so we're going to be in here. new orleans, 1895. she's beautiful in shape up here on the screen. bustling city. it's a city on the make. nearly two decades since the end of reconstruction. a decade afterhe world's fair came to town, which was a financial disast, as we discussed. but it nevertheless introduced. new orleans, its architect lecture, its literature, its food. and, of course, mardi gras. to a new tourist economy, the 1890s, the dawn of the so-called progressive era. a time of urban progress. when the public transportation network of streetcars became electrified. when the city's new sewerage and

water board began constructing modern sewage and tap water systems. new orleans is port, as you can see here. busts during this period. welcoming thousands of immigrants from sicily, from central america and beyond. as wel as trafficking cotton and coffee across the globe. new orleans is a city on the move. and as new orleans steams towards the 20th century, things were looking up literally. the city's first skyscraper was erected in 1895. this is the hennen building. a whopping ten stories tall, big for the time. visitors used to pay. $0.10 to climb up to the top and watch the city roll by.

it stands on the corner of common and carondelet street. it's now an apartment complex. new orleans was looking upwards towards the sky in other ways during this period. raising monument after monument after monument to the former confederacy. starting with this massive column on saint charles avenue, dedicated to confederate general robert e lee. in 1884. rising over 68 feet high, atop stood and over life size. 16 and a half feet tall. statue of general lee, who we should note, never likely visited the city of new orleans. like similar statue, was built during this era throughout the south. the general faced north.

symbolic lee watching and waiting to greet another potential invasion from america and union forces. statues like these covered the city as well as every town and city throughout the southern united states. cities, of course, had the largest statues like these seen here, both in new orleans, the first dedicated to jefferson davis, president of the confederacy, during the civil war that was erected in 1911. and the second dedicated to new orleans born general pgti beauregard, wh ordered the first cannon shots fired to start the civil war. that statue was raised. in 1915. in smaller towns, statues to the confederacy looked and often still look just like this. memorials to a nameless,

nondescript confederate soldier. this one on the screen was erected in 1886 in baton rouge. soon after the conservative redeemer democratic forces that ran the state successfully fought to remove the capital out of new orleans. why did they remove the capital from new orleans to baton rouge? it's because new orleans represented the highest black population in the state. a black population with newfound power, voting power. over 770 statues like this were erected throughout the south. many resembling this one, a lone soldier standing on a pedestal, always placed in a prominent site or building in city hall, a town courthouse, a town square. those 770 plus statues made up

over 1500 public symbols dead, equated to the confederacy. statues, monuments, roads, schools. buildings. bridges. plaques. military bases. parks. they joined the confederate flag, which flew just about everywhere. throughout the south, the vast majority of these 1500 were dedicated between the 1890s and the 1950s. matching up exactly with the era of jim crow segregation, then brought on by the supreme court's 1896 plessy. plessy versus ferguson. ruling that we talked about a few weeks ago, which, of course, originated here in new orleans. these 1500 memorials were just that memorials to the dead and the defeated self. but they also acted as symbols

built to strike fear into the souls of black americans. these were massive totems. everywhere you looked, everywhere you walked in a town or city, massive totems. a erected to reclaim public spaces as places solely for white americans. arguably the most offensive of these monuments, any of these monuments razed during this period in new orleans, or arguably throughout the south, was this one which was built in 1891. it was dedicated to the battle of liberty place, which we spoke about a few weeks ago. the battle of liberty place was, of course, that violent 1874 coup. you might remember, led by para military forces to suppress black voting rights by overthrow

in louisiana's democratically elected progressive republican government at the time. this was as come on in. this was done. the statue was raised as a later inscription that you can see on the screen, as a later inscription added to the monument, made clear in the name of white supremacy. but despite all of these forces pulling white and black, new orleanians, white and black southerners apart, there were moments of real hope in the city. and for that, we need to look not up, but down, down to the city's docks. look at the lives of the workers, the laborers who did

the work on those docks, loading and offloading rgo ships. today's lecture will cover the up and down fortes of new orleans and new orleanians by looking up and looking down, up at the sky. as we just have been down at the city's docks and down at a lowly tropical fruit, and how all of this was intertwined symbolically at the turn of the century, this photograph taken in 1891, shows dock workers readying giant bales of cotton for loading onto boats and shipping all over the world. the 1890s marked the beginnings of organed labor unions on these docks, also on local and national levels.

these labor unions allied and assisted each other in fighting for better safer, fairer working conditions. labor unions during this progressive era popularized what we call strikes. that is mass organized work stoppages, refusals to work and. and these strikes were in order to push corporations and their bosses as those with the wealth and the power to give in to the strikers, the workers demands and. on october 24th, 1892, between two and 3000 members of three separate unions in new orleans, workers in a variety of trades decided to strike as one as a single unit.

