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110-513: New Orleans , 1865: In a disreputable saloon, the Scarlet Angel, sea captain Frank Truscott observes as scheming, gold-digging saloon girl Roxy McClanahan steals one customer's wallet and then sets her sights on him. Discovering a sick woman with a baby, Roxy volunteers to spend the night. She comes up with an idea after the mother dies, stealing her identity and heading to San Francisco to find

220-578: A "lake flood" by pushing Lake Pontchartrain up into the South Shore. At the time of these earlier storms the lower lying areas of the city had little development, so effects on life and property were much less severe. West of the Industrial Canal, the parts of the city unflooded or minimally flooded largely corresponded with areas of the city developed on naturally higher ground before 1900. On August 31, flood levels started to subside. The water level in

330-574: A "per capita income [that] was second in the nation and the highest in the South." The city had a role as the "primary commercial gateway for the nation's booming midsection." The port was the nation's third largest in terms of tonnage of imported goods, after Boston and New York, handling 659,000 tons in 1859. As the Creole elite feared, the American Civil War changed their world. In April 1862, following

440-424: A bloke of her own caliber. This new one... is the mixture as before, nicely tinted, harmless and predictable from the word De Carlo.... The ornamental Miss De Carlo, who also has the makings of a fine, brassy comedienne, is still marking time on a stereotyped leash." New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a consolidated city-parish located along

550-1078: A brief period as Republican governor of Louisiana, becoming the first governor of African descent of a U.S. state (the next African American to serve as governor of a U.S. state was Douglas Wilder , elected in Virginia in 1989). New Orleans operated a racially integrated public school system during this period. Wartime damage to levees and cities along the Mississippi River adversely affected southern crops and trade. The federal government contributed to restoring infrastructure. The nationwide financial recession and Panic of 1873 adversely affected businesses and slowed economic recovery. From 1868, elections in Louisiana were marked by violence, as white insurgents tried to suppress black voting and disrupt Republican Party gatherings. The disputed 1872 gubernatorial election resulted in conflicts that ran for years. The " White League ", an insurgent paramilitary group that supported

660-636: A complex system of levees and drainage pumps in an effort to protect the city. New Orleans was severely affected by Hurricane Katrina in late August 2005, which flooded more than 80% of the city, killed more than 1,800 people, and displaced thousands of residents, causing a population decline of over 50%. Since Katrina, major redevelopment efforts have led to a rebound in the city's population. Concerns have been expressed about gentrification , new residents buying property in formerly close-knit communities, and displacement of longtime residents. Additionally, high rates of violent crime continue to plague

770-589: A concern into the 1740s for governor Marquis de Vaudreuil . In the early 1740s traders from the Thirteen Colonies crossed into the Appalachian Mountains. The Native American tribes would now operate dependent on which of various European colonists would most benefit them. Several of these tribes and especially the Chickasaw and Choctaw would trade goods and gifts for their loyalty. The economic issue in

880-812: A large contingent of Tennessee state militia, Kentucky frontiersmen and local privateers (the latter led by the pirate Jean Lafitte ), to decisively defeat the British , led by Sir Edward Pakenham , in the Battle of New Orleans on January 8, 1815. The armies had not learned of the Treaty of Ghent , which had been signed on December 24, 1814 (however, the treaty did not call for cessation of hostilities until after both governments had ratified it. The U.S. government ratified it on February 16, 1815). The fighting in Louisiana began in December 1814 and did not end until late January, after

990-482: A major concern since the founding of the city in the early 18th century, remaining an important factor in the history of New Orleans today. The central portion of metropolitan New Orleans (New Orleans/ Metairie / Kenner ) is fairly unusual in that it is almost completely surrounded by water: Lake Pontchartrain to the north, Lake Borgne to the east, wetlands to the east and west, and the Mississippi River to

1100-525: A pair of breaches in both sides of the London Avenue Canal . These canals were among those used to channel water pumped from city streets into the lake. The storm caused the flow to reverse, and as water levels rose the entire drainage system failed. Examinations afterwards showed that water levels in these locations never topped the floodwalls, but instead the levees failed with a water level supposedly within their safe tolerance. In much of town west of

1210-476: A result of soil deposits left from the river's annual floods. The site chosen for New Orleans had many advantages. Because it sits where distance between the river and Lake Pontchartrain is shortest, Louisiana Indians had long used the area as a depot and market for goods carried between the two waterways. The narrow strip of land also aided rapid troop movements, and the river's crescent shape slowed ships approaching from downriver and exposed them to gunfire. Despite

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1320-553: A series of public meetings during 1765 to keep the populace in opposition of the establishment of Spanish rule. Anti-Spanish passions in New Orleans reached their highest level after two years of Spanish administration in Louisiana. On October 27, 1768, a mob of local residents, spiked the guns guarding New Orleans and took control of the city from the Spanish . The rebellion organized a group to sail for Paris, where it met with officials of

