If you came to OperaCréole's production of "The Lions of Reconstruction", you got to know Dr. Louis Charles Roudanez, and you saw the author of this book Mark Roudané on stage with us....as he headed to Washington to deliver the petition to President Lincoln that demanded all blacks get the right to vote.
 
Get a personally signed copy, and read the full story of Dr. Roudanez and his newspaper.
The Louisiana State Archives will honor Dr. Roudanez in a special exhibit next year.
 
"The New Orleans Tribune debuted on July 21, 1864.   Publishing over 1,000 issues in the six years of its existence, the newspaper concentrated on matters of central importance to all blacks: suffrage; an equitable labor and land system to replace slavery; the situation of the freedmen; the creation of integrated public transportation and school systems; the black military; Union policies of accommodation with planters; Louisiana’s constitutional conventions; local and national elections; Reconstruction politics and legislation; and much more. The Tribune was instrumental in the creation of the Freedmen’s Aid Association, the local branch of the National Equal Rights League, the Friends of Universal Suffrage, and ultimately, the Louisiana Republican Party.[2] The newspaper actively participated in all the major political debates, and played a key role in the creation of the 1868 Louisiana state constitution, the most radical in Reconstruction history. Always an advocate of racially proportional representation, the journal helped many blacks win seats in the 1868 legislature, and campaigning arduously, almost succeeded in electing Francis Dumas as the state’s first Afro-Creole governor.[3]   Ultimately overpowered by conservative Republicans, the Tribune by and large suspended operation in the spring of 1868.[4]"