PLESSY DAY 2013
The Music and the Movement:
Examining the Past to Build Bridges for Our Future
Friday, June 7 at 5:30pm
Begins at Press & Royal Streets,
in New Orleans’ Faubourg Marigny
The Plessy & Ferguson Foundation, The NOCCA Institute, and The Crescent City Peace Alliance are proud to come together with the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site, Students at the Center, and United Teachers for New Orleans to celebrate Plessy Day 2013, on Friday, June 7 at 5:30pm.
Plessy Day is an annual event that honors the long struggle for civil rights in Louisiana, celebrates our progress, and creates intergenerational conversations on race, class, and equity. This year’s theme is “examining the past to build bridges for our future” and will be marked by a commemoration of agents of change and the music of the movement.
We will begin the event at the corner of Press and Royal Streets, the historic site of Homer Plessy’s 1892 arrest. Together we will mark the sacred site, then second line with Carl LeBlanc and the Big Easy Street Band to NOCCA’s campus at 2800 Chartres Street. The evening will feature a tribute to Uncle Lionel, readings from Students at the Center, and a panel discussion on the connections between music and the civil rights movement featuring civil rights activist and Freedom Rider Doratha “Dodie” Smith-Simmons and longtime activist, poet, and teacher Kalamu ya Salaam, moderated by local cultural worker Wendy O’Neil.
Light fare will be provided by Mariott New Orleans. Literature related to the event will be available for purchase from The Community Book Store.
This event is free and open to the public.