1430-473: A young engineer who not only supervised the plans for improved drainage and pumping, but also invented a number of improvements in pumps and plumbing in the process. These improvements were not only used in New Orleans , but adopted all over the world. As the 20th century progressed, much of the land that had previously been swampland or considered fit for no other use than cow pasture (due to periodic flooding),

1540-528: Is also frequently described as 1 inch (2.5 cm) in the first hour of rainfall followed by 0.5 inches (1.3 cm) per hour afterward. The scope and scale of the Mississippi River levees, built along either side of the river to keep it on its course, has often been compared to the Great Wall of China . The city of New Orleans is located in the Mississippi River Delta on the east and west banks of

1650-416: Is at or below local mean sea level and evidence suggests that portions of the city may be dropping in elevation due to subsidence . A 2007 study by Tulane and Xavier University suggested that "51% of the contiguous urbanized portions of Orleans, Jefferson, and St. Bernard parishes lie at or above sea level," with the more densely populated areas generally on higher ground. A more recent study published by

1760-558: Is named after the Roman emperor Aurelian , originally being known as Aurelianum. Thus, by extension, since New Orleans is also named after Aurelian, its name in Latin would translate to Nova Aurelia. Following the defeat in the Seven Years' War , France formally transferred the possession of Louisiana to Spain , with which France had secretly signed the Treaty of Fontainebleau a year earlier, in

1870-467: The ASCE Journal of Hydrologic Engineering in 2016, however, stated, "...most of New Orleans proper - about 65% - is at or below mean sea level, as defined by the average elevation of Lake Pontchartrain. Because of the low flat terrain of the New Orleans area, a complex system of levees, canals, and pumps are required to reduce the risk of flooding. The natural levees along the Mississippi River were

1980-559: The Company of the Indies , founded a convent in the city in 1727. At the end of the colonial era, the Ursuline Academy maintained a house of 70 boarding and 100 day students. Today numerous schools in New Orleans can trace their lineage from this academy. Another notable example is the street plan and architecture still distinguishing New Orleans today. French Louisiana had early architects in

2090-625: The Democratic Party , was organized in 1874 and operated in the open, violently suppressing the black vote and running off Republican officeholders. In 1874, in the Battle of Liberty Place , 5,000 members of the White League fought with city police to take over the state offices for the Democratic candidate for governor, holding them for three days. By 1876, such tactics resulted in the white Democrats ,

2200-547: The Gallic community would have become a minority of the total population as early as 1820. After the Louisiana Purchase, numerous Anglo-Americans migrated to the city. The population doubled in the 1830s and by 1840, New Orleans had become the nation's wealthiest and the third-most populous city, after New York and Baltimore . German and Irish immigrants began arriving in the 1840s, working as port laborers. In this period,

2310-605: The Haitian Revolution , both whites and free people of color ( affranchis or gens de couleur libres ), arrived in New Orleans; a number brought their slaves with them, many of whom were native Africans or of full-blood descent. While Governor Claiborne and other officials wanted to keep out additional free black people, the French Creoles wanted to increase the French-speaking population. In addition to bolstering

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2420-659: The Louisiana Purchase of 1803. New Orleans in 1840 was the third most populous city in the United States, and it was the largest city in the American South from the Antebellum era until after World War II . The city has historically been very vulnerable to flooding , due to its high rainfall, low lying elevation, poor natural drainage, and proximity to multiple bodies of water. State and federal authorities have installed

2530-434: The Mississippi River and that the use of the same name for the settlement relates to Native American concepts of the close interaction between rivers and their surrounding land. The name of New Orleans derives from the original French name, La Nouvelle-Orléans , which was given to the city in honor of Philippe II, Duke of Orléans , who served as Louis XV 's regent from 1715 to 1723. The French city of Orléans itself

2640-551: The Mississippi River in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of Louisiana . With a population of 383,997 according to the 2020 U.S. census, it is the most populous city in Louisiana and the French Louisiana region; the third-most populous city in the Deep South ; and the twelfth-most populous city in the southeastern United States . Serving as a major port , New Orleans is considered an economic and commercial hub for

2750-405: The New Orleans streetcar strike during which serious unrest occurred. It is also credited for the creation of the distinctly Louisianan Po' boy sandwich. By the mid-20th century, New Orleanians recognized that their city was no longer the leading urban area in the South. By 1950, Houston , Dallas , and Atlanta exceeded New Orleans in size, and in 1960 Miami eclipsed New Orleans, even as

2860-480: The Treaty of Paris of 1763. The Spanish renamed the city Nueva Orleans ( pronounced [ˌnweβa oɾleˈans] ), which was used until 1800. The United States, which had acquired possession from France in 1803, adopted the French name and anglicized it to New Orleans . New Orleans has several nicknames, including these: La Nouvelle-Orléans (New Orleans) was founded in the spring of 1718 (May 7 has become

2970-447: The panic of 1837 largely ended major systematic improvements for a generation. In 1859 surveyor Louis H. Pilié improved the drainage canals, bricking in some portions. Four large steam "draining machines" were built to push water through the canals into the lake. In 1871, some 36 miles (58 km) of canals were built in the city for both improved drainage and small vessel shipping within town. However, despite earlier efforts, at

