Rose Nicaud sold coffee in the French Market for forty years. Born enslaved and sold six times, she became a free woman of color named in the city’s own record. This is her full documented story, beyond the legend.
Louisiana Diaspora
The Man Who Saved the Voices: Alcée Fortier and Black Creole Louisiana
Born June 5, 1856, Alcée Fortier transcribed a landmark collection of Black Creole folktales in the French dialect. This is how to use the record he kept and refuse the wall he built.
Aurelia Godfrey Mitchell: The Lafayette Parish Widow Who Built the South Liberty Oil Field
Aurelia Godfrey Mitchell was born in Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, in 1859 and died in Liberty County, Texas, in 1940. Between those two dates she built an oil and gas estate the Supreme Court of Texas construed twice. The wells still produce under her name today.