Encyclopedia

This interactive encyclopedia offers teachers and students access to terms, people, and events related to the history of Jim Crow. Many entries include reference material and some of the biographies on prominent figures contain suggestions for teaching as well as links to related sections of this site. The encyclopedia will continue to grow throughout the course of this project.

Xavier University of New Orleans: Xavier University of Louisiana is a coeducational, Roman Catholic institution located in New Orleans, Louisiana. In September 1915, Katharine Drexel of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Native Americans and People of Color founded the Xavier Secondary School for Colored Students. It was coeducational for both males and females. Xavier was the first, and is still the only, Catholic university for African Americans in the U.S. In 1917, a teacher's training school with a two-year curriculum was added and it expanded into a teacher's college by 1925. That year, a liberal arts college was inaugurated, making this the founding date of Xavier University of Louisiana. Originally situated near the Garden District of New Orleans, the university moved in 1932 to its present site at Palmetto and Pine streets, and in 1933 a Graduate School was opened. The 2001-2002 enrollment is 3,912. Of these students more than 50 percent are of other religious affiliations and close to 10 percent are of other races. The most important library holdings include the Charles F. Hartman Collection of manuscripts dealing with the Civil War and Reconstruction period, the New Orleans Crusader Collection, and the Black Collection, containing materials by and about individual African Americans.