The African American Experience in Louisiana

significant to the African American experience is the c. 1890 Kid Ory House (Figure 15). Kid
Ory grew up in the cane country of St. John the Baptist Parish, but built his early career in New
Orleans before moving to Los Angeles. In 1922, his was the first African American jazz band
make a recording. His New Orleans house is associated with the important formative years of
his career and his influence on other prominent local musicians like Louis Armstrong, Buddy
Bolden, King Oliver, and Jelly Roll Morton.
b) Multi-unit Residences
Another type of housing unit of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries which could be
eligible for the National Register is the multi-unit residence such as an apartment building,
tenement, or housing project. It would be difficult to argue eligibility for such a property for its
association with a single significant individual. Multi-unit residences are more likely to be
potentially eligible for their representation of social constructs like segregation and socioeconomic
and labor-related trends. One example of a National Register listed multi-unit
residence is the Magnolia Street Housing Project (Figure 16), built in 1941 strictly for African
Americans. This property is significant for its
association with the early low-income housing
programs instituted by the Federal Government, but
it also represents the use of Federal funds to
completely segregate and isolate African Americans
in a large scale residential complex. As housing
projects have come to be viewed as a failed social
program, they are being demolished across the
country. In New Orleans, Magnolia Street (later C.
J. Peete) is one of many projects demolished in
recent years; however one housing unit and the
administration building have been saved and
preserved to tell this piece of history.
4. Late nineteenth and early-twentieth-century rural residences
The late nineteenth and early-twentieth century story of rural African Americans in Louisiana is
primarily the story of sharecropping and tenancy in the cotton regions and wage labor in the
sugar region. These agricultural labor systems had a profound effect on generations of African
Americans, but the historical significance of the buildings associated with them has been largely
overlooked. Typically erected with minimum input of labor and materials, the homes of nonlandholding
farmers were not built to last, so their survival rate is low. Because of their crude
craftsmanship and use of salvaged or cheap ready-made materials, they can be a challenge to
appreciate architecturally. In addition, their relative youngness compared to the similarly small
and vernacular slave dwellings has made them less valued.
A different perspective must be cultivated to recognize the importance of tenant, sharecropper,
and wage laborer houses. They have tremendous potential to inform us about the transition from
slavery to freedom, and the transformation of the rural landscape. In addition, research for this
project discovered that as the agricultural systems changed in the 1940s, some African
Americans’ occupancy of their homes was terminated by a sudden eviction. In 1949, the new
owner of Oakley plantation gave aging tenants ten days to find somewhere else to live. That new
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Figure 16: Magnolia Street Housing Project, New
Orleans, Orleans Parish.