DISPLACING Blackness

Hidden within the history of public and subsidized housing in New Orleans are narratives of Black women who engaged in decades-long advocacy and organizing practices that stood on the margins of traditional Civil Rights and social justice activism.

The biographies, political agency, activism, struggles, triumphs, setbacks, experiences, and advocacy efforts of low-income Black women are often invisible or marginalized in historical narratives of Black freedom struggles and women’s liberation movements. 

Circumscribed by opportunity and inequity, possibilities and restrictions, affordability and surveillance, low-income Black women organized to improve the lives of public housing residents, transform housing policies, advance tenant rights, encourage resident engagement, support policy changes, and participate in community building efforts through partnerships and collaborations.

Unable to actualize many rights gained during the Civil Rights Movement, low-income black women in New Orleans, like their counterparts in urban cities across the country, developed mechanisms to address the harsh circumstances of the everyday violence of racist and sexist housing policies and the irresponsibility of government actions and inactions that accompanied living in ‘the projects.’ 

The Black women who transformed public housing in New Orleans are acknowledged and celebrated in the work of DISPLACING Blackness.

Albertine Arseno

Alicia Powell

Alma Ranker

Ann Boatner

Anna Mary White

Angela Winfrey

Atlee Berry

Augusta Kerry

Barbara Carter

Barbara Chapman

Barbara Jackson

Barbara Villere

Barbara Ann Wallace

Bernadine Gibson

Bertha Robbins

Betty Carter

Beverly McGee

Beverly Morgan

Bonnie Peters

Carol Fobbs

Carol Stewart

Catherine Catchings

Cecilia Martin

Charlene Slack

Cheryl Carter

Constance Haynes

Claudette LaBlanc

Crystal Jones

Cynthia Doughty

Cynthia Thomas

Cynthia Wiggins

Deborah Davis

Delores Morrel

Delores Francois

Deloris Bourgeois

Demetria Farve

Desiree Williams

Dianne Ross Lee

Dianne Weston

Dixie Anne Dupre

Donna Johnigan

Doris Monroe

Doris Sears

Doris Thomas

Dorothy Allen

Edna Marks

Edith Weston

Elizabeth Osbey

Eldora Brown

Emelda Paul

Ernestine Holmes

Evirda Thomas

Fannie Marshall

Fannie McKnight

Francina Scott

Geraldine Lewis

Gloria Degree

Grace Jackson

Helen C. Lang

Hilda LeBlanc

Irene B. Griffin

Irma L. Jordan

Jamelle Farlough

Janice Joseph

Jocquelyn Marshall

Jessie Brock

Jo Anne Rusk

Joyce Quinn

Judith Watson

Julie Andrews

June Mahoney

Karen Johnson

Katherine C. Epps

Kathleen Matthews

Katie Coney

Kawana Jasper

Kim Piper

Laura French

Laura Hampton Johnson

Leah Green

Lela Adams

Leola Bean

Linda Young Turner

Lillie Clark

Lillie Richardson

Lois Watson

Lolita King

Louise Bagneris

Lula Washington

Maggie Jackson

Margaret McMillian

Margie Mae Johnson

Marilyn Eddington

Marion Johnson

Marla Taylor

Mary Johnson

Mary Stirgus

Mary Ann Tibbet

Marva Taylor

Mildred Bennet

Mildred Craig

Mildred R. Taylor

Mildred Rockett

Melverleane Banks Gaines

Moweaner Mauldin

Myrtis Alexander

Naomi Miner

Naomi Kinchens

Norma Nora

Ollie Pendleton

Pashenia Thomas

Patricia Herbert

Paula Taylor

Pearlette Godfrey

Peggy Landry

Rose Mary Brown

Sally Johnson

Sandra Gail August

Sharon Jasper

Sheri Lynn Henry

Shirley Bush

Shirley Washington

Shirley Williams

Stephanie Mingo

Sylvia Barbara

Sylvia Joseph

Theresa Nicholas

Ursula Spencer

Valeria Robinson

Venessa Pichon

Viney D. Reynolds

Virgil Green

Yvonne Marrero

Yvonne Miles