1 FINAL REPORT Panel of Experts, New Orleans City Council Street

FINAL REPORT Panel of Experts, New Orleans City Council Street Renaming Commission Preamble How do we do justice to the centuries of history that have unfolded on these 350 square miles of land surrounding the Mississippi River? What is the relationship between this diverse history, its reflection in our city’s officially named spaces and places, and the values we strive to enact as a community? This report, prepared with the input of more than forty of the city’s leading scholars and writers, themselves drawing on more than a century of the most cutting-edge historical and cultural interpretation, offers no definitive answers to these questions. We have been guided throughout though by the conviction that asking these questions, developing a collaborative process, telling the multitudinous stories contained in this report, and reconsecrating some of the spaces in this city is an imperative as New Orleans enters its fourth century of existence as a city. The collective 111 suggestions for renaming streets and parks below makes no claim toward being a definitive history of the city. For every musical innovator like Jelly Roll Morton, Mahalia Jackson, or Mac Rebennack included there is a Bunk Johnson, Emma Jackson, Ernie K-Doe and countless others who have been left out. The four individuals included who fled the men who owned them as slaves near present-day Lakeview are but four of the thousands in this city’s history whose collective individual actions over centuries forced a reluctant nation to finally begin to live up to its highest ideals. The rolls of the First Louisiana Native Guard of the U.S. Army who defended the city from a treasonous insurrection and the members of the Metropolitan Police who held off an attempted coup in 1874 are filled with men whose lives are as heroic and poetic as those of Andre Cailloux, James Ingraham, and Rodolphe Desdunes. We are blessed to live in a place where our neighbors include countless unassuming heroes like Julia Aaron, whose willingness to put her body on the line brought the promise of freedom that much closer to reality; or Sherwood Gagliano, who sounded an early alarm on the greatest existential threat this city has ever faced. In recommending each name for each street, place, or park we have followed several key themes; offering a coherent reordering of spatial naming in keeping with the patterns currently in place, while allowing for the exploration of individual narratives which expand upon the range of historical figures recognized and honored for their roles in shaping our city. The four streets in present day Lakeview named for leaders of the 1861-1865 treason against the United States were all dedicated as part of an explicit attempt to rewrite this history of treason and defy the 14th and 15th Amendments to the US Constitution via segregation and disenfranchisement. In their place we have offered three alternative sets of names, each set thematically linked: one set of military leaders that helped put down that treason and via their very presence as officers transformed the meaning of the war; one set of slaves who attempted to self-emancipate and had a connection to present-day Lakeview; and one set of musicians. 1 Across the river on the Westbank we offered another set of themes. Here, we identified potential honorees in groups loosely defined as: musicians; dedicated and pathbreaking civil servants to the City of New Orleans; and oft-forgotten labor leaders who helped transform the lives of working people of all races, genders, and ethnicities in this city. Outside of these thematic sets we have attempted to honor our city’s tradition of neighborhood identity and cohesion by making sure that the potential rename had a real connection to the area of the city nearby the street or park being renamed. Some of these are more obvious than others. Many know that present day Forshey Street bounds Lincoln Park, which in the early 1900s was the site of the regular dances at which Buddy Bolden famously performed and in the process created the music we now know as jazz. Less obviously, for nearby Palmer Park, one of our suggestions was Charles Deslondes, the man credited with leading the largest slave rebellion in United States history in 1811. Led by Deslondes, the German Coast Uprising marched on New Orleans but was turned back before it could reach the city. Present day Palmer Park is as near a public space to the rebellion’s furthest progress as anywhere else in the city. And so it goes throughout these suggestions. Many of the connections are straightforward, like that of Bolden to Forshey St., Louis Twomey S.J. to Palmer Street nearby the Loyola University campus, or Ronald Lewis to Lee Street, just a few blocks from his House of Dance and Feathers. With others though, we invite members of the City Council, Renaming Commission members, and most importantly citizens of New Orleans to peel back the layers of the less obvious connections. We are a city of many distinct neighborhoods, but as citizens