Stories of Black Women’s Labor Organizing in New Orleans

A lively conversation with Denise Augustine and Dr. Shennette Garrett-Scott on the history of Black women’s labor organizing in New Orleans.

The conversation will dive into sewing sweatshops, reflect on domestic worker organizing across the 20th century, and look anew at women’s work in tourism over the last half century. Moving from the Civil War era to our contemporary city, panelists will share stories of successful campaigns and the unique challenges of Black women’s organizing here in the South drawing from historical research and direct experience. 

Denise Augustine was born, raised, and rooted in the neighborhood known as Tremé. She is a seventh generation Creole birthed into a community of Griots (West African term for storytellers and culture-bearers). She has guided walking tours in New Orleans for more than 20 years and been featured on several television programs. She learned the art of storytelling through years of sitting at her grandmother’s kitchen table prepping for dinner in a small shotgun house in the Tremé. She is also active in the local Voodoo community and can be found out and about in the city as a Black Masking Babydoll. She worked in the hospitality industry in New Orleans’ downtown hotels for many years and was an Advisory Committee Member for the Don’t Stand Alone exhibit.

Dr. Shennette Garrett-Scott is Associate Professor of History and Africana Studies at Tulane University. She is passionately committed to recovering and telling little-known stories about African American women’s enterprise, labor, and activism. Considered one of the country’s foremost experts of Black business history, her work focuses on African Americans’ quest for economic and social justice. Her award-winning first book Banking on Freedom: Black Women in U.S. Finance Before the New Deal (Columbia University Press, 2019) chronicles the critical roles Black women played in shaping early 20th-century finance. Her work has appeared in top U.S. and international academic journals as well as popular magazines, including Time, Financial History, and Southern Cultures magazines. Her second book, Black Enterprise: How Racial Capitalism Made America, is forthcoming from W.W. Norton. 

In partnership with the New Orleans Center for Racial Justice

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