AP+2014+New+Orleans+1940-+1950

Jenna R. - Historical During the 1940’s and 1950’s, New Orleans was able to overcome tumultuous events while continuing to grow through immigration and cultural changes. During 1947, a hurricane damaged the city, but not catastrophically. After World War II, the many conflicts regarding suburbanization and school integration caused many of the white residents to leave. This left a community that was primarily African-American and impoverished. Immigration brought new people into the city. Unfortunately, police beatings were a common occurrence. Police harassment, discrimination from city landlords and racism were common throughout the 1950’s. Mayor DeLesseps S. Morrison, though he opposed desegregation in schools and forms of travel, made an effort to decrease police racism. The mayor brought much progress among the city of New Orleans during his administration, especially prominent were the physical improvements he financed. “...a vast railroad consolidation program was achieved and a new railroad terminal was constructed. Streets were widened, railroad ground crossings were spanned with overpasses, and civic centre, which includes the 11-story City Hall, was built” (Jackson). By the 1950’s, New Orleans began to transform into a large oil refinery city. Despite the tragedies and hardships New Orleans endured, the area was able to grow into its present day status as a major tourist attraction.

Works Cited: Jackson, Joy Juanita. "New Orleans." Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2 July  2013. Web. 27 Mar. 2014.

Staff, History.com. "New Orleans." History. A&E Networks, n.d. Web. 27 Mar. 2014.

Aim- Gabriela Elizondo-Craig

==== In the 1940s, New Orleans was a city dedicated to immigrants as it urbanized but also created its own culture. With the introduction of the streetcar, “ unskilled jobs moved from the periphery to the core of the city, and immigrants began to move into the abandoned town homes, forming what would be called the ‘Immigrant Belt’” (“Immigration and Settlement”). The result of the streetcar was that the rich were able to easily move out of the central area of New Orleans and created a separation of classes. However, immigrants benefited from this shift because the centralized location allowed for the mixing of cultures as well as ease of forming smaller ethnic communities within the large "Immigrant Belt". During the New Orleans experienced “...a movement to resurrect the New Orleans style; some musicians wanted to re-create [Jazz] music, while others attempted to adapt old music to the newer swing style” (Raeburn). The city provided a forum for each culture to add to, change, and develop music. As a city with high availability of employment for the unskilled worker as well as a diverse culture, New Orleans was the optimal place for an immigrant seeking to assimilate into America. ====

"Immigration and Settlement Patterns, New Orleans, 1940." History Engine: Tools for Collaborative Education and Research. Richmond  University, n.d. Web. 27 Mar. 2014.

Raeburn, Bruce. "New Orleans Jazz." The Journal of American History. Organization of American Historians, Dec. 2007. Web. 28 Mar. 2014.

Audience: Alexis



The audience of New Oreleans during the 1940s was a “melting pot” of cultures from around the world. Since the city’s conception, “ New Orleans served as a distinctive cultural gateway to North America, where peoples from Europe and Africa initially intertwined their lives and customs with those of the native inhabitants of the New World.” (Logsdon, Hirsch). New Orleans has a very distinctive population of many different cultures. Different ethnicities tended to merge together in separate neighborhoods, creating a very distinct style. The largest ethnicity in population was the African-American’s. New Orleans in the 1940s, coupled with the blossoming Civil Rights movement, produced some very key items for the African-American’s in the city. During the 1940s, the NAACP had great advancements from, “housing desegregation, salary equalization for teachers, expanded voting rights, and access to Louisiana State University.” (New Orleans: HISTORY). The audience of New Orleans is rich with cultural clashes during this time.

Hirsch, Arnold R., and Joseph Logsdon. "The People And Culture of New Orleans."The People And Culture of New Orleans. The City of New Orleans, n.d. Web. 28 Mar. 2014. "New Orleans History." New Orleans History. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Mar. 2014.

Abbie - Cultural

From 1940-1950, a majority of the population in New Orleans had immigrated from Europe and Asia. On the New Orleans city website, it says, “New Orleans is a place where Africans, both slave and free, and American Indians shared their cultures and intermingled with European settlers...this strategy for producing a durable culture in a difficult place marked New Orleans as different and special from its inception and continues to distinguish New Orleans today”(Hirsch). New Orleans was heavily influenced by the cultures of other countries in the 40’s and 50’s.The diversity of the people in new Orleans also led to a new genre of music they are known for today: jazz. Ian McNutty explains the roots of with this quote, “Jazz is a byproduct of the unique cultural environment found in New Orleans at the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with the vestiges of French and Spanish colonial roots, the resilience of African influences after the slavery era and the influx of immigrants from Europe” (First Notes). The melting pot that made up the residents of New Orleans in the 40’s and 50’s allowed for the creation of a completely new music genre that defines the city to this day. Rather than remaining separate, the many cultures represented joined together to become New Orleans. The city created a cultural identity unique to them that makes them different from any other city in the United States.

Works Cited:

Hirsch, Arnold R. and Joseph Logsdon. “The People and Culture of New Orleans”. New Orleans Online. Web. 27 March 2014.

McNutty, Ian. “First notes: New Orleans and the Early Roots of Jazz. French Quarter. Web. 27 March 2014.