30 December 2024
By C.C. Campbell-Rock
Contributing Writer
At least 300 people attended “The Pontchartrain Park Pioneers” documentary premier and holiday celebration at the Millie Charles School of Social Work at Southern University in New Orleans on December 6, 2024.
The film captures the oral histories of ten Pontchartrain Park Pioneers, who settled in the first suburban subdivision built for middle and upper-income African Americans in New Orleans in the 1950s.
At the event, Dr. Clyde Robertson, director of the Southern University at New Orleans Center for African and African American Studies, who wrote and produced the documentary, acknowledged that although there were many families who flocked to the neighborhood during its nascent state, the documentary is framed around ten of those pioneers who still lived at the time of the filming.
“There have been hundreds of Pontchartrain Park pioneers, but many of them have transitioned, so we chose 10 pioneers who were still with us to interview.”
Indeed, Pontchartrain Park was home to the Henry B. Dejoie family, which owns The Louisiana Weekly. The current publisher of the family-owned newspaper, Renette Dejoie Hall, was 15 months old when her family bought their Pontchartrain Park home. in 1955. Her oldest brother still resides in the family home.
The documentary captured interviews with Sybil H. Morial, Ruth Oubre, Edgar Poree, Velma Slack, Velez White, Margaret Adams, Elvira Henry, Yolanda Henry, Stephen Johnson III and Josie Young-Lewis. Several honored trailblazers attended the celebration, while other family members represented those who transitioned after completing the documentary.
Mrs. Sybil Morial, Mrs. Josie Young Lewis and Mr. Stephen Johnson III are all departed.
Pontchartrain Park was developed on the lakefront by the Park and Parkways Commission and financed by private investors.
White philanthropists Edgar Stern and his wife, Edith Rosenwald Stern, and Rosa Keller mapped plans, with the support of Mayor de Lesseps Story “Chep” Morrison, for the subdivision to meet a need for Black homeownership during the waning days of segregation. This speaks to the power of money since Morrison was a segregationist.
WWL-TV reported in 2022 that the 200-acre subdivision built between 1955 and 1961 contained one thousand two- and three-bedroom homes. It also had a golf course, tennis court, clubhouse and stadium.
Many Black homeowners in Pontchartrain Park were professionals, business owners, doctors, lawyers and teachers, and they were middle- and upper-class. Some veterans bought their homes on the G.I. bill.
“It was truly a village,” says Dr. Robertson. His words echo the sentiment of a tight-knit community that thrived in Pontchartrain Park.
Robertson, who grew up in Pontchartrain Park, shared with The Louisiana Weekly his personal motivation for creating the film. He lamented not recording the stories of his own parents and grandparents, a sentiment to which many viewers may relate.
“Mrs. Brown’s article was the launch pad for the oral history project,” he explained. Brown was a new teacher, and her husband was a letter carrier. They bought their Pontchartrain Park home in 1959 on the G.I. bill.
In her article, “Pontchartrain Park – How a New Subdivision Built in New Orleans in the Mid-1950s during the Height of Segregation brought Momentous Changes to the Life of a Black Family,” Naomi Cannon Brown explains that she and her husband, George, and their five children lived at 5544 St. Ferdinand Drive in Pontchartrain Park from 1959 through 2005.
Brown wrote about what it was like living in segregation before telling why she and her husband decided to buy their home. They had been renters.
“When I first saw the ads for homes in Pontchartrain Park, I saw billboards of little black children playing in parks with all types of play equipment and black men and women playing golf. Black people playing golf on a golf course designed and built by a black man, Joseph Bartholomew Sr.”
Brown saw a picnic area, running tracks and a baseball stadium.
“It was difficult to discern what we were seeing in this new Pontchartrain Park subdivision. Not one sign appeared reading ‘For Whites Only.’ We were still in the throes of a segregated city, but here it seemed as though we were in a different world.
“We saw a beautiful new, fully equipped elementary school, Mary Dora Coghill, which was close enough for the kids to walk to school alone if we so desired. We walked inside and were surprised to see the pretty, new textbooks and individual cubby holes where children could store their supplies,” Brown wrote.
“There was a certain amount of pride in the way the neighborhood was founded,” Stephen Johnson III said during his interview.
Robertson and the honorees remember growing up during segregation and “the ditch.” On one side of the ditch was Gentilly Woods, the white enclave, and Pontchartrain Park was on the other side of the ditch.
