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Reconstruction was a time of great change in the city of New Orleans. The Civil War had just ended, and the South was devastated. Although Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation had done much for racial equality, racial tension and conflict was ubiquitous in New Orleans. In June 1870, at the height of Reconstruction, 17-month-old Irish-American Mollie Digby was kidnapped from outside her home. The kidnapping was highly publicized in the media of the day, and residents of New Orleans followed the story with intense fervor, all the way to the sensationalized trial of two Afro-Creole women. In The Great New Orleans Kidnapping Case: Race, Law, and Justice in the Reconstruction Era, Michael A. Ross looks at why the story of Mollie Digby was so important, and what it reveals about that point in New Orleans history. Below is an infographic depicting life in New Orleans at the time of Mollie Digby’s kidnap.

 

Download a jpg or PDF of the infographic.

Heading image: 1857 view of Canal Street. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

The post Life in New Orleans during the Reconstruction Era [infographic] appeared first on OUPblog.

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Like many of you, I will be soon taking to the sky and landing in New Orleans for ALA.  I am quite excited, not only to see all of your smiling faces, but because one of my best friends in the world lives there and I will finally get a chance to hang out with him and his adorable family.

I will be co-presenting a session on Embedded Librarianship along with the rest of the superb team of librarians from LREI and superstar Buffy Hamilton.  If you get a chance, you should swing on by!

I'm also on the outgoing side of the ALSC Library Service to Special Needs Children and their Caregivers Committee.  The program being put together by committee members (and guest speakers) is Sensory Storytime: Preschool Programming that Makes Sense for Kids with Autism.  This is a presentation that is bound to help libraries and patrons alike!

I will be out and about, so if you see me on the street or on the floor, please say hi!

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By Michelle Rafferty

How real is the HBO series Treme? Here John Swenson reflects on what it was like watching the first season as a resident of New Orleans (he has yet to comment on the second, which premiered last night), as well as what the culture of the city means to its people.

As a writer for OffBeat Swenson has written about the musicians returning to NOLA after Katrina, and in his forthcoming book New Atlantis: Musicians Battle for the Survival of New Orleans he talks about their crusade to save the endangered city. Swenson himself suggested the song in the video “Dogs Chase Cats” from Andy J. Forest’s NOtown Story (2010).

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Are you attending the American Library Association in New Orleans, LA this summer? I’m going! I’m speaking!

In an exciting group effort, I’ve joined with nine other non-fiction authors to propose a session, NON-FICTION BOOKBLAST!

Here’s what we’ve done so far:

1. Formed a group. Once the session was proposed on a mailing list of non-fiction authors it quickly reached its maximum of ten great authors. It was limited to authors who hae new books coming out this year that they could have available to promote at the June conference. Through an email-list, we’ve worked together to iron out details.
2. Proposed a session. The ALA accepts session proposals, but has a specific timeline and format. We’ve met every deadline and our session was accepted. There are still deadlines for sending in handouts, etc, but we’ve got those under control.
   Here’s the description of our session:

Nonfiction Book Blast: Booktalks and Activities for Your Library

Start school with new booktalks and activities from ten nonfiction authors: April Pulley Sayre (Rah, Rah, Radishes), Kelly Milner Halls (In Search of Sasquatch), Deborah Heiligman (Charles and Emma), Loree Griffin Burns (The Hive Detectives), Carla Killough McClafferty (The Many Faces of George Washington), Christine Taylor-Butler (Magnets), Shirley Duke (You Can’t Wear These Genes), Darcy Pattison (Prairie Storms), Carla Mooney (Explorers of the New World) and Anastasia Suen (Read and Write Sports). (Handouts)

Group blog. We’ve established a group blog, NonFiction BookBlast blog. We’ve devised a schedule of posting, so that everyone can post before the conference.
Check out these posts:

• Weird Rocks! Writing the Books that Prove It, by Kelly Millner Hall
• Horse Poop vs. Street Lamps by Deborah Heiligman

I’ll post two things next Monday: a group book trailer and a post about my forthcoming book, PRAIRIE STORMS.

Each Person Promotes. It’s understood that each person will do as much promotion as possible before the conference. Our goal is to fill the room for our session! With ten of us working to spread the word, we hope to create excitement–and attendance.

NonFiction Book Blast!

American Library Association Annual Conference
Sunday June 26, 2011 8 am – 10 am

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