Old South Baton Rouge: The Roots of Hope – Book Review

Recently released by University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press, Old South Baton Rouge: The Roots of Hope should already be on your coffee table. This is an ambitious volume and one where the quality far outweighs any shortcomings. The plethora of interesting facts scattered throughout could easily lead to a companion Trivial Pursuit OSBR Edition board game.

Like many academic texts, Old South Baton Rouge: The Roots of Hope is divided into six chapters that can easily stand alone. It also includes several appendices, and the topics covered range from ethnic history and architecture to current revitalization efforts. Each reader should be able to find information of interest among the seven distinct lenses through which the neighborhood is viewed.

I am partial to the chapters that focus more on the people of this unique community, and especially the final chapter, which covers some of the current plans for restoration and development. The occasional personal vignettes from community members, labeled “Voices from the South,” made the text more personal, and I would have liked to see more of those. On the downside, I felt a bit hit over the head with the repeated mentions of how Jim Crow was the ironic reason that a thriving African-American community could exist and how de-segregation was its downfall. While the merits of those claims are based in truth, there was a lack of simultaneous recognition of the institutional racism that makes both of those things true.

Finally, the photo-collage sections produced by James Terry—while stunning—are less appealing because they lack captions. I want to know who I’m looking at, when, and why. However, even with these minor shortcomings, I can confidently recommend this book to readers as a generally excellent history of one of Baton Rouge’s unique communities.