2023-06-21 11:46:55
Just outside the city are mysterious and scenic swamps, historical sites that tell of southeast Louisiana’s past, and some of the best fishing in the South. LOUISIANA CIVIL RIGHTS TRAIL The 1950s and ’60s were a time of immense cultural change for Black Americans throughout the country. The scars of slavery, Jim Crow laws, and the rise of the Civil Rights Movement weren’t just in the headlines — challenges affecting the right to vote and civil liberties were being lived daily in Louisiana. The Louisiana Civil Rights Trail is a collection of sites throughout the state honoring the efforts of activists who organized for and dedicated themselves to change. Learn about Ruby Bridges and desegregation efforts in New Orleans’ schools, citywide boycotts, and sit-ins to fight hiring discrimination. Discover Dooky Chase’s Restaurant — where the beloved, late “Queen of Creole Cuisine” Leah Chase hosted and fed giants of the Civil Rights Movement like Thurgood Marshall, the Rev. A.L. Davis, and Martin Luther King, Jr. – as they strategized a path forward. Though Mrs. Chase passed away in 2019, the restaurant remains in operation today by her family, and is one of the most famous Creole restaurants in the country. DISCOVER MORE HISTORIC SITES LouisianaCivilRightsTrail.com WILDLIFE TOURS & FISHING Accessing the bayous of south Louisiana is easy with airboats, swamp tours, and charter fishing outfitters just on the outskirts of the city. Nothing beats a highspeed ride in an airboat. Airboat Tours by Arthur L. Matherne and Swamp Adventures are great options west of the city, while Jean Lafitte Swamp & Airboat Tours and Airboat Adventures are solid choices to our south. For a more serene option, Cajun Pride Swamp Tours guides visitors through the mysterious and remote Manchac Swamp, where we recommend a stop at Middendorf’s for famous thin-fried catfish! Cajun Encounters Tour Co., Beyond the Bayou Tours, and Dr. Wagner’s Honey Island Swamp Tours on the Northshore have small flat-bottomed boats. For a high-flying adventure, don’t miss Zip NOLA in LaPlace, just a 45-minute drive from the city. It’s Louisiana’s only zipline over a swamp! Those wanting to do more than just look at wildlife can find inshore and offshore charter fishing operations nearby, such as Rojas Fishing Charters, Bourgeois Fishing Charters, and Southern Style Bowfishing. CHOOSE YOUR ADVENTURE NewOrleans.com/Things-to-do/Recreation PLANTATION TOURS Louisiana was the site of America’s first sugar plantations, dating to 1751. Over the following decades, wealthy landowners had enormous “big houses” built, financed by the work of enslaved labor and an insatiable demand for sugar cane. Many of those plantations and surrounding cane fields are still standing and have opened as museums in a region known as the Great River Road, a roughly 70-mile stretch of highways between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. These historic homes offer guided or audio tours of the properties, taking visitors on a time travel through Louisiana’s early agricultural history, as well as the South’s role in slavery. Homes such as Oak Alley and Whitney Plantation offer additional insight into the lives of enslaved Africans, with Whitney being the only plantation museum in Louisiana to focus solely on narratives from the enslaved. HOW TO GET THERE Rideshare services offer transportation to Great river road plantations, but they may not offer return rides back to new orleans. If you don't have a car, check out tour providers in the listings section of this guide, which visit the plantations daily.
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