Charles B. Roussève papers

The papers of Charles B. Rousseve consist predominantly of collected items, both from his historical research and contemporary materials reflecting his varied interests. Primary subjects include publications from the 1890s from the Citizens' Committee (Comite des Citoyens), which brought the Plessy v. Ferguson case to the United States Supreme Court; poetry and other literature written in Reconstruction-era New Orleans; the desegregation of public and Catholic schools in the 1950s and 1960s; advances in the sciences; local and national politics; and African American history more generally. Other materials include primary source documents relating to the 1960 desegregation of New Orleans Public Schools and notes and manuscript drafts for several of Rousseve's poetry and prose writings, including his influential 1937 The Negro in Louisiana.

Historical clippings and collected items are primarily from The Crusader and The Daily Crusader, historic African American New Orleans newspapers published in French and English. Most of these clippings are of short poems or editorials regarding racial strife in New Orleans, including the Separate Car Act of 1890 which culminated in the Plessy v. Ferguson ruling. Several of these articles are by Rodolphe Lucien Desdunes and Lucien Mansion (also known as Lolo Mansion), Rousseve's great-grandfather. Institutions named in other collected documents are Les Jeunes Amis, La Societe Catholique pour l'Instruction des Orphelins dans l'Indigence (the Catholic Orphans Institute), and the Citizens' Committee.

More contemporary collected materials reflect Rousseve's varied interests, and subjects include Watergate, the moon landing, school desegregation in the South and New Orleans in particular, the Black Panthers, classical music, and other miscellaneous topics. Collected ephemera of note includes a flier from the Urban League warning against the "Reverse Freedom Bus Rides" and various circulars advocating a boycott against the Zulu parade given the racial caricatures in that parade propagating stereotypes of African Americans. Most of the contemporary clippings are from Time, Ebony, The Crisis, the Times-Picayune, and The Louisiana Weekly.

Other materials of particular significance relate to the 1960 desegregation of New Orleans Public Schools. This includes telegrams from school Superintendent James Redmond instructing all principals and teachers to "report to their assigned duties as usual" and a later telegram warning educators that their November 1960 paycheck will be delayed due to state intervention. These materials also include letters of thanks to Rousseve from Superintendent Redmond, Superintendent Walker, and the parents of one of the four girls who enrolled in previously all-White schools in 1960.