Race Relations and Residential Segregation in New Orleans: Two Centuries of Paradox

• DOI: 10.1177/000271627944100107
• Author: Daphne Spain
• Published date: 01 January 1979
• Date: 01 January 1979
• Subject Matter: Articles

82

Race

Relations

and

Residential

Segregation

in

New

Orleans:

Two

Centuries

of

Paradox

By

DAPHNE

SPAIN

ABSTRACT:

Because

of

its

origins

as

one

of

the

oldest

slave

trading

centers

in

the

country,

New

Orleans

has

a

unique

history

in

both

race

relations

and

residential

segregation.

Slavery

required

blacks

to

live

in

close

proximity

to

their

white

owners.

This

created

a

mixed

residential

pattern

that

was

characteristic

of

other

southern

cities

in

the

nineteenth

century.

The

rigid

caste/race

system

defined

social

distance

when

physical

distance

was

lacking.

In

the

twentieth

century,

the

advent

of

civil

rights

and

equality

for

blacks

has

led

to

less

patriarchal

race

relations

but,

paradoxically,

greater

residential

segregation.

Blacks

have

be-

come

more

residentially

isolated

since

the

turn

of

the

cen-

tury.

This

essay

documents

the

disappearance

of

the

classic

"backyard

pattern"

in

New

Orleans.

Daphne

Spain

received

her

B.A.

from

the

University

of

North

Carolina,

Chapel

Hill,

in

1972

and

her

Ph.D.

from

the

University

of

Massachusetts

in

1977.

She

taught

at

the

University

of

New

Orleans

for

a

year

before

joining

the

Population

Analysis

Staff

at

the

Census

Bureau

in

1978.

She

is

currently

investigating

the

effects

of

migration

on

career

development;

racial

succession

in

housing;

and

black

suburbanization.

ANNALS,

AAPSS,

441,

Jan.

1979