New Orleans Street Names

📋 Plan du Cours

1. Les strates historiques des rues
2. Les symboles de l’identité urbaine
3. Esclavage et reconnaissance noire
4. La critique des autorités municipales

📖 1. Les strates historiques des rues

★ À maîtriser

• The street names of New Orleans act like a time capsule, reflecting different periods of the city’s past and a mixture of influences.

• The street names reflect French and Spanish influences, French Catholicism, the Napoleonic Wars, the birth of the United States after the Revolutionary War of 1775–1783, and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

Compléments

• The French names at the beginning refer to founders or local leaders in New Orleans who were also renowned Spanish figures.

• The main streets, or thoroughfares, were named after the first American presidents Washington, Jefferson, and Jackson to honor them, although they were slave-owners.

📖 2. Les symboles de l’identité urbaine

★ À maîtriser

• Some New Orleans streets bear abstract names such as :
  • Jazz
  • blues
  • mystery
  • pleasure
  • desire

Compléments

• Names of important saints in the French Catholic Church recall the city’s strong links with Catholicism.

• Seven streets are named after figures from Greek mythology, including muses and wood nymphs.