Name: “A New Door for My People”: Black Life in Reconstruction-Era Louisiana
Start: 2025-03-22T08:30:00-05:00
End: 2025-03-22T13:00:00-05:00
Location: REACH Center - New Orleans Public Library

$\u201cA New Door for My People\u201d: Black Life in Reconstruction-Era Louisiana$

Four years after the United States nearly tore itself apart through civil war, more than 330,000 African American men, women, and children living in Louisiana transitioned from slavery to freedom. The next 12 years—from 1865 to 1877—were filled with hope, hard work, and hardship as newly freed men and women sought new possibilities. Hettie Pierce, who had been enslaved in north Louisiana, described the era as a time of “big excitement” when “the good Lord had opened a new door for my people.”
On Saturday, March 22, join the Historic New Orleans Collection, the New Orleans Public Library (NOPL), and NOPL’s REACH Center for “A New Door for My People,” a half-day program exploring Black life in Reconstruction-era Louisiana. Moderated by Mark Roudané, whose great-great-grandfather co-founded the radical newspaper the New Orleans Tribune, the program will feature scholars Justene Hill Edwards (University of Virginia), Tera Hunter (Princeton University), and William D. Jones (Sam Houston State University).
Admission is free and open to the public with advance registration. Limited free parking is available on site. Additional free street parking surrounding host site.
Learn more and register: https://hnoc.org/events/a-new-door-for-my-people