Date of Award
Spring 5-2016
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.A.
Degree Program
History
Department
History
Major Professor
Connie Atkinson
Second Advisor
Mary Niall Mitchell
Third Advisor
Charles Chamberlain
Abstract
In 1942, in New Orleans a group of intellectual and artistic African-Americans, led by Marcus B. Christian, formed an art club named Les Cenelles Society of Arts and Letters. Les Cenelles members both looked to New Orleans’s Afro-Creole population as the pinnacle of African American artistic achievements and used their example as a model for artists who sought to effect social change. Many of the members of Les Cenelles wrote for the Louisiana Federal Writers’ Program (FWP). A key strategy the members of Les Cenelles used to accomplish their goals was gaining the support of white civic leaders, in particular Lyle Saxon. Christian and Saxon’s relationship was unusual in the 1940s Jim Crow era in the sense that it was built upon mutual respect and admiration. This thesis examines both the efforts of Les Cenelles and the black division of the FWP, as well as Christian and Saxon’s relationship.
Recommended Citation
Wood, Derek, "“Art had almost left them:” Les Cenelles Society of Arts and Letters, The Dillard Project, and the Legacy of Afro-Creole Arts in New Orleans" (2016). University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations. 2202.
https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/2202
Included in
African History Commons, Cultural History Commons, Intellectual History Commons, Political History Commons, Public History Commons, Social History Commons, United States History Commons
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.