3080-420: The port remained one of the nation's largest, automation and containerization cost many jobs. The city's former role as banker to the South was supplanted by larger peer cities. New Orleans' economy had always been based more on trade and financial services than on manufacturing, but the city's relatively small manufacturing sector also shrank after World War II. Despite some economic development successes under

3190-408: The "most unique" in the United States, owing in large part to its cross-cultural and multilingual heritage. Additionally, New Orleans has increasingly been known as "Hollywood South" due to its prominent role in the film industry and in pop culture. Founded in 1718 by French colonists, New Orleans was once the territorial capital of French Louisiana before becoming part of the United States in

3300-543: The 17th Street Canal levee was "destined to fail" as a result of fundamental design mistakes by the United States Army Corps of Engineers. Additional investigations found more problems with the design and construction of the London Avenue Canal, Industrial Canal , MRGO , and other levees and flood walls. While the majority of the city's drainage pumps were able to be reactivated after the storm, some of

3410-715: The Americans held off the Royal Navy during a ten-day siege of Fort St. Philip (the Royal Navy went on to capture Fort Bowyer near Mobile , before the commanders received news of the peace treaty). As a port , New Orleans played a major role during the antebellum period in the Atlantic slave trade . The port handled commodities for export from the interior and imported goods from other countries, which were warehoused and transferred in New Orleans to smaller vessels and distributed along

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3520-507: The Atlantic world. Its inhabitants traded across the French commercial system. New Orleans was a hub for this trade both physically and culturally because it served as the exit point to the rest of the globe for the interior of the North American continent. In one instance the French government established a chapter house of sisters in New Orleans. The Ursuline sisters after being sponsored by

3630-514: The Civil War, fought against Jim Crow. They organized the Comité des Citoyens (Citizens Committee) to work for civil rights. As part of their legal campaign, they recruited one of their own, Homer Plessy , to test whether Louisiana's newly enacted Separate Car Act was constitutional. Plessy boarded a commuter train departing New Orleans for Covington, Louisiana , sat in the car reserved for whites only, and

3740-610: The Confederate cause, his order warned that such future occurrences would result in his men treating such women as those "plying their avocation in the streets", implying that they would treat the women like prostitutes. Accounts of this spread widely. He also came to be called "Spoons" Butler because of the alleged looting that his troops did while occupying the city, during which time he himself supposedly pilfered silver flatware. Significantly, Butler abolished French-language instruction in city schools. Statewide measures in 1864 and, after

3850-588: The East Bank of Jefferson Parish (which at the time did not have a comparable system operational), flooded under up to 6 feet (1.8 m) of water. Most of the city weathered Hurricane Betsy in 1965 without severe flooding, with the major exception of the Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood . The Lower Ninth Ward is separated from the rest of the city by the Industrial Canal and Gulf Intracoastal Waterway . It

3960-622: The French government. This group brought with them a long memorial to summarize the abuses the colony had endured from the Spanish. King Louis XV and his ministers reaffirmed Spain's sovereignty over Louisiana. Nearly all of the surviving 18th-century architecture of the Vieux Carré ( French Quarter ) dates from the Spanish period, notably excepting the Old Ursuline Convent . During the American Revolutionary War , New Orleans

4070-402: The Industrial Canal, residents who did not evacuate before the storm reported that after the storm they were relieved to see their streets dry and the precipitation from the storm successfully pumped out. However, disaster was already spreading from the series of levee breaches. In areas of town far from the breaches, flood water came not in through the streets, but up from the storm drains beneath

4180-424: The Mississippi River and south of Lake Pontchartrain . The city was originally settled on the natural levees or high ground, along the river. In the 1960s, floodwalls and man-made levees were constructed around a much larger geographic footprint that included previous marshland and swamp. Over time, pumping of nearby marshland allowed for development into lower elevation areas. Today, a large portion of New Orleans

4290-496: The Mississippi River watershed. The river was filled with steamboats, flatboats and sailing ships. Despite its role in the slave trade , New Orleans at the time also had the largest and most prosperous community of free persons of color in the nation, who were often educated, middle-class property owners. Dwarfing the other cities in the Antebellum South, New Orleans had the U.S.' largest slave market. The market expanded after

4400-607: The Sewerage & Water Board of New Orleans. The Sewerage & Water Board had the responsibility of draining the city along with constructing a modern sewage and tap water system for the city, which, at the time, still relied heavily on cisterns and outhouses . (A different entity, the Orleans Levee Board , was in charge of supervision of the city's levee and floodwall system.) The Sewerage & Water Board found A. Baldwin Wood ,

4510-562: The United States ended the international trade in 1808. Two-thirds of the more than one million slaves brought to the Deep South arrived via forced migration in the domestic slave trade. The money generated by the sale of slaves in the Upper South has been estimated at 15 percent of the value of the staple crop economy. The slaves were collectively valued at half a billion dollars. The trade spawned an ancillary economy—transportation, housing and clothing, fees, etc., estimated at 13.5 percent of

