Identifier

etd-03162017-174422

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Education

Document Type

Dissertation

Abstract

In most of the United States, the central area situated between boulevards is referred to as the median; however in New Orleans, Louisiana, since the Civil War, the area is called the neutral ground. This qualitative study concerns the neutral ground area of the segment of North Claiborne Avenue which runs through Faubourg Tremé, the oldest Black neighborhood in the United States. My interest in this specific space stems from the fact that I understand it as a space of Black education. The problem is that between the years of 1961 and 1969 the government procured the neutral ground as a green space and used it to construct interstate 10. For this study, I explored the narratives surrounding this construction in order to better understand how the educational trends in the Black community of Faubourg Tremé shifted due to the construction of I-10. Black educational spaces, in response to engaging the meanings of the construction, were something not relegated to the brick and mortar institution. Rather, Black educational spaces were those simultaneously embodied and/or places re-imagined in multidisciplinary capacities through community engagements. It is this consideration which functioned as grounding for my inquiry into the neutral grounds of Faubourg Tremé and the broader North Claiborne Avenue corridor. Altogether, this study resulted in increased understanding of how collective spatial embodiment and/or re-imagining of place occurs through communal memory in response to violent infrastructural change.

Date

2016

Document Availability at the Time of Submission

Release the entire work immediately for access worldwide.

Committee Chair

Egéa, Denise

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_dissertations.4415

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