“I moved a lot when I was a child growing up, but predominantly grew up in Uptown New Orleans,” Dr. Johnson said. “That was really sort of the origins of my life experience.”
Our origin story can shape who we become, the same can be said for New Orleans origin story. It’s a line Dr. Johnson says traces back to the early wealthy settlers, who purchased the high land in New Orleans.
“Before the Civil War, African Americans and Whites in the city, they all were sort of mixing in a little,” Dr. Johnson said. “Socially, physically and economically.”
New Orleans was rather unique in this sense, thanks to the large population of free people of color living amongst whites and the enslaved.
“Right after the Civil War, we start to see a city that becomes moving towards a greater segregated city,” Dr. Johnson said. “After Reconstruction, when African Americans were making progress, it comes down to Jim Crow, let’s knock it out of the box, it takes away that sort of progress.”
The decision in the Plessy v. Ferguson case was polarizing. Jim Crow, separate but equal laws, went into effect intensifying hostility and division.
“Heading into the early part of the 20th century, there is this sort of movement that’s starting to happen to say wait a minute, we need to start to separate ourselves from African Americans,” Dr. Johnson said.
Part of that movement was the enactment of racial zoning laws. This meant neighborhoods could explicitly say only Black people or White people could live in them. When the Supreme Court deemed those laws unconstitutional in 1917, the city of New Orleans enacted its own Racial Zoning Law in 1924. It was also deemed unconstitutional.
Source: wwltv.com