Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
USA
MSA
Central City
Suburbs
Figure 9.3.
Percentage of African-Americans
among the general population, New Orleans MSA, 2000
New Orleans is among the major African-American cities of the Old South and,
indeed, of the United States (see Chapter 4), especially in the city center where
blacks have formed a majority since at least the 1970s (see Figure 9.3). Unlike the
rest of the United States, which is becoming increasingly multi-ethnic and where
20% of the population is neither non-Hispanic white nor African-American, New
Orleans remains a “black and white” city, a city where only 8% of the total
population is derived from all other communities combined, including individuals of
mixed race. It appears that racial sensitivity is quite pronounced in the New Orleans
metropolitan area and was rather strengthened in the last decades of the 20th
century.
In 1890, New Orleans was the 13th largest city in the United States with a
population of 245,000 inhabitants. Concentrated on the left bank of the
Mississippi, surrounded by wetlands, and with Lake Pontchartrain blocking
extension to the north, the Crescent City was a dense and crowded city by the
standards of the time. Following reconstruction (Civil War) and despite the lack of
heavy industry, New Orleans managed to ensure its pre-eminence as a rail junction
and transshipment port between ocean and river traffic. The city in this way
became the gateway to the Great Plains. The resulting growth stimulated demand
for urban space and led to the search for land despite the considerable limitations
of the site.
Two technical innovations enabled a first phase of expansion up to the Second
World War: the electric tram (1893) and the screw pump (1898) designed by A.B.
Wood to drain the marshes and reclaim mid-city (7th Ward). An extensive
development program was initiated in 1927 with the construction of the lakefront
