Black shopping districts in Louisiana thrived in the 1950s and 1960s and were the foundation of Black communities across the state during the Civil Rights Movement.
In New Orleans on the Louisiana Civil Rights Trail, visitors are encouraged to experience the historic Dooky Chase’s Restaurant, which has been serving Creole and Soul Food dishes since 1941.
Located in the heart of Treme neighborhood, the restaurant was one of the only places in the city outside of churches, where blacks and whites could get together socially. It became a gathering place where Civil Rights activists called “Freedom Riders” planned protests, Civil Rights leaders met, and where Thurgood Marshall, the first African American Supreme Court Justice, called Robert Kennedy on the house phone during lunch service.
The local creole food icon Leah Chase, wife of the founder who cooked for Quincy Jones, Duke Ellington and Ray Charles, once said : “In my dining room, we changed the course of America over a bowl of gumbo and some fried chicken.”
In 2025, Dooky Chase’s Restaurant was given a “Bib Gourmand” status by Michelin
Contact: B World Communication, Travel South USA Representative in France, Yohann Robert, Email: yohann@bworldcom.com
