Changing Robert E. Lee Boulevard to Allen Toussaint Boulevard reflects a citywide initiative to rid the streetscape of the names of Confederates and white supremacists
n New Orleans, in February, had you driven east from the Lakeview neighborhood all the way to Peoples Avenue in Gentilly, the quickest route would have been Robert E. Lee Boulevard.
Long before his death in 2015, at 77, Toussaint—who was a magnificent pianist—composed, arranged, or produced hits for an astonishingly long and broad list of artists in nearly every American musical genre. These songs blended funkiness with elegance, all grounded in what Toussaint once described to me as his city’s distinctive “strut of the street.
The New Orleans street-renaming process laid out specific criteria for removing and replacing names on street signs and public places—chiefly, service in the Confederate army, and continuing attempts to overthrow rights of citizens after the war through the abrogation of Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Sixteenth Amendment guarantees.
Toussaint spent most of his life as a behind-the-scenes master. All that changed in New York City in 2005, after he lost his home, recording studio, and most of his belongings to the flood. A brunch he played at Joe's Pub, in Manhattan’s East Village, to raise funds for New Orleans, turned into a regular gig. He entered a late-in-life spotlight as a performer and a forceful spokesman for his city’s recovery. His music took on deepened meaning.
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