Lunchtime Lagniappe! South Baton Rouge

Join us for our first Lunchtime Lagniappe of the year! Lunchtime Lagniappe is a FREE ongoing series of brown-bag talks every second Wednesday of the month. They start at noon and last approximately 30 minutes plus Q&A.

On Wednesday, January 11 we will hear a presentation about the African American community of South Baton Rouge, one of the first places African Americans could receive a high school education in the state. The three-mile neighborhood around historic McKinley High School was the site of the nation's first successful bus boycott. When laws restricted where African Americans could live, work, learn, and play, South Baton Rouge was a refuge. African American restaurants, theaters, gas stations, and other businesses populated the community, and change-makers, including African American lawyers, judges, clergy, educators, and nurses, helped to sustain the community and other portions of the southern half of Louisiana's capital through the end of legal segregation and beyond.

Dr. Lori Latrice Martin is Professor of African and African American Studies at Louisiana State University. She has written or edited nearly 30 books and many journal articles and book chapters. Dr. Martin's most recent books include America in Denial and Racial Realism. Dr. Martin's areas of expertise are race and ethnicity, racial wealth inequality, and race and sports. She is also co-chair of the Racial Equity Research Committee for the newly established organization, ABIS (Advancement of Blacks in Sports).