Officials recently announced that Louisiana’s first museum dedicated to the history of the Civil Rights Movement in the state is set to open in October.
Located in the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, according to Ft. Gov. Billy Nungesser, who manages tourism in the state, the museum will open its doors on Oct. 8, offering guests free entry the first week.
Considered an extension of the Louisiana Civil Rights Trail, a tour that takes visitors to the most significant landmarks in the history of Louisiana’s civil rights, the new museum has been in development since 1999 per Axios. In 1999, the Civil Rights Museum Advisory Board was made to help manage the creation of the museum. Officials, however, pushed back the project due to a lack of funds for the museum.
“Visitors will follow civil rights ‘pathways’ revealing how a particular right was denied to Black people in Louisiana, and how activism, demonstrations and more led to real people dedicating themselves and their lives to making rights real,” said a spokesperson for Nungesser per Axios.
We're just getting started – there are many more markers to come across our beautiful state. Kick off your trail adventure at the upcoming Louisiana Civil Rights Museum, opening next month! Stay connected with them on social media to keep up with one of our newest @LaStateMuseum
— Office of Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser (@LouisianaLtGov) September 20, 2023
The new museum will explore the deep history of Louisiana during the Civil Rights Movement, as the state was the site of various significant landmark moments. Following the Supreme Court decision in 1954 that segregation in schools was unconstitutional, the New Orleans’ schools McDonogh No. 19 Elementary School and William Frantz Elementary School were where famed activists Ruby Bridges, Leona Tate, Tessie Provost and Gail Etienne attended class amidst strong opposition against integration in Louisiana and other Southern states.
New Orleans was also a significant place where leaders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference held meetings. At the New Zion Baptist Church in the city, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was elected as the president of the organization. Under Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the organization would go on to organize a number of landmark moments in the Civil Rights Movement as they continued to advocate boycotting and other non-violent forms of protests; along with the 1963 March on Washington, Dr. King Jr. led the SLCC in the Selma Voting Rights Movement and the march to Montgomery.
Louisiana was also the site of the first Civil Rights Movement bus boycott. On June 19, 1953, a five-day bus boycott organized by Rev. T.J. Jemison began after a decision for integration was overturned by the state.
Although the boycott ended with the passage of Ordinance 251 which maintained desegregation, it served as the model for the famed Montgomery bus boycott in 1955.