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4620-403: The United States in the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Thereafter, the city grew rapidly with influxes of Americans, French , Creoles and Africans . Later immigrants were Irish , Germans , Poles and Italians . Major commodity crops of sugar and cotton were cultivated with slave labor on nearby large plantations . Between 1791 and 1810, thousands of St. Dominican refugees from

4730-423: The United States. Before the arrival of European colonists, the indigenous Choctaw people called the area of present-day New Orleans Bulbancha , which translates as "land of many tongues". It appears to have been a contraction of balbáha a̱shah , which means "there are foreign speakers". In his book Histoire de la Louisiane , Antoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz wrote that the indigenous name referred to

4840-404: The United States. The rate of lynchings of black men was high across the South, as other states also disfranchised blacks and sought to impose Jim Crow. Nativist prejudices also surfaced. Anti-Italian sentiment in 1891 contributed to the lynchings of 11 Italians , some of whom had been acquitted of the murder of the police chief. Some were shot and killed in the jail where they were detained. It

4950-536: The ability of the city to pump out rain water while the gates are closed. In March 2006, it was revealed that temporary pumps installed by the USACE were defective. In 2008, Hurricane Gustav impacted the southeast Louisiana coast, but caused minimal flood impacts. In 2012, slow-moving Hurricane Isaac dropped up to 20 inches (51 cm) of rainfall on isolated parts of the city which exceeded New Orleans' pumping capacity, however minimal flood impacts were noted. On

5060-658: The administrations of DeLesseps "Chep" Morrison (1946–1961) and Victor "Vic" Schiro (1961–1970), metropolitan New Orleans' growth rate consistently lagged behind more vigorous cities. During the later years of Morrison's administration, and for the entirety of Schiro's, the city was a center of the Civil Rights movement . The Southern Christian Leadership Conference was founded in New Orleans, and lunch counter sit-ins were held in Canal Street department stores. A prominent and violent series of confrontations occurred in 1960 when

5170-447: The advantages, flooding was always a hazard. The first artificial levees and canals were built in early colonial times . They were erected to protect New Orleans against routine flooding from the Mississippi River. The "back of town" away from the river originally drained down into the swamps running toward Lake Pontchartrain. Flooding from the lake side was rare and less severe as most of the old town had been built on high ground along

5280-407: The afternoon of August 5, 2017, heavy rainfall over a roughly 3-4 hour period caused significant flooding across central sections of New Orleans. The rainfall – estimated as having only a 1-in-10 to 1-in-100 chance of occurring annually – was higher than the city's pumping capacity. Numerous roadways were flooding with several feet of water, vehicles were flooded, and water entered some structures. It

5390-463: The antebellum period. It was the nation's fifth-largest city in 1860 (after New York, Philadelphia , Boston and Baltimore) and was significantly larger than all other southern cities. From the mid-19th century onward rapid economic growth shifted to other areas, while New Orleans' relative importance steadily declined. The growth of railways and highways decreased river traffic, diverting goods to other transportation corridors and markets. Thousands of

5500-466: The authority of the " Fifth Military District " of the United States during Reconstruction. Louisiana was readmitted to the Union in 1868. Its Constitution of 1868 granted universal male suffrage and established universal public education . Both blacks and whites were elected to local and state offices. In 1872, lieutenant governor P.B.S. Pinchback , who was of mixed race , succeeded Henry Clay Warmouth for

5610-524: The broader Gulf Coast region of the United States . New Orleans is world-renowned for its distinctive music , Creole cuisine , unique dialects , and its annual celebrations and festivals, most notably Mardi Gras . The historic heart of the city is the French Quarter , known for its French and Spanish Creole architecture and vibrant nightlife along Bourbon Street . The city has been described as

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5720-415: The child's. By the time she does, Roxy and Frank find themselves back in another saloon, bickering and fighting. The film was based on an original screenplay by Oscar Brodney , however a New York Times review said it bore a strong resemblance to The Flame of New Orleans (1941). Yvonne De Carlo agreed to make it under a new contract she had signed with Universal to make one film a year. Rock Hudson

5830-657: The city attempted school desegregation, following the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education (1954). When six-year-old Ruby Bridges integrated William Frantz Elementary School in the Ninth Ward , she was the first child of color to attend a previously all-white school in the South. Much controversy preceded the 1956 Sugar Bowl at Tulane Stadium , when the Pitt Panthers , with African-American fullback Bobby Grier on

5940-466: The city flooded. Katrina brought tropical storm conditions to the city starting the night of 28 August, with hurricane conditions beginning the following day and lasting through the afternoon. The hurricane itself did not flood the city. Rather, a series of failures in mis-designed levees and floodwalls allowed water from the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Pontchartrain to flow into the city. The Industrial Canal

6050-455: The city had reached that of Lake Pontchartrain , and as the lake started to drain back into the Gulf, some water in the city started to flow into the lake via the same levee breaches they had entered through. In 19th century lake floods, the water soon flowed back into the lake as there were no levees on that side. In 2005, while the levees proved inadequate to keep the lake out of the city, even in breached form they were sufficient to keep much of

