In the 1900s, when big oil arrived in the Big Easy, many Louisianans discovered that the promise of their American Dream was actually a waking nightmare of blood and oil.
in the first half of the 1900s
Louisiana sugar plantations on the Mississippi River became oil refineries
New Orleans became a tourist destination
Jim Crow discrimination defined every day life for so many
in the second half of the 1900s
The plantation houses not torn down for refineries 50 years ago became house museums
The local civil rights and racial justice movements led to labor organizing and environmental justice efforts in the region now known as “Cancer Alley”
