author
Rodolphe Lucien Desdunes
1849–1928
A leading voice among Louisiana’s Creoles of color, he used journalism, history, and political organizing to challenge segregation in New Orleans. His writing preserves a vivid record of a community too often left out of American history.
1 Audiobook
Nos Hommes et Notre Histoire Notices biographiques accompagnées de reflexions et de souvenirs personnels
by Rodolphe Lucien Desdunes
About the author
Born in New Orleans in 1849, Rodolphe Lucien Desdunes was a Louisiana Creole writer, journalist, civil rights activist, and longtime customs officer. He became one of the important public voices defending the rights and history of free people of color in New Orleans during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Desdunes is closely connected with the Citizens’ Committee that fought Louisiana’s segregation laws and helped set the stage for the case of Plessy v. Ferguson. Alongside his activism, he wrote poetry and articles and worked to document the lives and achievements of Creoles of color.
His best-known book, Our People and Our History (originally published in French in 1911), gathers portraits of prominent Creole figures and remains a valuable historical source. He died in 1928, but his work still stands as both a protest against injustice and a record of a rich cultural world.