, Francis received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 2021, a major New Orleans roadway named for a Confederate leader was renamed in his honor.
(b. 1942)
A native of Philadelphia who was raised in New York and attended Tulane University. While in New Orleans, Heller joined the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and participated in the Freedom Rides. He started in television at WYES in New Orleans and went on to work as a director and producer in the film industry.
(b. 1939)
Civil rights activist, community organizer, and businessman. Hubbard was a founding member of the New Orleans chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and co-founded the Southern Organization for Unified Leadership (SOUL). He is the owner and operator of the Hubbard Mansion, a bed and breakfast on St. Charles Avenue.
(1945–2025)
Born Macneal Cayette, Chakula Cha Jua is a New Orleans actor, playwright, and director who has been active in the Black Arts Movement. Following his service in the United States Air Force he obtained a degree from the University of New Orleans.
(b. 1942)
Known for being one of the “Angola Three,” King is a native New Orleanian and an advocate for prison and criminal justice reform. Convicted of armed robbery as a young man, he was later convicted of a prison murder and held in solitary confinement for 29 of the 32 years he spent at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. He co-founded the Angola Chapter of the Black Panther Party.
(b. 1943)
LaMotte worked as an employee of the United States Postal Service and participated in the Civil Rights Movement in New Orleans as a member of the NAACP Youth Council.
(b. 1936)
The mother of Sheryl Landry Sissler, who was the first Black child to desegregate McDonogh 11 Elementary School in New Orleans in 1961. Landry is also a retired nurse.
(b. 1942)
A civil rights advocate, native of Georgia, and retired journalist who studied at Tulane University’s Newcomb College. During her time in New Orleans, Leonard was an active member of the Congress of Racial Equality who participated in the Mississippi Freedom Rides.
(b. 1946)
Community leader and civil rights advocate who served as a judge for the Fourth District Court of Appeal in New Orleans from 2003 to 2023. Prior to his election to the Fourth District, he served 29 years as the clerk of Orleans Parish Criminal District Court and the chief election officer for Orleans Parish. He has previously served on the boards of Total Community Action, Inc. and the New Orleans Legal Assistance Corporation, and as the president of the Algiers-Fischer Community Organization.
(b. 1940)
Civil rights activist and community organizer. During the Civil Rights Movement Moore was expelled from Southern University for his work in Baton Rouge. He would later serve as a field secretary for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).
(1932–2024)
Educator, author, civil rights activist, and community leader in New Orleans. When she was not allowed to join the League of Women Voters because of her race, Morial founded the Louisiana League of Good Government which operated from the 1960s until Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Her late husband, Ernest N. “Dutch” Morial, served as the first Black mayor of New Orleans after being elected in 1977.
(b. 1943)
Educator, community organizer, and civil rights activist. Ndang has served as the education chairwoman of the New Orleans NAACP branch and as a leader for the United Teachers of New Orleans. During the Civil Rights Movement in New Orleans she was an active member of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).
(b. 1939)
Community leader, civil rights activist, women's rights activist, and religious leader. Ortiz advocated for women as a rape counselor for the Orleans Parish Coroner’s Office and founded the Grassroots Organization for Women (GROW), an organization that encouraged women to serve in their communities and in the Civil Rights Movement.
(b. 1947)
Born Donald Guyton, Rahim is a community activist who has focused on housing and prison reform. In 1970 he joined the NCCF (National Committee to Combat Fascism), an organizing arm of the Black Panther Party. He co-founded Common Ground Collective in the wake of Hurricane Katrina to provide supplies and relief to a devastated city.
(b. 1940)
Civil rights activist, educator, and public administrator who was a member of the New Orleans Chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and a Freedom Rider. He later worked as an educator before joining the administrations of Mayor Moon Landrieu and Mayor Ernest N. “Dutch” Morial. He served as the human resources director for the Orleans Parish civil sheriff before retiring from city government.
(b. 1939)
Civil rights advocate, poet, and public speaker. A native of New Orleans, Rosemond joined the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and later participated in the Freedom Rides. After marriage, she left New Orleans for Cincinnati, where she continued to fight injustice.
(b. 1955)
A native New Orleanian, educator, and entrepreneur. In 1961, Sissler became the first Black child to desegregate McDonogh 11 Elementary School.
(b. 1943)
Civil rights activist who was a member of the New Orleans chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and a Freedom Rider. She has been active in the preservation and promotion of the musical traditions of New Orleans, first as an employee of Preservation Hall and later as a founding member of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.
(b. 1954)
Nonprofit leader and civil rights and community activist. As a child, Tate was one of three African American students to desegregate McDonogh 19 Elementary in the Lower Ninth Ward in 1960. As an adult, she opened the TEP (Tate, Etiénne, Prevost) Center, in the former McDonogh 19 building to interpret the history of the Civil Rights Movement in New Orleans.
(b. 1955)
Realtor who has served as president of the Louisiana Realtors. As a child Testroet was one of two white children who continued to attend William Frantz Elementary School immediately after it was desegregated in 1960.
(b. 1942)
A licensed practical nurse, civil rights activist, and advocate for the special needs community. A native of Lake Providence, Louisiana, Thompson was raised in New Orleans and was active in the local chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). She also participated in the Mississippi Freedom Rides.