Antoine Louis Collas' "Portrait of a Free Woman of Color Wearing a Tignon," painted in oils in 1829, measures 44 x 36 inches. Collas was famed for his miniatures, but was also a gifted portraitist working on a larger scale.
François Fleischbein is believed to have painted “Portrait of a Free Woman of Color” in 1840. Many speculate that the subject may have been the voodoo priestess Marie Laveau, since a free woman of color must have been of high stature in New Orleans to have sat for her portrait
Black commuters assembled at pickup points for free rides during the five-day Baton Rouge bus boycott of 1953. Horatio Thompson, the first African American in the South to own an Esso gasoline station franchise, sold gas at cost to carpool drivers.
New Orleans based rapper Big Freedia speaks about bounce music.
Jules Lion, one of antebellum New Orleans' successful free black artists, illustrated the sheet music “Free Market Waltz.”
New Orleans' unique three-tiered racial system which accepted free people of color as a separate caste from enslaved blacks provided a unique opportunity for free black artists.
Founded in 1963, the Free Southern Theater was designed as a cultural and educational extension of the civil rights movement in the South.
In this portrait, a free woman of color wears a yellow headdress and a black dress with an elaborate lace collar, as well as a circular pin inset with stones pinned at the neckline, and drop pendant earrings, also inset with stones.
After the Louisiana Purchase, lawmakers passed numerous restrictions against free people of color, though they still experienced some economic gains and opportunities.
In colonial Louisiana free people of color developed thriving communities and had access to privileges that enslaved people did not.
One-Year Subscription (4 issues) : $25.00
Two-Year Subscription (8 issues) : $40.00
