Pontchartrain Park Pioneers: An oral history of New Orleans’ civil rights era segregated black ‘suburb in the city’

Abstract

The article was inspired by the Pontchartrain Park Pioneers Oral History Project which began in 2019. Ten Pontchartrain Park pioneers who purchased their homes in this middle class, African American community between 1955 and 1965 were interviewed. This innovative oral history project allowed the interviewees to share their unique stories of pursuing the ‘American Dream’ of home ownership, while living in a racially segregated country and city.