their demands were a ten hour work day. overtime pay and preferential hiring for union members over none. union members. by november of that year, 46 additional unions in the city representing over. 30,000 laborers joined this general strike. this made up this 30,000 made up half of the city's workforce at the time. the these men and they were mostly men, worked in just about every trade that makes a city run, that makes the city operate on a daily basis. they didn't just work the docks, but they were street car drivers, factory workers and all

types of factories deliver men, construction workers, street cleaners, firefighters. they were the men, the workers who made sure that the city's gas and electrical systems worked. on november eighth, because of this strike, the city's gas and electrical systems failed and new orleans was plunged into darkness. history remembers this strike as the 1892 general strike, which was the largest up till then strike in the nation's history. and that happened here. new orleans. now, what's so important to note about this strike beyond its

size is that black and white workers went on strike together in solidarity. and this was during jim crow. we have to remember. many, most unions during this period were themselves racially segregated. there was a white dockworkers union and a black dockworkers union. despite separate unions, black and white men worked together on the docks and in all those other many of those other sectors i mentioned earlier that not only work together, but as a union, as a group, they would vote together. and during this massive general strike of 1892, they went on strike together.

and throughout this massive strike, that 1892 general strike, the people in charge, the men in power, did their best to racially separate the black and white unions, black and white laborers who were on strike. they attempted to sow discord by appealing to the racial hatred. news papers, which were at the time general lee unfriendly to unions and union labor, told false often lurid tales of mobs of black strikers assaulting white individuals across new orleans. newspapers spread stories that black workers wanted to take over the government of the city.

these were scare tactics. and these scare tactics failed. the strike did not break. the louisiana governor ordered the state militia to new orleans on november 10th, and the state militia arrived in the city thinking they were going to find riots, chaos. but they found a city at calm, at peace, in the dark. but people helping each other, feeding each other's families when they're not getting paid during this strike. the strike eventually ended, ended by mid-november of that year with employers agreeing to two of the strikers, most important demands. a ten hour work day, which was a

treat back then. right. now, think of an eight hour work day as kind of the maximum limits. ten hour work day was what they were fighting for. right. and also overtime pay for the first time for many of these workers. but those in power continued to try to break the unions by separating again, white and black workers in the city. they tried through fear, through appeals to racial hatred, and by what in labor terms, is a practice called the race to the bottom. the race to the bottom. now the race to the bottom is a practice where the pay of a group of workers is cut in order to force competing groups who

are not working at the time to work for less. so you're continually cutting the base pay for workers, hungry workers, while always the thinking would go go towards that lower pay rate. for instance. they would fire a group of unionized white workers and replace them with non unionized black workers, paying them less. and this happened. that's exactly what happened in 1895, 300 white union members were fired from their jobs in the city and replaced with black union and with black union workers. this happened on the docks of new orleans. many members of this 300 now

jobless union, these angry now angry white dockworkers retaliated by killing nine, six men on the docks of new orleans. local unions went on the defensive. organizing in 1901 to adhere to what they called the 5050 or the half half system. now, the 50, 50 or half half sentences system did just what it says it would do. every workforce would have an equal number, 5050 of black workers and white workers. and so if we could go back in time to this picture right, taken around this period, turn of the century, we can do kind

of a demographic count of the workers loading and unloading. we'll talk about what they're unloading in the second. all right. this product from boats, we could do a count, a head count, and we'd see know should adhere to this 50, 50, half, half system, half black, half white. these were mixed race. these were under segregate. added work crews. black and white unions. most elite remained united despite continued efforts throughout the 20th century to racially divide them. the half half system was something that the black and white unions devised themselves, and this was important that labor strikes were not as prominent or massive as that 1892 general strike. this was important. it was important to workers, but it was really more important to the bosses.

they really wanted to appeal to the workers at the turn of the century because the fortunes of the city were changing once again, the fortunes of the port of new orleans were dramatically shifting. and that shift was precipitated by a new commodity. and can we guess what that new commodity was that is entering the ports of new orleans around the turn of the century? someone say it, banana, as we can see them here. okay. bananas. so to talk about bananas, we have to talk about this man. enter samuel z. murray, who soon became known as sam the baan and who has heard of sam's murray or sam the banana man? some good. okay. definitely a caror of law in the history of new orleans. samson, murray was born in 1877,

in what was then the far out reach is of the russian empire. in the present day nation of moldova. now sam's main goal in life growing up, like so many jewish individuals living in russia during this period. this is my people. this might be some of your people. the main goal was to get the heck out of russia. because russia was a place of widespread anti semitism. the main choices for samson murray and jewish russian immigrants was europe or the united states. europe, as the world would soon find out in a couple of decades, would not be the best of choices. sam chose.