6160-462: The city volunteered for the first regiments of Black troops in the War. Led by Brigadier General Daniel Ullman (1810–1892), of the 78th Regiment of New York State Volunteers Militia, they were known as the " Corps d'Afrique ". While that name had been used by a militia before the war, that group was composed of free people of color . The new group was made up mostly of former slaves. They were supplemented in

6270-449: The city with New Orleans experiencing 280 murders in 2022, resulting in the highest per capita homicide rate in the United States. The city and Orleans Parish ( French : paroisse d'Orléans ) are coterminous . As of 2017, Orleans Parish is the third most populous parish in Louisiana, behind East Baton Rouge Parish and neighboring Jefferson Parish . The city and parish are bounded by St. Tammany Parish and Lake Pontchartrain to

6380-511: The city's expansion. The most ambitious development during this period was a drainage plan devised by engineer and inventor A. Baldwin Wood , designed to break the surrounding swamp's stranglehold on the city's geographic expansion. Until then, urban development in New Orleans was largely limited to higher ground along the natural river levees and bayous . Drainage in New Orleans Drainage in New Orleans , Louisiana , has been

6490-527: The city's occupation by the Union Navy after the Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip , Gen. Benjamin F. Butler – a respected Massachusetts lawyer serving in that state's militia – was appointed military governor. New Orleans residents supportive of the Confederacy nicknamed him "Beast" Butler, because of an order he issued. After his troops had been assaulted and harassed in the streets by women still loyal to

6600-503: The city's population. The city became 63 percent black, a greater proportion than Charleston, South Carolina 's 53 percent at that time. On January 8-11, 1811, about 500 enslaved Africans in St. Charles and St. John the Baptist parishes rose up in rebellion against their enslavers, killing two white men in the process. They proceeded to march south toward New Orleans and were eventually controlled by

6710-433: The city's pumping stations were submerged. The few above the water line had no power and the emergency diesel fuel had run out. These few were often tiny islands in the flood, inaccessible even if intact enough to hypothetically be turned back on. For most of the city to the west of the Industrial Canal, the flood levels were much the same as those reached in mid-19th century storms when, like Katrina, major hurricanes created

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6820-411: The city, and natural rainfall . Artificial levees have been built to keep out rising river and lake waters but have had the negative effect of keeping rainfall in, and have failed on numerous occasions. As of 2017, the New Orleans pumping system - operated by the Sewerage and Water Board - can pump water out of the city at a rate of more than 45,000 cubic feet (1,300 m ) per second. The capacity

6930-438: The city. Slab houses in some low areas were flooded, and great numbers of automobiles on the city's flooded streets were declared insurance write-offs . This prompted projects increasing drainage capacity in the worst hit areas. By early 2005, the city had 148 drainage pumps. The greatest catastrophe in the city's drainage history occurred on August 29, 2005 when it was hit by Hurricane Katrina , after which eighty percent of

7040-515: The colony, which continued under Vaudreuil, resulted in many raids by Native American tribes, taking advantage of the French weakness. In 1747 and 1748, the Chickasaw would raid along the east bank of the Mississippi all the way south to Baton Rouge . These raids would often force residents of French Louisiana to take refuge in New Orleans proper. Inability to find labor was the most pressing issue in

7150-613: The competing interests of France, Spain, and England, as well as traditional rivals. Notably, the Natchez , whose traditional lands were along the Mississippi near the modern city of Natchez, Mississippi , had a series of wars culminating in the Natchez Revolt that began in 1729 with the Natchez overrunning Fort Rosalie . Approximately 230 French colonists were killed and the Natchez settlement destroyed, causing fear and concern in New Orleans and

7260-415: The early 20th century when medical and scientific advances ameliorated the situation, the city suffered repeated epidemics of yellow fever and other tropical and infectious diseases . In the first half of the 19th century, yellow fever epidemics killed over 150,000 people in New Orleans. After growing by 45 percent in the 1850s, by 1860, the city had nearly 170,000 people. It had grown in wealth, with

7370-494: The end of the 1960s, a large gap in income levels and educational attainment persisted between the city's White and African American communities. As the middle class and wealthier members of both races left the center city, its population's income level dropped, and it became proportionately more African American. From 1980, the African American majority elected primarily officials from its own community. They struggled to narrow

7480-529: The end of the 19th century it was still common for water to cover streets from curb to curb after rainstorms, sometimes for days. In 1893, the city government formed the Drainage Advisory Board to come up with better solutions to the city's drainage problems. Extensive topographical maps were made and some of the nation's top engineers were consulted. In 1899, a bond was floated, and a 2 mill per dollar property tax approved, which funded and founded

7590-487: The flooding from flowing back out. As breaches were gradually filled, some city pumps were reactivated, supplemented by additional pumps brought in by the United States Army Corps of Engineers . Some of the city's pumps which survived could not be reactivated because of the failures of the canals that they pumped flood waters into. The combined task of closing breaches and pumping the flood waters out took weeks and

