Race Relations and Residential Segregation in New Orleans: Two Centuries of Paradox

Abstract

Because of its origins as one of the oldest slave trading centers in the country, New Orleans has a unique history in both race relations and residential segregation. Slavery required blacks to live in close proximity to their white owners. This created a mixed residential pattern that was characteristic of other southern cities in the nineteenth century. The rigid caste/race system defined social distance when physical distance was lacking. In the twentieth century, the advent of civil rights and equality for blacks has led to less patriarchal race relations but, paradoxically, greater residential segregation. Blacks have become more residentially isolated since the turn of the century. This essay documents the disappearance of the classic "backyard pattern" in New Orleans.