Highlights the significant historical contributions of some of Louisiana's most noteworthy and also overlooked women from the eighteenth century to the present. This volume underscores the cultural, social, and political distinctiveness of the state and showcases how these women affected its history.

In Remapping Second-Wave Feminism, Janet Allured attempts to reshape the national narrative by focusing on the grassroots women's movement in the South, particularly in Louisiana.

In a world where basic human rights are under attack and discrimination is widespread, Advancing Equality reminds us of the critical role of constitutions in creating and protecting equal rights. Combining a comparative analysis of equal rights in the constitutions of all 193 United Nations member countries with inspiring stories of activism and powerful court cases from around the globe, the book traces the trends in constitution drafting over the past half century and examines how stronger protections against discrimination have transformed lives. Looking at equal rights across gender, race and ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation and gender identity, disability, social class, and migration status, the authors uncover which groups are increasingly guaranteed equal rights in constitutions, whether or not these rights on paper have been translated into practice, and which nations lag behind. Serving as a comprehensive call to action for anyone who cares about their country’s future, Advancing Equality challenges us to remember how far we all still must go for equal rights for all.

Over the course of more than three centuries, the diverse communities of Louisiana have engaged in creative living practices to forge a vibrant, multifaceted, and fully developed Creole culture. Against the backdrop of ongoing anti-Blackness and Indigenous erasure that has sought to undermine this rich culture, Louisiana Creoles have found transformative ways to uphold solidarity, kinship, and continuity, retaking Louisiana Creole agency as a post-contact Afro-Indigenous culture. Engaging themes as varied as foodways, queer identity, health, historical trauma, language revitalization, and diaspora, Louisiana Creole Peoplehood explores vital ways a specific Afro-Indigenous community asserts agency while promoting cultural sustainability, communal dialogue, and community reciprocity. With interviews, essays, and autobiographic contributions from community members and scholars, Louisiana Creole Peoplehood tracks the sacred interweaving of land and identity alongside the legacies and genealogies of Creole resistance to bring into focus the Afro-Indigenous people written out of settler governmental policy. In doing so, this collection intervenes against the erasure of Creole Indigeneity to foreground Black/Indian cultural sustainability, agency, and self-determination.

"When a priest suggested to one of the first governors of Louisiana that he banish all disreputable women to raise the colony?s moral tone, the governor responded, “If I send away all the loose females, there will be no women left here at all.” Primitive, mosquito infested, and disease ridden, early French colonial New Orleans offered few attractions to entice respectable women as residents. King Louis XIV of France solved the population problem in 1721 by emptying Paris?s La Salp?tri?re prison of many of its most notorious prostitutes and convicts and sending them to Louisiana. Many of these women continued to ply their trade in New Orleans" -- inside cover.

The secret history of the rebellious Frenchwomen who were exiled to colonial Louisiana and found power in the Mississippi Valley In 1719, a ship named La Mutine (the mutinous woman), sailed from the French port of Le Havre, bound for the Mississippi. It was loaded with urgently needed goods for the fledgling French colony, but its principal commodity was a new kind of export: women. Falsely accused of sex crimes, these women were prisoners, shackled in the ship’s hold. Of the 132 women who were sent this way, only 62 survived. But these women carved out a place for themselves in the colonies that would have been impossible in France, making advantageous marriages and accumulating property. Many were instrumental in the building of New Orleans and in settling Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, and Mississippi. Drawing on an impressive range of sources to restore the voices of these women to the historical record, Mutinous Women introduces us to the Gulf South’s Founding Mothers.

"Firsthand Louisiana: Primary Sources in the History of the State brings to its readers a companion to the study of Louisiana's history. Compiled for the first time in a single book, the dozens of important, interesting, devastating, and even entertaining firsthand accounts cover Louisiana's history from 1682, when Sieur de La Salle claimed the land for the French, up through recent controversies over the removal of Confederate memorial statues in the state. Edited by experts in the field of Louisiana history who saw a need for a collection of primary sources in the college history classroom, it also provides a fascinating read for non-academics who simply want to gain the perspective of the people- women, men, Native Americans, whites, African Americans, and many others-who created the state's complicated past. Gain on-the-scene views of important moments in the Bayou State. How did the initial interactions between Native Americans, French colonizers, and enslaved Africans play out? Why did colonists overthrow their own governor in 1768, and how did the Spanish Empire react? What did Louisianians say about the coming of the Civil War and its aftermath? How did the Plessy v. Ferguson decision, which originated in New Orleans, and the state Constitution of 1898 set the stage for Louisiana's race relations in the twentieth-century? What effects did World War II have on the state? Closer to our own time, what can we learn from firsthand accounts about the "Race from Hell," the dangers of the "chemical corridor," and the debate over how the Civil War is remembered? Read letters, speeches, reports, diaries, and more to gain a deeper understanding of Louisiana, its peoples and cultures, and its history"--