422. Elista Istre, part 2.

422. Part 2 of our interview with Dr. Elista Istre, author of Creoles of South Louisiana: Three Centuries Strong. Elista, an avid traveler with a passion for cultures across the globe, founded Belle Heritage™ to offer consulting expertise and create cultural experiences that inspire individuals and organizations to celebrate the beauty of heritage.

During her career thus far, Istre has established, directed, and supported several historic sites and museums, including Vermilionville, a Cajun & Creole Heritage and Folklife Park in Lafayette, Louisiana; Historic Dyess Colony: Boyhood Home of Johnny Cash, in Dyess, Arkansas; and the U.S. Army’s Center for Military History at various Army museums around the country. She has developed and implemented numerous cultural and historical interpretive programs and currently serves as a board member for the National Association for Interpretation (NAI).

1. This week in Louisiana history. June 19, 1953. Blacks protesting discriminatory treatment began a bus boycott in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
2. This week in New Orleans history. Beginning on June 19, 1981, six demonstrators occupied Mayor Ernest Morial's office for three days: Kalamu Ya Salaam, Macio Duncan, Cynthia Riley, Daniel Johnikin and Martin Lefstein. The signs around their necks bear the names of the people killed in what became known as  "The Algiers 7 shootings".  Here is civil rights attorney Mary Howell's account of the events: When a white police officer, Gregory Neupert, was found dead from a gunshot near the Fischer housing project in Algiers on the Westbank of New Orleans, conflict in the community was at the boiling point. And boil it did. "Within days people were calling in about people being harassed by the police, people being thrown up against the wall, young men being marched through the project with their hands up like prisoners of war in massive roundups," Howell says. The Algiers incident culminated a week after Neupert’s death. Police had tortured two young black men, Johnny Brownlee and Robert Davis, at a swamp in a mock execution to force them to sign affidavits accusing two other black men, James Billy and Reginald Miles, of killing Neupert. On the basis of these affidavits, police stormed the homes of Billy and Miles, killing both men and Sherry Singleton, Miles’ girlfriend. After six years of legal work, a $3.5 million settlement from the City of New Orleans was awarded in these cases, and three officers went to prison for abusing Algiers residents during their probe. But no officers were indicted in the deaths of Billy, Miles and Singleton.
   
3. This week in Louisiana.
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4. Postcards from Louisiana. Maude Caillot and the Afrodiziacs play at Dos Jefes Cigar Bar. 

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