Our People and Our History

In Our People and Our History, originally published in French in 1911 and translated into English in 1973, Rodolphe Lucien Desdunes records the lives of fifty prominent Creoles who lived in New Orleans at the end of the nineteenth century. Although he received little formal education, Desdunes -- himself a Creole -- was an articulate observer of his times and culture. His portraits of black doctors, lawyers, teachers, musicians, artists, and writers are powerful evidence of the extraordinary role that Creoles played in the cultural and political history of Louisiana.

Sister Dorothea Olga McCants belonged to the Daughters of the Cross religious order at St. Vincent Academy in Shreveport, Louisiana