Talk:Storyville, New Orleans

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Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment[edit]

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 29 January 2021 and 18 May 2021. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): "psithurism311", Tgipso20, Chrissylouisejones, Samanthagioiosa. Peer reviewers: QuickPeanut, Unojlpetkov, Cjserosk.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 10:15, 17 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment[edit]

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 16 August 2021 and 8 December 2021. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): AshleyQman. Peer reviewers: Randall504.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 10:15, 17 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

All that Jazz[edit]

Could someone please explain who and where some early form of jazz is called "Storyville jazz" as the article claims? Wondering, -- Infrogmation 06:56, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)

The Mayor Beherman quote is in Rose's book among other places (it was long fairly well known). I've edited down the description of San Francisco "cribs" -- rather interesting stuff, but a long discussion seems tangential to this article. If we don't yet have that info in an article on historic prostitution in San Francisco, perhaps we should. If we do, a link to that article might be better here than a paragraph going over that material. -- Infrogmation 02:57, 8 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Your edits are interesting because, according to Rosen, black men were not permitted access to New Orleans' brothels. --Strothra 03:01, 8 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]
well, that is unless Rosen is restricting her study of New Orleans only to what you consider as "Storyville proper." Further, note that I cited a book by Ruth Rosen (a woman), a distinguished historian and journalist at the University of California - Berkeley.--Strothra 03:04, 8 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I need to divide this into a couple of points. 1) I say "Storyville proper" as there is some debate among recent scholars as to whether the term "Storyville" should be widened to include the quasi-legal brothel district on the Uptown side of Canal Street in addition to the downtown district discussed in the article. Some New Orleanians of the time (including Louis Armstrong) included the Uptown brothel area when they refered to "Storyville". (Perhaps that should be mentioned in an eventual expansion of the article.) 2)The Uptown district (around where the new City Hall is now) did indeed have black prostitutes serving black johns. 3)Black or colored men were not legally allowed to be johns in the downtown district, but there was no bar on black men as employees -- blacks worked in the districts in various contexts including musicians, butlers, janitors, doormen, etc, even as vendors roving the streets on wagons and with push carts. (As there were other areas in the US South in the era of segregation where black men were absolutely prohibited in all contexts, this distinction is worth noting to be precise.) Cheers, -- Infrogmation 03:20, 8 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

2 removed sentences[edit]

I have removed from the article sentences reading "In New Orleans, brothels were segregated into black and white houses. Black men, however, were not permitted to access either house." The second sentence is touched on above; black men couldn't be johns in the downtown houses for white johns but there where other places within the city where they could. They were "permitted to access" the houses for white johns to the extent that they were hired help (if "permitted access" is intended as a euphamism for hiring the prostitutes, plainer language would be clearer.) Statement that brothels were "segregated into black and white houses" seems inaccurate as well; for example one house offered an "around the world tour" for well heeled customers featuring women from every continent. -- Infrogmation 03:39, 8 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Rosen's research is clear and well-cited. Black men were not legally allowed to purchase the services of either black or white brothels in New Orleans. Simply because you disagree with the historical research on the topic by well respected academic and historian does not mean that you should remove the cited information without provided counter citations. If you can provide counter citations, then there would clearly be a dispute over this topic which exists in the academic realm and thus both sides must be presented in the article. Otherwise cited material from a reliable source should remain in the article per wiki policies on citation and verifiability. No claim was made that black men were not allowed to enter as workers. I entered more specific text to this effect. --Strothra 03:47, 8 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]
As I mentioned on your talk page, I have not read Rosen's work, but until I have a chance to I cast no aspersions on it what soever and have no reason to doubt that it is a good work. I am trying to be specific on a few points according to what I do have some information on. (On a few points I wasn't sure if the problem might be an inaccurate sumary-- for example the laws regulating Storyville narrowly defined are not the same as for all of New Orleans.) While I am at present ignorant about the work you mentioned, I am not completely ignorant of the subject of Storyville. In addition to reading a fair amount of published material I have worked with some original oral history and sources. I would like a citation of the particular law that stating no colored man could use a brothel anywhere in the city. Perhaps there was such which I am not familiar with-- if so, it was an example of a quite selectively enforced law, as there were very open brothels for colored men which were far from secret. I'd also like to know what years the law was in force. BTW, by some readings of the Storyville ordinences, prostitution and patronizing prostitutes was illegal for people of all colors, as the laws specified additional restrictions and penalties for such activities outside of the District without specifically repealing the earlier laws making such activities illegal throughout the State of Louisiana. Cheers, -- Infrogmation 04:13, 8 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]


