Date of Award

Fall 12-2011

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.

Degree Program

History

Department

History

Major Professor

Dr. Connie Atkinson

Second Advisor

Dr. Robert DuPont

Third Advisor

Dr. Nikki Brown

Abstract

Although historians have done in-­‐depth researched on Black police in the South, before the Civil War and during Reconstruction, they seldom assess black policemen’s role in New Orleans between the Battle of Liberty Place and 1913. The men discussed here argue that despite the hardening racial attitudes in Post-­‐ Reconstruction South, in New Orleans opportunity still existed for Blacks to serve in positions of authority, perhaps a heritage of the city’s earlier tri-­‐partite racial order. The information obtained from primary sources such as police manuals, beat books, and newspapers, counters the widely held belief that African American presence in the police during this period was completely defined by Jim Crow. This work presents updated and corrected evidence that Blacks were enrolled in the New Orleans Police Department during the time of Jim Crow, challenging the notion that after 1909 Blacks in New Orleans were not part of the police department.

Rights

The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.

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