7700-459: The foreign trends as well. The French colony of Louisiana was ceded to the Spanish Empire in the 1763 Treaty of Paris , following France's defeat by Great Britain in the Seven Years' War . After the French relinquished West Louisiana to the Spanish, New Orleans merchants attempted to ignore Spanish rule and even re-institute French control on the colony. The citizens of New Orleans held

7810-465: The free people of color as mulatto , a term used to cover all degrees of mixed race. Mostly part of the Francophone group, they constituted the artisan, educated and professional class of African Americans. The mass of blacks were still enslaved, working at the port, in domestic service, in crafts, and mostly on the many large, surrounding sugarcane plantations. Throughout New Orleans' history, until

7920-405: The gap by creating conditions conducive to the economic uplift of the African American community. New Orleans became increasingly dependent on tourism as an economic mainstay during the administrations of Sidney Barthelemy (1986–1994) and Marc Morial (1994–2002). Relatively low levels of educational attainment, high rates of household poverty, and rising crime threatened the city's prosperity in

8030-576: The institutionalizing of laws governing slavery within the colony. These laws required that slaves be baptized in the Roman Catholic faith, slaves be married in the church; the slave law formed in the 1720s is known as the Code Noir , which would bleed into the antebellum period of the American South as well. Louisiana slave culture had its own distinct Afro-Creole society that called on past cultures and

8140-694: The last two years of the War by newly organized United States Colored Troops , who played an increasingly important part in the war. Violence throughout the South, especially the Memphis Riots of 1866 followed by the New Orleans Riot in the same year, led Congress to pass the Reconstruction Act and the Fourteenth Amendment , extending the protections of full citizenship to freedmen and free people of color. Louisiana and Texas were put under

8250-475: The later decades of the century. The negative effects of these socioeconomic conditions aligned poorly with the changes in the late-20th century to the economy of the United States, which reflected a post-industrial, knowledge-based paradigm in which mental skills and education were more important to advancement than manual skills. In the 20th century, New Orleans' government and business leaders believed they needed to drain and develop outlying areas to provide for

8360-459: The latter's population reached its historic peak. As with other older American cities, highway construction and suburban development drew residents from the center city to newer housing outside. The 1970 census recorded the first absolute decline in population since the city became part of the United States in 1803. The Greater New Orleans metropolitan area continued expanding in population, albeit more slowly than other major Sun Belt cities. While

8470-616: The legislature passed a constitutional amendment incorporating a " grandfather clause " that effectively disfranchised freedmen as well as the propertied people of color manumitted before the war. Unable to vote, African Americans could not serve on juries or in local office, and were closed out of formal politics for generations. The Southern U.S. was ruled by a white Democratic Party. Public schools were racially segregated and remained so until 1960. New Orleans' large community of well-educated, often French-speaking free persons of color ( gens de couleur libres ), who had been free prior to

8580-590: The local militia, with numerous casualties on both sides. The uprising has been called the "largest slave rebellion in US history." During the final campaign of the War of 1812 , the British sent a force of 11,000 in an attempt to capture New Orleans. Despite great challenges, General Andrew Jackson , with support from the U.S. Navy , successfully cobbled together a force of militia from Louisiana and Mississippi , U.S. Army regulars,

8690-400: The more wide-ranging flood. That year also saw the start of a project to build a more extensive system of levees on the shoreline of Lake Pontchartrain . After 1945, all land up to the lake had been developed. The city's system was effective when the 1947 Fort Lauderdale Hurricane directly hit the city. Wood's drainage pumps kept the city proper mostly dry, while the neighboring suburbs on

8800-508: The most ambitious people of color left the state in the Great Migration around World War II and after, many for West Coast destinations. From the late 1800s, most censuses recorded New Orleans slipping down the ranks in the list of largest American cities (New Orleans' population still continued to increase throughout the period, but at a slower rate than before the Civil War). In 1929

8910-419: The north, St. Bernard Parish and Lake Borgne to the east, Plaquemines Parish to the south, and Jefferson Parish to the south and west. The city anchors the larger Greater New Orleans metropolitan area , which had a population of 1,271,845 in 2020. Greater New Orleans is the most populous metropolitan statistical area (MSA) in Louisiana and, since the 2020 census, has been the 46th most populous MSA in

9020-490: The price per person, amounting to tens of billions of dollars (2005 dollars, adjusted for inflation) during the antebellum period, with New Orleans as a prime beneficiary. According to historian Paul Lachance, the addition of white immigrants [from Saint-Domingue] to the white creole population enabled French-speakers to remain a majority of the white population until almost 1830. If a substantial proportion of free persons of color and slaves had not also spoken French, however,

9130-672: The province who were trained as military engineers and were now assigned to design government buildings. Pierre Le Blond de Tour and Adrien de Pauger , for example, planned many early fortifications, along with the street plan for the city of New Orleans. After them in the 1740s, Ignace François Broutin, as engineer-in-chief of Louisiana, reworked the architecture of New Orleans with an extensive public works program. French policy-makers in Paris attempted to set political and economic norms for New Orleans. The city acted autonomously in much of its cultural and physical aspects, but stayed in communication with

