Mixed Race Studies

Becoming American in Creole New Orleans: family, community, labor and schooling, 1896-1949

University of Sussex
May 2015
371 pages

Darryl G. Barthé, Jr.

Doctorate of Philosophy in History

The Louisiana Creole community in New Orleans went through profound changes in the first half of the 20th-century. This work examines Creole ethnic identity, focusing particularly on the transition from Creole to American. In “becoming American,” Creoles adapted to a binary, racialized caste system prevalent in the Jim Crow American South (and transformed from a primarily Francophone/Creolophone community (where a tripartite although permissive caste system long existed) to a primarily Anglophone community (marked by stricter black-white binaries). These adaptations and transformations were facilitated through Creole participation in fraternal societies, the organized labor movement and public and parochial schools that provided English-only instruction. The “Americanization of Creole New Orleans” has been a common theme in Creole studies since the early 1990’s, but no prior study has seriously examined the cultural and social transformation of Creole New Orleans by addressing the place and role of public and private institutions as instruments and facilitators of Americanization. By understanding the transformation of Creole New Orleans, this thesis demonstrates how an historically mixed-race community was ultimately divided by the segregationist culture of the early-twentieth century U.S. South.

In addition to an extensive body of secondary research, this work draws upon archival research at the University of New Orleans’ Special Collections, Tulane University Special Collections, the Amistad Research Center, The Archdiocese of New Orleans, and Xavier University Special Collections. This thesis makes considerable use of census data, draws upon press reports, and brings to bear a wide assortment of oral histories conducted by the author and others.

Most scholars have viewed New Orleans Creoles simply as Francophone African Americans, but this view is limited. This doctoral thesis engages the Creole community in New Orleans on its own terms, and in its own idioms, to understand what “becoming American” meant for New Orleans Creoles between 1896-1949.

Read the entire dissertation here.

A Creole melting pot: the politics of language, race, and identity in southwest Louisiana, 1918-45

University of Sussex
September 2015
353 pages

Christophe Landry

Doctorate of Philosophy in History

Southwest Louisiana Creoles underwent great change between World Wars I and II as they confronted American culture, people, and norms. This work examines that cultural transformation, paying particular attention to the processes of cultural assimilation and resistance to the introduction and imposition of American social values and its southern racial corollary: Jim Crow. As this work makes clear, the transition to American identity transmuted the cultural foundations of French- and Creole-speaking Creole communities. World War I signalled early transformative changes and over the next three decades, the region saw the introduction of English language, new industries, an increasing number of Protestant denominations, and the forceful imposition of racialized identities and racial segregation. Assimilation and cultural resistance characterized the Creole response, but by 1945, southwest Louisiana more closely resembled much of the American South. Creole leaders in churches, schools, and the tourism industry offered divergent reactions; some elite Creoles began looking to Francophone Canada for whitened ethnic identity support while others turned toward the Catholic establishment in Baltimore, Maryland to bolster their faith. Creoles were not the only distinct community to undergo Americanization, but Louisiana Creoles were singular in their response. As this study makes clear – in ways no historian has previously documented – Louisiana Creoles bifurcated as a result of Americanization. This study also contributes to, and broadens, the literature on Acadian identity. Previously, scholars simply assumed that whitened Latins in Louisiana had always identified with Acadia and their black-racialized brethren with Haiti. This thesis, however, suggests that Cajun and Creole are not opposites. Rather, they derive from the same people and culture, and their perceived and articulated difference emerged in response to Americanization. Through a critical analysis of that bifurcation process, this thesis demonstrates how Acadianized identity and culture emerged in the first half of the 20th century.

Read the entire dissertation here.

A dissertation: ‘Mixed-race’ identity among young adults in Britain

University of Sussex
2010

Sophie Kingham

This article addresses the various processes through which ‘mixed-race’ identity is constructed with relation to a national British identity. A multiplicity of belongings which are negotiated on an everyday basis were explored and analysed, alongside theoretical issues and problematic terminology. Based on triangulate qualitative research on young ‘mixed-race’ adults in Brighton and Hove, this research found that many factors contributed to the ability to form a positive identity including the ability to define identity in itself, and the negative impact of being ascribed an identity by other parties. The research also found that many participants were able to positively negotiate an English identity irrespective of their race; contradictory to many theories, although predominantly a British identity was preferred as it allowed them to acknowledge other affiliations. However, factors such as transnational and ethnic practices, familial relations, and racial demographic either heightened or lessened their sense of multiple heritages. These multifaceted identities follow common theories of identity construction and highlight the transient nature of culture and nationality. The research adds to the current literature by exploring more diverse heritages and affiliations, building on current literature that primarily focuses on a black/white dichotomy.

Table of Contents

• Abstract
• Acknowledgements
• List of plates and figures

1. Introduction
2. Literature review
   • Terminology
   • Race & Ethnicity
   • Nationalism & Culture
3. Practical methodology and limitations
   • Finding the Participants
   • Statistical Analysis
   • Self-Directed Photography
   • Follow-up Interviews
4. Brighton and Hove’s Ethnicity and Religion statistics
5. Results and analysis
   • Nationality & culture
   • Transnationalism
   • Childhood Family & Home
   • Visual appearance & racial markers difference
6. Conclusion
   • Further Research
7. Bibliography
8. Appendix
   • Census Questions

List of plates and figures

• Table 1: 2001 Census data.
• Figure 1: Jessica celebrating Chinese year with the Asian society
• Figure 2: The children from Tibet that Alex taught.
• Figure 3: Andy with his younger brother.
• Figure 4: The Greek Church in which Nicole was christened

Read the entire paper here.