The Hidden Cost of Louis Armstrong Park: Displacement in the Heart of Treme

 

The Hidden Cost of Louis Armstrong Park: Displacement in the Heart of Treme

Just outside the French Quarter in New Orleans, Louis Armstrong Park stands as a tribute to the legendary jazz musician and the cultural vibrancy of African American life in the city. At its heart is Congo Square, a sacred site where enslaved Africans once gathered on Sundays to drum, dance, and preserve their cultural traditions — the spiritual and rhythmic roots of jazz. But behind the creation of this park lies a lesser-known story: the displacement and destruction of a thriving Black community under the banner of urban renewal.

A Vibrant Neighborhood Erased

The park occupies part of Treme, one of the oldest African American neighborhoods in the United States. Treme was historically rich with Creole cottages, shotgun houses, small businesses, music clubs, and community churches. For generations, it served as a center of Black cultural and social life, where families lived and worked, and where jazz music took root in the early 20th century.

In the 1960s and 1970s, amid a nationwide wave of federally funded urban renewal projects, the City of New Orleans set its sights on redeveloping parts of Treme. The stated goal was to modernize and beautify the area surrounding the Municipal Auditorium, but the result was the bulldozing of dozens of blocks of homes, shops, and community spaces.

The plan — led by the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority (NORA) and supported by city planners — involved clearing large sections of land to make way for what would eventually become Louis Armstrong Park. This decision displaced hundreds of African American residents, disrupting family networks and displacing cultural institutions that had anchored the neighborhood for decades.

An Irony of Memory

When Louis Armstrong Park was finally dedicated in the 1980s, the city positioned it as a celebration of jazz and Black cultural achievement. Yet, the park stood atop land that had been forcibly cleared of its Black residents — some of whom may have lived in homes just blocks from where Armstrong himself had once performed.

The park included Congo Square, which was spared from demolition due to its recognized historical significance. But while Congo Square was honored, the wider community that had grown up around it was erased. Efforts to create a jazz museum or cultural center within the park never fully materialized, leaving the space underutilized and disconnected from the people it was supposed to serve.

Not Just Buildings Lost

Though there was no large-scale public housing project directly replaced by the park, many of the homes in the area were working-class residences — some rented, others owned, but all part of the cultural and architectural tapestry of Treme. The displacement fractured community life and uprooted generations of families. In later years, other public housing developments nearby, such as Iberville and Lafitte, would also face demolition or transformation, further altering