SPECIAL PROMOTIONAL SECTION
1961
Pope John XXIII establishes the Diocese of Baton Rouge
ISTOCK
ISTOCK
1960
Southern University students stage a Kress lunch counter sit-in to protest segregation
1963
East Baton Rouge Parish schools are integrated
LI N BR O AR TI Y, W EC OLL OODY C S A DUM
1964
S CO RI UR PA TE GE U SY E O AST BATON R
H
1962
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
1960
1965
Woody Dumas is elected mayor-president
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ON MARCH 28, 1960, seven Southern University students were arrested for sitting at the downtown Kress store’s whites-only lunch counter. The next day, more students were arrested for staging similar sit-ins at Sitman’s Drugstore and the Greyhound bus station, and on March 30 about 2,000 Southern students picketed all three locations. The student protest leaders were expelled. In 1963, a local biracial committee eased the nonviolent integration of East Baton Rouge Parish schools. When the U.S. Supreme Court declared
COURTESY EAST BATON ROUGE PARISH LIBRARY
BATTLES FOR CIVIL RIGHTS
segregated park facilities unconstitutional in 1964, Baton Rouge closed nine public swimming pools rather than integrate them, although five later were reopened. Gov. John McKeithen sent state police and the National Guard to protect a 1967 civil rights march
from Bogalusa to Baton Rouge. In separate 1969 incidents, two black men were shot in the back by police, leading to protests and a riot. Mayor-President Woody Dumas imposed a curfew and McKeithen once again sent the National Guard to maintain order.
COUNTING HEADS
EAST BATON ROUGE POPULATION
EAST BATON ROUGE POPULATION
1960
1970
230,058
285,167
On the cover: A 3-year-old Baton Rouge girl and 4-year-old Denham Springs boy carry anti-integration signs of protest (1963), The Associated Press/Ted Powers; Mayor Woody Dumas and L.W. Eaton cut the ribbon at the dedication of the new Wooddale facilities for Associated General Contractors of America (1969), courtesy East Baton Rouge Parish Library, Woody Dumas Collection; a civil rights protest at the Louisiana State Capitol (1967), courtesy East Baton Rouge Parish Library; Prescott Junior High cheerleaders (1962), courtesy East Baton Rouge Parish Library, Prescott Junior High School scrapbook (1961-1962); Baton Rouge industrial billboard (1965), courtesy East Baton Rouge Parish Library.