"This is OUR AMERICA, TOO": Marcus B. Christian & the History of Black Louisiana
type: CreativeWork
description: Louisiana's unique social and cultural history with its three-tiered racial system (rather than the biracial system that governed much of the United States) left the region and the history of its black inhabitants, outside of familiar narratives of United States black history. Marcus B. Christian, the self-trained intellectual, sought to research, and make public, the history of blacks in Louisiana. His career demonstrates the importance of training, economic status, and geographical focus in the production of African American history. Many of the stories he told, through writing and research, retrieved the largely forgotten history of Creoles of color. In fact, his own story was an extension of the black intellectual traditions of that Creole population. Even as his work revealed black Louisiana's unique culture, it also served as the foundation for Christian's own intellectual legacy, one with both material and intellectual dimensions.
abstract: Louisiana's unique social and cultural history with its three-tiered racial system (rather than the biracial system that governed much of the United States) left the region and the history of its black inhabitants, outside of familiar narratives of United States black history. Marcus B. Christian, the self-trained intellectual, sought to research, and make public, the history of blacks in Louisiana. His career demonstrates the importance of training, economic status, and geographical focus in the production of African American history. Many of the stories he told, through writing and research, retrieved the largely forgotten history of Creoles of color. In fact, his own story was an extension of the black intellectual traditions of that Creole population. Even as his work revealed black Louisiana's unique culture, it also served as the foundation for Christian's own intellectual legacy, one with both material and intellectual dimensions.
author: Shy, Yulbritton
keywords: Marcus Christian, Creole, Free People of Color, African American, New Orleans, Louisiana, Historiography
date published: 2010-05-14T07:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T05:29:08Z
provider: University of New Orleans
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of New Orleans