Leatrice Joy Reed Roberts

Abstract

Born in 1929 on Gordon Street in the Lower Ninth Ward, Leatrice Roberts’ memories of growing up in the segregated South during the Depression are lightened by her recollections of community sharing and intergenerational connectedness that made her feel invincible. Leatrice transcended color barriers as a graduate student at Louisiana State University (LSU) in Baton Rouge, and as an educator of white children in the first decade of integrated public schools in New Orleans. As a teacher, she taught a generation of students to strive to fulfill Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream. Before the storm, Leatrice and her husband of forty-eight years left their home in Pontchartrain Park and drove to Paris, Texas, ninety miles northeast of Dallas. For a half-century, Pontchartrain Park was a middle-class haven for New Orleans blacks, including teachers, transit operators, city workers, attorneys, and physicians. At the center of Pontchartrain Park, towering oak trees edged the fairways of the eighteen-hole Joseph M. Bartholomew Sr. Municipal Golf Course.

This interview of Leatrice, the granddaughter of the influential Ninth Ward preacher, Bazile Jolicoeury took place on August 16, 2007, in the study of Leatrice’s spacious, new suburban home in Duncanville, Texas, fourteen miles from Dallas Leatrice was dressed in the one pantsuit she retains from her life in New Orleans.

Leatrice’s narrative illustrates the strength of character of the Lower Ninth Ward pioneers. These pioneers took advantage of any openings inadvertently created by virulent racism to gain a better life for their children. She exemplifies the upbeat, resilient spirit of post-war African Americans. Even the experience of losing everything she owned at the age of seventy-eight was, in her rendition of the ordeal, redeemed by God’s grace and her principles. The account ends with reflections about the rituals of Crescent City sharing and accountability, and how they bear fruit and ease worry, even in Duncanville.

Leatrice dedicates this chapter to the memory of her grandparents and mother, and to her husband, son, and grandson.