New historic marker honors Black business district on Claiborne destroyed by I-10

On the old Claiborne Avenue, rows of Black-owned businesses offered most everything Black New Orleanians needed before they were permitted to shop on Canal Street and in other parts of the city.

There were pharmacies, grocery stores, shops, funeral homes, insurance companies, barbers, photo studios and theaters. And more than 500 towering oak trees lined either side of the neutral ground of what was known from the 1830s to the 1970s as the Main Street of Black New Orleans.

But when construction started on Interstate 10, the trees were uprooted to make way for the highway. Many of the residents and most of the businesses that once operated there were forced out too.

“It was a devastation for those of us that were here,” said Raynard Sanders, historian and executive director of the Claiborne Avenue History Project. “I was on my way to school and they were just tearing down oak trees. We had no forewarning.”

New Orleans City Councilman JP Morrell called the destruction of the old Claiborne Avenue, its oak trees and its businesses “a socio-economic massacre.” 

On Saturday, about 60 people met at the Autocrat Pleasure and Social Club on St. Bernard and walked, marched and danced down to Claiborne in a second line with the Treme Sidewalk Steppers to celebrate the placement of a new historical marker that honors the centers of business, culture and life for Black New Orleans that were lost when the highway was constructed.

The marker, installed just before 6 a.m. Saturday, is a project of the Plessy and Ferguson Initiative, run by descendants of Homer Plessy and John Howard Ferguson, the named participants in the landmark Plessy vs. Ferguson case that legalized American segregation.

The initiative worked with community organization Ujamaa Economic Development Corp. and Washington D.C.-based Common Ground USA to erect the marker under the Claiborne overpass.

“The importance of the marker is to commemorate the businesses, the beautiful trees and the beautiful people that thrived in this area before the bridge came and the survival now of people who are still proud and gather under the bridge,” said Keith Plessy, a descendant of Homer Plessy.

He added that he hoped the story of the old Claiborne Avenue would inspire people to “bring back that spirit of a community that has a village concept where everybody cares about everybody.”

Joan Rhodes, now the president of the Claiborne Avenue Merchants and Business Association, came from a family of business owners who set up shop along Claiborne before the interstate.

The Rhodes family businesses included funeral homes and insurance and transportation companies. Those businesses operated for more than 140 years on and near Claiborne. She said she still remembers what it felt like to look out and see Claiborne stripped of its oaks.

“When I was a little girl on Claiborne Avenue, the 1700 block, I remember one day I looked out the window and cried literal tears because the oak trees were gone,” she said. “We can’t bring back all of that but … I’m just so glad that we recognize it and that we’re trying to do something about the spirit” of what was once on Claiborne.

While she said she is proud to look on and see the marker, Rhodes also encouraged those who want celebrate the history of Claiborne to also look to the future by supporting the Black-owned businesses still there.

“Seek out those businesses that are currently active and participate with them,” she said. “When you have events, call us. We can supply the services and products that you need.”