The Office of Tourism launches the Louisiana Civil Rights Trail. It’s a series of markers across the state and an interactive website detailing the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 60s. Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser said they interviewed over 400 people to put it together.
“You will be able to go to the website and download incredible interviews, videos that tell the story from those people that lived it,” said Nungesser.
Nungesser said he was inspired to create the trail after attending a tourism conference. He credits students at Southern and Grambling for their dedication and fact-checking and his staff for making the trail come to life.
Nungesser said the current trail consists of 15 site markers, commemorating Civil Rights Era in Louisiana and the website offers a narrative to complement each marker.
“There will be markers put up, some of them like Dooky Chase Restaurant is a place where a lot of things took place. Some of them will be markers where the building is no longer there,” said Nungesser.
One marker commemorates, the McDonogh Three, three 6-year-old African American girls, who were the first to attend an all-white school in New Orleans in 1960. Nungesser said one of the three, Leona Tate, shares her experience.
“Leona Tate tells it herself. It’s pretty powerful. Those things you just can’t imagine what the feeling was like back then and to hear it from her lips and those stories are pretty incredible,” said Nungesser.
The website is LouisianaCivilRightsTrail.com
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