Site 4: Tchoupitoulas and Thalia — A Neighborhood Unites: Port Workers Unite on Tchoupitoulas and Thalia Streets

On December 23, 1865, just two days after Black and White Screwmen put down their screws and enjoined in dockside protest against working conditions and wages, 600 longshoremen met on corner of Tchoupitoulas and Thalia Streets. Their goal was to unify and further their protest of working conditions and to demand a wage increase. Most of these port workers lived in this neighborhood, and as the neighborhoods in New Orleans had a strong sense of community, it made sense that they would gather where they lived.

The intersection where 600 waterfront workers once gathered has disappeared beneath a transformed landscape of highways and parking lots. Today, people experiencing homelessness seek shelter on the same ground where Black and White laborers once stood together demanding better lives. The people and circumstances have changed, but the questions of economics, opportunity, and human dignity remain.

Thalia and Tchoupitoulas Streets no longer intersect. Thalia Street diverts to the left and ends as a parking lot behind a series of small businesses. Today’s road system is more complicated, with multiple interchanges, grade separations, and green spaces where Thalia Street used to meet with Tchoupitoulas Street. It is impossible to imagine 600 dockworkers flooding through the grid-like streets at Christmas of 1865 to organize a labor strike.