9240-531: The request and threatened to resign. The game went on as planned. The Civil Rights movement's success in gaining federal passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 renewed constitutional rights, including voting for blacks. Together, these resulted in the most far-reaching changes in New Orleans' 20th century history. Though legal and civil equality were re-established by

9350-514: The rest of the territory. In retaliation, then-governor Étienne Perier launched a campaign to completely destroy the Natchez nation and its Native allies. By 1731, the Natchez people had been killed, enslaved, or dispersed among other tribes, but the campaign soured relations between France and the territory's Native Americans leading directly into the Chickasaw Wars of the 1730s. Relations with Louisiana's Native American population remained

9460-440: The riverfront. As the city grew, demand for more land encouraged expansion into lower areas more prone to periodic flooding. For most of the 19th century most residential buildings were raised up at least a foot above street level (often several feet), since periodic flooding of the streets was a certainty at the time. In the 1830s state engineer George T. Dunbar proposed an ambitious system of underground drainage canals beneath

9570-586: The roster, met the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets . There had been controversy over whether Grier should be allowed to play due to his race, and whether Georgia Tech should even play at all due to Georgia's Governor Marvin Griffin 's opposition to racial integration. After Griffin publicly sent a telegram to the state's Board Of Regents requesting Georgia Tech not to engage in racially integrated events, Georgia Tech's president Blake R. Van Leer rejected

9680-532: The situation for slaves in the New World . Afro-Creole was present in religious beliefs and the Louisiana Creole language. The religion most associated with this period was called Voodoo . In the city of New Orleans an inspiring mixture of foreign influences created a melting pot of culture that is still celebrated today. By the end of French colonization in Louisiana, New Orleans was recognized commercially in

9790-462: The so-called Redeemers , regaining political control of the state legislature. The federal government gave up and withdrew its troops in 1877, ending Reconstruction . In 1892 the racially integrated unions of New Orleans led a general strike in the city from November 8 to 12, shutting down the city & winning the vast majority of their demands. Dixiecrats passed Jim Crow laws, establishing racial segregation in public facilities. In 1889,

9900-402: The south. Half of the land area between these bodies of water is at or below sea level , and no longer has a natural outlet for flowing surface water. As such, virtually all rainfall occurring within this area must be removed through either evapotranspiration or pumping . Thus, flood threats to metropolitan New Orleans include the Mississippi River , Lake Pontchartrain , canals throughout

10010-577: The state legislature passed more restrictions on manumissions of slaves and virtually ended it in 1852. In the 1850s, white Francophones remained an intact and vibrant community in New Orleans. They maintained instruction in French in two of the city's four school districts (all served white students). In 1860, the city had 13,000 free people of color ( gens de couleur libres ), the class of free, mostly mixed-race people that expanded in number during French and Spanish rule. They set up some private schools for their children. The census recorded 81 percent of

10120-425: The storm, thus knocking the pumps off line, which led to extensive flooding in the city. After this, back up diesel generators with sufficient fuel to run the pumps for at least a day if electricity failed were added to the pumping stations . The "Good Friday Flood", as it was known locally, happened when the Mississippi River levels were dangerously high along the levees at the city, but was not directly connected to

10230-401: The street, in some places changing streets from dry to under 3 feet (0.91 m) of water within half an hour. By the evening of August 30, some 80% of the city was under water. (This figure includes areas of widely differing flood levels, ranging from areas where streets were covered with water which never rose into homes to areas where homes were entirely submerged over the rooftops.) Most of

10340-459: The streets. The goal was to drain water by gravity into the low lying swamps, supplementing this with canals and mechanical pumps . The first of the city's steam engine powered drainage pumps, adapted from a ship's paddle wheel and used to push water along the Orleans Canal out to Bayou St. John , was constructed in this decade. However, only a few of Dunbar's plans were actually implemented as

10450-769: The territory's French-speaking population, these refugees had a significant impact on the culture of Louisiana, including developing its sugar industry and cultural institutions. As more refugees were allowed into the Territory of Orleans , St. Dominican refugees who had first gone to Cuba also arrived. Many of the white Francophones had been deported by officials in Cuba in 1809 as retaliation for Bonapartist schemes. Nearly 90 percent of these immigrants settled in New Orleans. The 1809 migration brought 2,731 whites, 3,102 free people of color (of mixed-race European and African descent), and 3,226 slaves of primarily African descent, doubling

10560-651: The traditional date to mark the anniversary, but the actual day is unknown) by the French Mississippi Company , under the direction of Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville , on land inhabited by the Chitimacha . It was named for Philippe II, Duke of Orléans , who was regent of the Kingdom of France at the time. His title came from the French city of Orléans . As a French colony, Louisiana faced struggles with numerous Native American tribes , who were navigating

