Healing Black Professionals

Honoring the past to shape the future: how untold stories inspire hope

Growing up, I always enjoyed hearing the tales of my elders. But I never dreamed I would be the one to record the history of my tight-knit community on the Westbank of New Orleans called Algiers.

What started out as an oral history project funded by a grant from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, ended up transforming into a book written and published titled: Algiers the Untold Story: the African American Experience, 1929 to 1955 .

Though I had heard the stories of my elders in the community since my childhood, it wasn't until I sat down one-on-one with my community members who had grown up during the Depression that I understood how much they had to endure to survive.

I never really thought deeply about the experiences of my elders and their lives. I soon learned that they didn't have the things we now take for granted. They didn’t have equal rights or access to resources that would have improved their lives or allowed them access to a decent standard of living. They told me stories about how they used outhouses, how very few homes had running water or electricity, and how many people had to grow food and raise chickens and hogs to sustain themselves and their families.

When I endeavored to start this community history project, it was shocking to find that there was little to no representation in the history books about African Americans' contribution to New Orleans’ rich heritage, including music, food, festivals, African culture, and entertainment. ?

Everybody in the world knows about New Orleans. Our City is one of the most uniquely blessed cities on the planet. There is no other place like it in the world. And yet, in the history books, African Americans are largely absent. So, rather than complain about these facts, I endeavored to do something about it. I applied for a grant, gathered the elders, and I wrote the book!”

In the book, I highlight the tragedies and triumphs of my valiant community members in the early years of the history of New Orleans. I give special recognition to those who helped to create the New Orleans culture that the world now celebrates. And I pay homage to the everyday woman and man who are the heroes of my community and who often go unnoticed.

One of the community members highlighted in the book, Elizabeth Pierce, lived to be 109 years old. I had an opportunity to honor her legacy in the book alongside other community members, including Erma Henderson Gibbs, the first African American woman in New Orleans to obtain a funeral director’s license, thus establishing a path for other women in the industry to follow.

The book also shares how our community members experienced segregation and racial integration in parallel. My elders told me that Black and White children played together in their neighborhoods, but they couldn’t go to school together, couldn’t go to each other’s houses, or patronize public spaces equally. Jim Crow laws were strictly enforced at that time in New Orleans and throughout the nation. This caused major disparities in the lives of our people, and continues to be the root cause of many disparities today.

But my elders were resilient in the face of adversity. So I was keen to shine a light on stories of their strength and tenacity in the face of such harsh and deep-seated hatred while enduring the circumstances resulting from the denial of their basic human rights. As a result of segregation, my community - and other Black communities like it throughout the nation - provided resources in the best ways afforded to them, and they pooled their finances to support each other.

This community history book is filled with revelations and moments of touching inspiration as I sought to illuminate American history as told through the experiences of some of its oldest, wisest, and not-as-widely-known citizens.

In my book, I share, "As all human experiences reveal, life is made up of mountains and valleys. And it is obvious that African Americans in the United States have been in more valleys than on mountains. However, the African Americans who lived in Algiers said that although they dwelled in the valley, their faith in God and strong cultural traditions helped them to make it to the mountain.”

Algiers: The Untold Story is available online along with my children's books, some of which I authored with my daughter and husband.

All proceeds from our books benefit the Reaching Out Nonprofit Foundation , which supports college scholarships for New Orleans and Houston Metropolitan Areas students.

?Happy Black History Month :)