“When you walked home from St. Gabriel Catholic School, you had to pass through Gentilly Woods. Walking through Gentilly Woods was a conflict waiting to happen. When they (whites) saw us coming, sprinkler systems came on, and dogs started barking,” said Robertson, who attended Catholic school until the 7th grade and before attending Brother Martin High School.
“There was a truce when you walked home between 3 and 3:15 p.m. Anytime after 3:30 p.m., children from the Claiborne School would be shouting ‘Nigga,’ throwing rocks and marbles at us,” Robertson added. “We developed a hitchhiking culture. When we saw people who lived in Pontchartrain Park, we would catch a ride home.”
The official name of the ditch was the Dreux Canal.
New Orleans Mayor Ernest N. “Dutch” Morial and Mrs. Sybil Haydel Morial bought a home in Pontchartrain Park. Mrs. Morial remembered the ditch.
Once you crossed into Gentilly Woods, you were in “No Man’s Land.”
In the documentary, she said, “Jacques was a prime target.” She remembered Jacques having to run home from Sr. Gabriel the Archangel Church.
Morial said she didn’t think moving into a segregated neighborhood would harm her children. She thought it was healthy because there were lots of children there. She also remembered her son, and former New Orleans mayor, Marc playing basketball and football in the park.
A civil rights leader in her own right, Mrs. Morial and Lydia Adams started the Louisiana League of Good Government in Pontchartrain Park.
Like many of the people featured in the film, Robertson experienced the aura of the village of Pontchartrain Park. There were micro-relationships made with residents.
Robertson rattled off the names of the elders and friends and remembered the locations of their homes, including the Henrys. “Mrs. Elvira Henry was always there. Her husband was a pharmacist. She is the mother of Troy Henry, Rustin Henry and Sterling Henry.”
He also remembered Mrs. Adams and the Johnsons.
“Stephanie Johnson tattled on me,” he told the audience, pointing to his peer representing her father, Stephen Johnson III. He recalled the Hithes and that Mrs. Coleman had coffee weekly on her porch for residents.
Pontchartrain Park was and is home to iconic history makers, including the city’s first Black mayor, Dutch Morial, and his son, Marc Morial, also elected mayor and the current president and CEO of the National Urban League, and Chief Justice Bernette Johnson of the Louisiana Supreme Court. Grammy-winning musician Terence Blanchard, actor Wendell Pierce, iconic bandleader, musician and promoter Dave Bartholomew, insurance company owner Leon Fulton, and former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson also lived there.
City Councilman Eugene Green, who spoke on the program and presented commendations from the city, also grew up in Pontchartrain Park.
Of the trailblazers, Robertson says, “Through their stated experience, their beloved neighborhood lives on. The elders are still here but not getting any younger.”
Documenting their life experiences is more important than ever, the filmmaker said. “With reactionary Republicans reducing access to true and accurate African-American history, we will soon lose the actual history that we have,” Robertson explained.
“The whitewashing of intellectual history is doing irreparable harm. Whitewashing this history of the violent history of the Southern Confederate states and other kinds of endeavors makes documentaries like this one quite necessary,” he said.
Robertson created the PPP Oral History Project in 2019. In 2020, the National Park Service designated Pontchartrain Park a historical site, now on the Register of Historic Places.
Robertson says the oral history project is the gift that keeps giving.
By 2022, the project had become the core component for six SUNO courses. Professor Connie Abdel Salaam taught two history courses based on the curriculum, two of Robertson’s humanities courses, and two political science courses taught by Dr. George Amadee.
While collecting oral histories, Robertson and his team pioneered a unique oral history transcription style. The documentary was completed in the summer of 2024.
Robertson worked closely with Gretchen Bradford, president of the Pontchartrain Park Neighborhood Association; SUNO Student Government Association President Dana Bailey; Jamal Williams, affiliated with SUNO’s Student Affairs Department; Rebecca Chaisson, dean of Millie Charles School of Social Work, The Lyceum Club, The Gentilly Fest and the Preservation Research Center.
Dr. William Belisle, director of grants, sponsored research and contracts at SUNO, helped Robertson secure grants for the documentary.
The documentary’s production team includes Dr. Robertson; John Moore, director and editor; Mike Meehan, production assistant; and Nyla Williams, project archivist. The La. Board of Regents (ATLAS) Grant funded the project.
Robertson is seeking donations for a wider release of the film. Contributors can call 504-286-5384. To learn more about the interviewees, visit: https://issuu.com/africanastudiesreview/docs/africana_studies_review_special_issue_sum22/s/16880216.
This article originally published in the December 30, 2024 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.