luckily for him, the united states. he landed in new york city in 1891. he was a young teenager. he eventually headed down south landing once again in selma, alabama. selma, alabama, a place very famous during the civil rights later civil rights era. so sam's memory, a young teen lands in selma, alabama. he goes there because he has an uncle living there. and he's he's a young guy. he's trying to just like eke out an existence. he's trying to survive day to day. he doesn't know what he wants to do. he just wants to eat and live to the next day. right. at some point, while living in selma, though young sam, this is perhaps an apocryphal story. did it take place? maybe sam's memory. like to tell this story, though.

so it has gone down in history as sam's story. sam's story is that at some point, as a young man in selma, alabama, he encountered his first banana. okay, now look. bananas are common, right? they're too common. they're so common that if we forget a banana in our backpack or our bag, you know, the worst thing is that it rots and gets things gooey. right. but to lose a banana is not a big deal. right? they are plentiful there on the present. there's just we are we live lives. unless we're allergic to bananas. we live lives. we're just covered in bananas. right. whether we love them or hate them, there's bananas everywhere. my eight month old favorite food, you can guess. bananas. he has to have a banana a day. he just loves it. he eats it. we put bananas in everything else. he eats bananas.

sam eats his first banana and his mind is blown. okay, but world changes. what is this? tropical fruit. bananas back then. not common. not something you'd see every day. there were, you know, you wouldn't go to the market and grocery store and buy bananas. okay. they were rare. they were just coming to the united states. so sam encounters and eats his first banana. he falls in love and he more or less dedicates his life to bananas as strange as that sounds, bananas common now. not so much. then we got to remember that. in 1895, the murray moves to mobile, alabama. mobile, alabama then was the closest port city to selma, alabama, a port city back then meant bananas.

bananas would come in via the port and end up wherever. bananas ended up throughout the united states. sam quickly learned that bananas have an inherent banana problem. what is the problem with bananas. they they rot right? they ripen too fast. they turn brown, they turn sticky. they turn to goo. right. gross and according to law, samson murray began picking up loose brown to ripe bananas along the docks of mobile, alabama, tossed off bananas, bananas that were worthless to the main purveyor, the main shippers of bananas into this pour into the port of mobile. he began picking up, collecting

these bananas probably eating a few of them himself. and he sold them for cheaper then the market's yellow bananas, the fresh bananas. by the age of 21, samson, murray was specializing in the overripe banana trade. he had 100 grand, $100,000 in his bank account, or around $3.5 million today from selling overripe brown bananas. in 1903. he joined forces with the united fruit company, the united fruit company was a big player on the banana scene, for sure, but really in the tropical produce import business in the united

states. when sam's memory links up with the united fruit. united fruit is headquartered in boston, massachusetts, a port city, yes, but far away from the places where bananas were being grown. central america specific. lee costa rica is where united fruit was doing most of their business in the early days. so murray links up with the united fruit and expands the banana business. united fruit's banana business from costa rica to honduras and he starts buying up land across honduras, converting land, farmland. they grew all types of other crops before.

too, land that would grow just one crop. bananas. bananas. bananas. under the murray's direction. honduras and costa rica became more or less these two nations became vast banana fields, vast banana plantations, growing little else to support the people who worked there. by 1905, sam had moved united fruit's operations to new orleans. this made total sense. it was closer to central and latin america, where bananas are grown. the port of new orleans could also handle the booming banana trade that the murray was instituting. the millions of bananas

processed under his control. pictured here on the screen is united fruit's former corporate headquarters in new orleans. it was just three blocks away from the city's first skyscraper. it was built, as you can see, in 1920. and it was also ten stories tall. a skyscraper of its day. and it's still there. it has this beautiful facade. and if you walk around the central business district of new orleans, you could find this building is no longer united. fruit's headquarters. as we'll see down the road by the 19 tens, the murray was more or less the most powerful man in central america. certainly in honduras, although he didn't live there, he lived re in new orleans. in 1912. he even withhe help of the united states government, enacted a coup, a military and

political coup that tossed out the honduran government and replaced it with his own personally installed andhosen president. this president answered directly to sam, the banana man. if you've ever heard the term banana republic, not the clothing outlet. right, but the political social or economic international, the term banana republic. this is its origins. it's a term that means a just on the very basic level, a politic only unstable country within economy, dependent upon the export of its natural resources. honduras was sam the banana man's banana republic.