of this city our lives and actions often reverberate beyond our block and ward. City Council Ordinance M-20-170 made clear that street and place names honoring those who committed treason against the United States and actively sought to deny Americans their Constitutional rights is not the story New Orleans seeks to tell about itself in the year 2020 and beyond. Taken as a whole, this report is an attempt to tell a more complete story about the city we all live in and love. It contains stories of people who are famous and stories of people who left behind little recorded information on their lives but whose actions nonetheless shaped the city we live in in immeasurable ways. It is an attempt to engrave these stories and the values we strive for in this city onto our built environment. For ourselves, but also so future generations know that their forebears actively honored heroism in the face of danger, the dogged pursuit of justice, courage against long odds, and genius in artistic creativity. In the place of treasonous insurrectionists, we offer the stories of people, movements, organizations, and cultural expression contained below. Stories of diverse people of all racial, gender, ethnic, sexual, class, and citizenship backgrounds whose actions helped us strive for equality and who created the best of who we are as a city. 2 In these efforts we take inspiration from the words of a remarkable New Orleans poem entitled La Marseillaise Noire (one of the suggested names for Penn Street), written in the aftermath of the bloody attempt to subvert democracy at the Mechanics Institute in 1866: To the frontiers of humanity Engrave these words: I hope in thee Thou shalt reign, equality Dr. Thomas J. Adams and Suzanne-Juliette Mobley New Orleans, November 27, 2020 Scholars and Writers who volunteered their time and expertise in the preparation of this report and the overall work of this panel: Dr. Laura Rosanne Adderley, Tulane University Dr. Fallon Aidoo, University of New Orleans Dr. Janet Allured, McNeese State University Dr. Robert Azzarello, Southern University at New Orleans Malik Bartholomew, Know Nola Tours Gemma Birnbaum, National World War II Museum Christina Bryant, New Orleans Public Library Dave Cash, United Teachers of New Orleans Chris Daemmrich, Tulane University Dr. Nancy Dixon, Dillard University Dr. Adrienne Dixson, University of Illinois Morgan Dowdy Alison Fensterstock Dr. Rien Fertel Brad Fitzmaurice, University of Sydney Dr. Deborah Goldgaber, Louisiana State University Dr. Erin Greenwald, Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Dr. Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, Michigan State University Jordan Hirsch Dr. Cedric Johnson, University of Illinois-Chicago Dr. Rashauna Johnson, University of Chicago Dr. TR Johnson, Tulane University Sarah Langley Dr. Joshua Lewis, Tulane University Dave Kunian, Tulane University and WWOZ Dr. Elizabeth Manley, Xavier University Dr. Mary Niall Michell, University of New Orleans Andrew Mullens III, New Orleans Public Library Dr. Kara Olidge, Amistad Research Center Dr. Lawrence Powell, Tulane University Katy Reckdahl Dr. Adolph L. Reed, Jr., University of Pennsylvania Dr. Kodi Roberts, Louisiana State University Dr. David Robinson-Morris, Xavier University 3 Dr. Matt Sakakeeny, Tulane University Kathy Seligman, NOLA 4 Women Brittany Silva, New Orleans Public Library Dr. Randy Sparks, Tulane University Dr. Walter Stern, University of Wisconsin Dr. Tania Tetlow, Loyola University Dr. Red Tremmel, Tulane University Dr. Bryan Wagner, University of California-Berkeley Dr. Leon Waters, Louisiana Museum of African American History Derek Wood, Tulane University Student writers and researchers: Ruby Adler, University of Sydney Bella Bauer, University of Sydney Ben Bernstein, Tulane University Celia Bradshaw, University of Sydney Isabella Cowap, University of Sydney Samantha Degou, Tulane University David Gross, Millsaps College Simran Gupta, Tulane University Nadya Harrison, Tulane University Phoebe Hussey, University of Sydney Min Kim, University of Sydney Emily Manning, University of Sydney Ross McLean, University of Sydney Alexander Murray, University of Sydney Lili Newton, University of Sydney Annabel Lois Pettit, University of Sydney Eloise Grace Richardson, University of Sydney Linna Wei, University of Sydney Georgia Weir, University of Sydney Isabella Whitton, University of Sydney And our gratitude to Claudette Mobley for serving as copy editor. A note on the organization of this report: for ease of compiling relevant narratives into one document, we have provided the current street name, along with the brief biography of the person or organization for whom it is named, followed by the three narratives of New Orleanians who should be considered as potential honorees. Each brief biography has additional links for further exploration of that person’s life, context, or labor. To the best of our ability, we have sought out materials at a range of reading levels and in a variety of mediums.

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