In 1960, representatives from the Congress of Racial Equality organized college students in New Orleans to stage sit-ins at local lunch counters. Rudy Lombard led a group of students to protest at the McCrory’s Five and Dime on Canal Street. The effort helped end segregation in public spaces.
Zella Palmer
Zella Palmer, is an author, professor, filmmaker, curator, scholar and the chair and director of the Dillard University Ray Charles Program in African-American Material Culture. Palmer is committed to documenting and preserving the legacy of African American, Creole, Indigenous, and LatinX culinary history. As the chair of the Dillard University Ray Charles Program, Palmer filmed and produced the “Story of New Orleans Creole Cooking: The Black Hand in the Pot” documentary. In 2020, under Palmer’s leadership, Dillard University launched a Food Studies Minor, one of two accredited academic Food Studies programs at a Historically Black College & University.