it was a nation, a country built on sending bananas to the united states, which would then send bananas everywhere. by now. by the 19 tens, the murray is beyond wealthy. he has his own shipping line nicknamed the great white fleet, which operated not just as a a import export banana shipping line, but it also transported people all around the map seen here. he had his own personal army that at his call could go down to central america and get what he needed done. united fruit and sam instaed similar banana republics in guatemala to costa rica.

colombia. throughout central and latin america. united fruit was known as el peuple. the octopus for the far reaches of its tentacles. not to be outdone, the standard fruit company, which was united fruit's big rival on the fruit trading scene of the day, early 20th century stan, their fruit company, set up its own banana republic, specializing not in bananas but in pineapple. can anywhere, anyone guess? does anyone know where? yeah. yes. hawaii. thank you. so, hawaii was standard fruit's banana republic built on pineapples.

these united states corporations basically owned several nations during this period. owning these central american nations. and looking to the future. these these the land and economies of these nations were wrecked for long periods. some up until the present day, because of their reliance on growing a single crop, a practice called mono crop farming. samson murray could exist on bananas that he only ate bananas, but he built a life on bananas. people in honduras and costa rica, colombia cannot eat just bananas. but often in these places, that's all there were after united fruit was done with them. just vast banana fields. banana fields, laborers throughout these nations worked in slave like conditions, it

must be said, often at gunpoint. untold thousands of people throughout the caribbean and throughout central america were killed in coups, political coups, military coups can counter revolutions and civil wars. the most notable of these events happened in november 1928, and it's portrayed in this really beautiful mural by diego rivera. it was painted a few decades later. d what this painting is portraying is a this in vember 1928, when banana plantaorke in colombia nt o strike for safer working conditions, united fruit, which ran this vast banana plantation, refuse to negotiate at all with

the strikers and united fruit shedheir puppet colombian government that was in charge of toreak up the strike. the army up to 12,000rs were slaughtered in the fields just shot down fies by the my. this became known as the banana massacre. in 1929. zamora sells out. he's out of the banana business. he sells out for $30 million. we can go look up what at's worth today, 1929, a massive, massive amount of money and. it made him one of the world's althiest men. but unable to peel himself away. that's a banana pun, unable to peel himself away from the

business, from the power of the banana. he returns to the company in 1933 when he stages a heist style takeover of the united fruit board. and he did this because the company's stock had dipped tremendously during the great depression. and when he stages this takeover of the board of united fruit, he installs himself as president just like he was installing president three throughout central america throughout his career, the decades before he installs himself as president in an office he holds until 1951, quite a long time. the following year, 1952, unite at fruit and the cia install an anti-communist probe and in a coup in guatemala eventually leading to a civil war that lasts up through the 1990s and

his effects i just got back from guatemala whose effects are still being certainly felt today politically and socially, economically for sure. by then, by 1996, the united fruit corporation had changed ownership. and names do become known as does anyone know the name of united fruit today? what corporation? it became? yeah. no, not dole clothes. that standard. but it's chiquita banana. you're exactly right. so united fruit transforms after being bought and sold to chickie to banana sam the banana man dies a decade after finally leaving the presidency of his business. he dies in 1961 and he lives the

last 50 years. he lives with the last 50 years of his life in arguably the most opulent mansion in the city of new orleans, a palace of home that most new orleanians going back to the theme at the beginning of the class, most new orleanians throughout the 20th century and up until they couldn't can't help but look up to because it's a it's a dang big home. you might recognize it, of course. it's right down the street from us. upon his death, samson, murray, sam, the banana man donated this home to our university. to tulane university, where it becomes the residence of tulane sitting president. we're not done yet. new orleans is dock worker unions would remain racially segregated up until 1980. up until 1980.

by then, the united fruit, which is now headquartered, i believe, in switzerland, the chiquita banana brand, is owned by this multinational conglomerate in switzerland. but by then, by 1980, united fruit had moved its banana traffic, its port, its main port east to gulfport, mississippi. now, why to gulfport, mississippi, which is not a very big town at all? well, there's two reasons. gulfport, mississippi, the ports there were more easily accessible to the railroads that would then filter those bananas out across the country. and in two, it just made more sense for these boats coming in from central america up the gulf to not go up the mississippi river and travel to new orleans, but to just park themselves along the gulf at gulfport, mississippi, which is a town, a

city where its name gives away its founding purpose. right. it's a port on the gulf of mexico. the very next year, 1981, new orleans is first elected black mayor. his name was ernest or dutch morial. we'll talk more about him in the coming weeks. called for the removal of this statue, what i called the most troublesome, the ugliest statue among the thousands throughout south dedicated to the confederacy, the one that said this statue is dedicated to white supremacy on it, the battle of liberty, place, monument. that removal is a complicated, odd episode, one that drags on for several decades. it is eventually removed, but

that will not happen for another 36 years. an episode that will turn to