1. Baton Rouge Bus Boycott Bench
1520 Thomas H. Delpit Drive
Commemorates the leaders of the bus boycott, situated at the spot of Baton Rouge’s first high school for young black students
2. Brooks Park Swimming Pool
1650 Eddie Robinson Sr. Drive
A bustling social hub for black locals in Old South Baton Rouge to learn to swim and escape from turmoil surrounding local civil rights efforts in the ’50s and ’60s, including an unsuccessful attempt to integrate City Park pool
3. Lincoln Theatre
1305 Myrtle Walk St.
The organizing headquarters during the bus boycott, where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. met with local activists, as well as hub for performances and screenings
4. Prince Hall Masonic Temple
1339 North Blvd.
The city’s hottest destination for black musicians in the ’30s and ’40s, from B.B. King to Louis Armstrong, and an energizing base for civil rights organizers
5. Magnolia Mound Plantation
2161 Nicholson Drive
Dating back to 1791, the plantation housed as many as 50-plus slaves; today, it offers tours of slave quarters and educational resources for how slave labor built Baton Rouge
6. Smith-Brown Memorial Union*
Southern University and A&M College, E Street
SU’s student union, named in memory of students Leonard D. Brown and Denver Smith, who were shot and killed by police during a demonstration on campus in 1972
Read more from our cover story, featuring people standing up to solve racial issues in Baton Rouge.
This article was originally published in the June 2017 issue of 225 Magazine.
