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Nothing gives me pause more than learning about Black history in the United States. Nothing causes me to stop in my tracks more than internalizing the deep trauma that my ancestors faced when they came here and were forced into servitude. But, nothing brings me great pride than seeing the culture and life that Black enslaved people and their descendants have built from the ground up.
Over spring break, I participated in a service trip to New Orleans and part of our schedule was taking an urban culture tour. Our tour guide introduced us to the 250 years of history lying within the bustling nightlife and grandiose architecture. In 1719, the first slave ship landed in New Orleans, and the city soon became the largest slave exchange in America at the time. With that ship and the ones after came culture. Religion, medicinal practices, and languages blended and became their own entity in the face of colonization and forced assimilation. Voodoo was not the scary, haunting black magic portrayed in Western media; it was Vodun, a religion in which nature was sacred. The moon, stars, sun, and wind were key lifelines to the enslaved community, but trees were the most sacred, representing portals to different dimensions that allowed Black people to connect with their ancestors. Within Congo Square, a gathering place for many enslaved and free Black people, jazz came to life, dances such as the Calinda spread, and culture was rooted.
In the colorful buildings of pink, green, and blue teaming with tourists, food, and music, the largest slave pens in America were housed. If one looked closely, they would see spikes, nails, and broken glasses still lining the fences, used historically to keep slaves in. They would know that the vicious, graphic movie 12 Years a Slave was based on the real experience of Solomon Northrup right down the street from the French Market. They would learn that Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court case that instituted the “separate but equal” doctrine that bolstered Jim Crow, originated in New Orleans. They would know that Ruby Bridges became the first child to desegregate an all-white school in New Orleans. The culture of the Black people in the city outlived the horrific atrocities committed against them. They also survived Katrina, with the Lower Ninth Ward, a predominately Black area and the lowest point in NOLA, being 90% underwater afterward.
On our tour, we visited the Tremé Neighborhood, the oldest African American neighborhood in the United States. We saw historic restaurants such as the Dooky Chase restaurant that once hosted civil rights meetings attended by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Thurgood Marshall. We passed by the aforementioned Congo Square surrounded by towering ancestor trees within Louis Armstrong Park. We looked into the Historic Carver Theatre where Lil Richard, James Brown, and Ray Charles once played. We admired the Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club that hosts the famed Zulu Parade each Mardi Gras and saw the intricate suits that Mardi Gras Indians adorn each year. We were introduced to a new world filled to the brim with tradition, language, passion, and Blackness.
One of my personal favorite stops was Studio BE, an art studio of nationally known artist Brandan “BMIKE” Odums. His art promoted Black power, Black excellence, and the Black experience. People from Civil Rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer to Louisville’s very own Muhammad Ali took up wall space in the 35,000 sq ft. building. Quotes of strength were carefully painted throughout the art, “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free” and “Surviving is the true magic.” Outside of the studio, there was a mural on a warehouse close by that read in big, colorful letters, “We gon’ make it rain or shine.”
We gon’ make it rain or shine. Words that have been embedded into a people from the beginning, words that reflect the strength taken to survive, to persevere in the face of evil. Words that give light to what the Black people in New Orleans are about—what Black people are about. Words of a unique resilience that have blossomed into art, music, color, and culture, all things that make up New Orleans. Words of pride among our struggle. To be an African American in this country is to be forced to understand that we rose from the ashes after our history, language, and way of life were violently stolen from us. We were forced to pick up the few scraps we had left and sew them together to make them something beautiful. The Black community in New Orleans is a prime example of that beauty and power. My tour left me in awe of that pride, that unique resilience: what Black people in New Orleans are about.
As W.E.B. Du Bois writes in The Souls of Black Folk, Black people often go through life “looking at one’s self through the eyes of others”, causing us to lose sight of our identity outside of how white people perceive us. But that day, I saw the souls of Black folk through my own eyes. I perceived and contextualized Black history for myself, separate from whiteness and its attempts at racialized institutional influence and assimilation that historically have encroached themselves on Black history. Black culture in New Orleans has flourished in its own right, leaving bits and pieces of tradition, history, and influence throughout the city. Taking all of its influences and building on them, Black culture in New Orleans has made the city what it is today. It shows a shining example of Black excellence.
Logan Bibby is a member of the McConnell Scholar Class of 2025 at the University of Louisville studying sociology, political science, Spanish, and Strategic Communication and Social Media.