10670-456: The usually reliable pumps failed in 2006 due to corrosion. This was caused by wiring being submerged in the brackish water from Katrina. As a stop-gap measure, the Corps of Engineers installed flood gates at the mouths of the drainage canals at Lake Pontchartrain, to be closed if the lake water level rises. While this prevents lake waters from flowing into the vulnerable canals, it also severely limits

10780-527: The war, 1868 further strengthened the English-only policy imposed by federal representatives. With the predominance of English speakers, that language had already become dominant in business and government. By the end of the 19th century, French usage had faded. It was also under pressure from Irish, Italian and German immigrants. However, as late as 1902 "one-fourth of the population of the city spoke French in ordinary daily intercourse, while another two-fourths

10890-480: The war, it was spared the destruction through warfare suffered by many other cities of the American South . The Union Army eventually extended its control north along the Mississippi River and along the coastal areas. As a result, most of the southern portion of Louisiana was originally exempted from the liberating provisions of the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Abraham Lincoln . Large numbers of rural ex-slaves and some free people of color from

11000-431: The woman's wealthy relatives, hoping to bring the baby back and receive an award. The dead woman's cousins are there, Susan Bradley not trusting Roxy while brother Malcolm Bradley develops both a romantic and economic interest in her. Roxy plays a pair of suitors against each other until Frank suddenly returns to complicate her ambitions and to demand the money she stole. She becomes pressured to reveal her true identity and

11110-415: The young colony. The colonists turned to sub-Saharan African slaves to make their investments in Louisiana profitable. In the late 1710s the transatlantic slave trade imported enslaved Africans into the colony. This led to the biggest shipment in 1716 where several trading ships appeared with slaves as cargo to the local residents in a one-year span. By 1724, the large number of blacks in Louisiana prompted

11220-406: Was able to understand the language perfectly," and as late as 1945, many elderly Creole women spoke no English. The last major French language newspaper, L'Abeille de la Nouvelle-Orléans (New Orleans Bee), ceased publication on December 27, 1923, after 96 years. According to some sources, Le Courrier de la Nouvelle Orleans continued until 1955. As the city was captured and occupied early in

11330-548: Was an important port for smuggling aid to the American revolutionaries , and transporting military equipment and supplies up the Mississippi River . Beginning in the 1760s, Filipinos began to settle in and around New Orleans. Bernardo de Gálvez y Madrid, Count of Gálvez successfully directed a southern campaign against the British from the city in 1779. The Third Treaty of San Ildefonso in 1800 restored French control of New Orleans and Louisiana, but Napoleon sold both to

11440-429: Was arrested. The case resulting from this incident, Plessy v. Ferguson , was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1896. The court ruled that " separate but equal " accommodations were constitutional, effectively upholding Jim Crow measures. In practice, African American public schools and facilities were underfunded across the South. The Supreme Court ruling contributed to this period as the nadir of race relations in

11550-492: Was cast opposite her and received his first star billing for the role. Filming began in November 1951. The New York Times said "as a fetching Technicolor showcase for a lady who decidedly rates framing" the film "has its points. For some time Yvonne De Carlo has been flouncing through a series of routine costume adventures as a tough but good-natured minx from across the tracks who wades into society and inevitably backtracks with

11660-542: Was compounded by a setback in late September due to further flooding from Hurricane Rita . By the start of October 2005, only a few small areas of flood waters remained within the city, but the disastrous flooding in the aftermath of Katrina left the majority of the city's houses and businesses so damaged as to be unusable until major renovations or repairs could be made. An article in the New Orleans Times-Picayune on 30 November 2005 reported that studies showed

11770-505: Was drained. The city then expanded back from the natural higher ground close to the river and away from the natural bayou -formed ridges. On April 15, 1927, in what became known as the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 , the city was deluged by a downpour of some 15 inches (380 mm) of rain within 19 hours. At the time, almost all of the city's pumps relied completely on the municipal electricity system, which went out early in

11880-557: Was flooded not by rainfall, but by a breach in the Industrial Canal levee, resulting in catastrophic flooding and loss of life in the neighborhood. By the 1980s, the city boasted a system of 20 pumping stations with 89 pumps, with a combined capacity of 15,642,000 US gallons (59,210,000 L) per minute, equal to the flow of the Ohio River . In May 1995, torrential rains (up to 20 inches (510 mm) in 12 hours in some places) overwhelmed pumping capacity, flooding substantial portions of

11990-667: Was overwhelmed when a storm surge , funneled in by the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet , overflowed and breached levees and floodwalls in several locations, flooding not only the Lower Ninth Ward , but also Eastern New Orleans and portions of the Upper Ninth Ward west of the Canal. Meanwhile, waters from storm-swollen Lake Pontchartrain poured into the city, first from a breach in the 17th Street Canal , and then from

12100-426: Was the largest mass lynching in U.S. history. In July 1900 the city was swept by white mobs rioting after Robert Charles, a young African American, killed a policeman and temporarily escaped. The mob killed him and an estimated 20 other blacks; seven whites died in the days-long conflict, until a state militia suppressed it. New Orleans' economic and population zenith in relation to other American cities occurred in

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