Planning to head to New Orleans sometime soon? Supporting local Black-owned businesses is a must-add to your trip itinerary!
Black History is a living history composed of the past, present and things to come. In New Orleans, there’s plenty of each. From the neighborhoods and streets you stroll, to the dances and songs you sing, and even the dishes you eat – Black History has and continues to the pioneer the culture of the Crescent City
Scroll through for a list of the many local Black-owned businesses, shops, museums, and much more you’ll want to visit while in Nola
- Stella Jones Gallery
Stella Jones Gallery takes very seriously the responsibility, of providing collectors, both private and corporate, with art that is high in aesthetic quality and strong in investment potential. The gallery is equally motivated to raise the aspirations of African American youths by providing them with a better understanding of their heritage through the visual arts.
- Dooky Chase Restuarant
Dooky Chase’s Restaurant opened its doors for business in 1941. What was initially a sandwich shop and lottery ticket outlet in 1939 blossomed into a thriving bar and later a respected family restaurant in Treme. Founded by Emily and Dooky Chase, Sr., Dooky Chase’s Restaurant soon became the meeting place for music and entertainment, civil rights, and culture in New Orleans.
- Tremes petit jazz museum
As America’s oldest integrated neighbourhood, Treme has always been an important center of African-American and Creole culture; New Orleans’ beating heart for brass bands, Mardi Gras Indians, and of course, the jazz that is the life blood pulsing through the city.
A visit to the museum will provide an insider’s glimpse of the influences, legends, and historical events that gave rise to the music that has kept this community’s, and the world’s, feet tapping since 1895.
An In-depth Look At The Influence Of African Culture On Rio Carnival In Brazil
- Armstrong Park
Just steps from the French Quarter sits this public park that honors the jazz great Louis Armstrong. Look for the iconic, arched entrance””inside you’ll find sites like Congo Square (a historic meeting place for slaves in the 1800s), sculptures, duck ponds and lots of open spaces for relaxing. This park was designed by New Orleans architect Robin Riley and was named after New Orleans-born Jazz legend Louis Armstrong.
Louis Armstrong Park is greenspace rich in local history and natural charm, perfect for an outdoor outing while visiting New Orleans’ most famous neighborhood.
- Backstreet Cultural Museum
Located in the Treme section, the oldest African-American neighborhood in the United States, is the Backstreet Cultural Museum where visitors find an amazing assortment of memorabilia indigenous to Mardi Gras, jazz funerals and other traditions found only in New Orleans.
The Backstreet Museum, once the home of the Blandin Funeral Home, houses the city’s largest collection of Mardi Gras Indian costumes. These brilliantly colored and elaborately designed costumes are hand made by local artisans. Each costume boasts thousands of beads, shells, rhinestones, sequins and feathers and takes a year to make. Costing upwards of $10,000 a piece, the costumes are artistic treasures.
For generations, the Mardi Gras Indians have been an integral part of Mardi Gras history. Mardi Gras Indians evolved from a bond African and Native Americans shared in the 18th and 19th centuries in the South, when runaway slaves sought safety among the various tribes living in the area.
Today more than 20 tribes are found in Louisiana—White Cloud Hunters, Wild Apache, Flaming Arrows and Yellow Pocahontas, to name a few. These tribes design and create elaborately beaded and feathered costumes worn only on Mardi Gras day and the Sunday preceding or following St. Joseph’s Day. These costumes can be worn only in the year in which they are created
- Le Musee de f.p.c.
A historic house museum and one of the country’s few attractions dedicated exclusively to preserving the material culture of and telling the story of free people of color.
Take a tour of BMike’s Studio BE
Head to the Bywater neighborhood to view the vibrant, sweeping murals by acclaimed social justice artist Brandan “Bmike” Odums. Known for his beautiful large-scale murals celebrating the beauty of black men, women, and children as well as cultural icons like Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr, BMike’s work is re-shaping the New Orleans art scene in a major way.
- Whitney Plantation
Just short of an hour’s drive outside of the city, Whitney Plantation is worth the trip. The plantation museum prides itself on being the only plantation in Louisiana with a focus on slavery. Its buildings, exhibits and memorials are all first person narratives of enslaved Africans. Guided tours by Senegalese historian Dr. Ibrahima Seck, are raved about by locals and visitors alike.
