The New Iberia, Louisiana African American Student Civil Rights Experience: 1960-1970

摘要

This dissertation will examine the African American student civil rights experience in New Iberia, Louisiana. The efforts and events that transpired in the city will also be examined, but the focus of this dissertation will concentrate on the college students from New Iberia who participated in movements on the local front (Southern University) and those who participated on the national front (Howard University). This dissertation will also illuminate unsung civil rights heroes whose significant contributions have been forgotten and/or ignored by future generations. The goal of this dissertation is to recognize these pioneers/freedom fighters by describing in detail, their experiences (which were both heroic and terrifying), documenting their involvement in the "movement" and by allowing them a platform of expression to convey the hopes, fears and aspirations that they felt as they led America (and ultimately the world) on this mission toward civil liberty for all of her citizens.;A study on New Iberia (and small towns like it) is critical because of the lack of scholarship that is available on those who participated in the dynamic movements at H.B.C. U's across the country. We are familiar with the more famously chronicled events of the movement like the attack at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, but there are hundreds of individuals in small towns in the South who have not had their stories documented. That is why I embarked on this study because I did not want the civil rights participants of New Iberia to go unnoticed. This dissertation is a continuation of my thesis entitled "Segregation, Integration and the Civil Rights Movement in New Iberia, Louisiana". Although no new interviews were conducted during this dissertation, those that were conducted during my thesis reveal a troubling trend; as more time passes, more of these stories are lost because these people are passing away. Eight of those who shared their experiences with me are no longer living. This study is also essential because it highlights the activism of local students in not only large-scale movements, but novel movements like the Baton Rouge Bus Boycott of 1955. Prior to this study, I had no idea that New Iberia had produced so many activists who would have such an overwhelming influence on future generations who continue to battle for social equality in the city even today.