Collection: Barbara Edmonson collection

Content Description

The Barbara Edmonson collection consists of transcripts, as well as background information in typescript form describing the harassment the Edmonson family received from their New Orleans neighbors for hosting an interracial birthday party for their daughters in 1962. The documents within the collection contain a first-hand account of in person and telephone harassment based on racism endured by a white family in New Orleans for allowing their daughters to invite three African American school friends to their birthday party.

Dates

1961

Creator

Edmonson, Barbara (Person)

Biographical Note

Barbara Edmonson, phycologist and wife of anthropologist and Tulane professor, Ed Munro Edmonson lived on Pine Street in New Orleans in 1962. The Edmonson’s had three daughters who attended Lusher Elementary a New Orleans Public School. The family was well traveled with Dr. Edmonson’s work in anthropology, having lived in Guatemala teaching under a Fulbright grant from 1960 to 1961, before returning to New Orleans in late summer of 1961.