Bringing Back the Beach

Sea Change

Even though New Orleans has water in every direction, it’s hard to access. And for a city with increasingly sweltering summers, this irony is painful.

In this episode, we’re going to talk about the uncomfortable history of Lincoln Beach, how it led to New Orleans not having any public beaches today, and how a community has rallied together to get their beach back. We start in the era of segregation, where if you were Black, the only place to soak up sun and sand was Lincoln Beach.

This episode was reported and hosted by Eva Tesfaye. I’m Carlyle Calhoun, the managing producer. This episode was edited by Rosemary Westwood with help from me, Halle Parker, Tyler Pratt, and Ryan Vasquez. Joseph King voiced WEB Dubois. Garrett Hazelwood is our fact-checker. Our sound designer is Emily Jankowski and our theme music is by Jon Batiste.

Special thanks to the Amistad Research Center at Tulane University and Sage Michael Pellet for sharing their archives.

Sea Change is a WWNO and WRKF production. We're a part of the NPR Podcast Network and distributed by PRX. SeaChange is made possible with major support from the Gulf Research Program of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. WWNO's Coastal Desk is supported by the Walton Family Foundation, the Meraux and the Greater New Orleans Foundation.

You can reach the Sea Change team at [e-mail].