I hardly assume that you are ignorant of Storyville's history and are probably far more aware of it's popular history than myself. For that information regarding the unpermitted nature of black men purchasing services in brothels Rosen actually cites your book by Rose entitled, Storyville, page 67. She also cite Herbert Asbury's The Barbary Coast. She does not cite specific law, although I'm quite sure that all of those laws and regulations are publicly accesible using only a little time in the state archives. Her mentioning of it is made in passing since she uses it as only a small part of a much larger study of prostitution throughout the country. Due to the Victorian concept of black sexuality and its transition fo the Progressive era, I feel that any such brothels designated solely for black men would have provoked serious social reaction which would not have been missed by such a study. --Strothra 04:30, 8 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Where is Black Storyville?[edit]

There was a second Storyville for blacks, commonly called "Black Storyville" on the uptown side of Canal Street. See the map in Subversive Sounds: Race and the Birth of Jazz in New Orleans by Charles Hersch. This was a rough district, with some of the wilder early jazz halls, like the famous Funky Butt Hall. Why isn't it here? Is it listed somewhere else? 76.22.20.146 (talk) 07:42, 24 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It's mentioned briefly at the end of the fourth paragraph. It was never a part of official Storyville, but probably merits a better description. The only source I have is Asbury and he doesn't talk about it much. If you have a copy of Subversive Sounds, why don't you add some text and a reference? Rees11 (talk) 14:35, 24 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, it was around where the City Hall complex is now. I agree that's a point that should be expanded on. (Though as you can see above in the talk page, at least one editor seems to dispute it.) -- Infrogmation (talk) 16:45, 24 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I think the dispute was more over the law than the practice, understandable as the law was apparently ambiguous. I don't think anyone disputes the existence of "black Storyville," although I'm not sure everyone agrees it was called that. And since it was never a legally defined district, it would be hard to define the boundaries. Rees11 (talk) 21:11, 25 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Removed Parenthetical[edit]

I removed the parenthetical "(the term "crib" originated in San Francisco's red-light district)" because this is certainly untrue. "Crib" is used in Dicken's 1838 "Oliver Twist" in this general context, which was almost certainly not the first use thereof in English literature and I find it nigh impossible that San Francisco slang made its way to early Victorian England, where Charles Dickens picked it up. San Francisco in 1838 was a sleepy backwater of less than 1,000 residents, an old mission town, it didn't start to grow until the Gold Rush 11 years after Oliver Twist was published. There is no way the parenthetical I removed is accurate. Bizlawprof 20:31, 15 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Citation Needed?[edit]

Does anyone have a source to show they were peddling drugs out of Storyville as well? MsGingerHoneycutt (talk) 18:44, 18 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]


Additional brothel proprietors[edit]

From the listed May O'Brien you are redirected to May Lorna O'Brien, which obviously wasn't any of the brothel proprietors. 165.225.80.106 (talk) 07:54, 23 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified[edit]

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Music[edit]

Hello all, I have just added new information to the music section and cleaned up the syntax of the section with cited sources."psithurism311" (talk) 23:20, 30 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Adding some info on Archaelogical dig[edit]

I was thinking of adding some content about the recent archaelogical digs on Bienville street that found some items from Storyville. I don't know if it will add much to the article, but it points to children being very present in the area which would connect to Louis Armstrong spending time there as a child as well. Anyone have thoughts? AshleyQman (talk) 16:00, 1 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Reference link broken[edit]

The reference link to number 17 is broken. I'm trying to see if I can find an alternate source before I delete it. Anyone know where to find a reference to the ladies waving to the trains?AshleyQman (talk) 00:06, 2 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]

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