did you grow up in pontchartrain park? >> yes-- >> you did. >> loved pontchartrain park. it was-- you know, i always called it like-- a little mayberry neighborhood. you know knew each other. >> your mom was a teacher. >> my mother was a teacher-- >> what did your dad do? >> my mother-- my father was a maintenance man at the university of new orleans. >> he had been a veteran. >> yes. he-- fought in saipan in world war ii. and-- he worked at a furniture store for a while, he was on-- he was on-- he worked-- in the railroad yards for a while. he studied as a photographer. he studied as a photographer in new york-- went from southern university and went to new york to study photography. >> i didn't realize the history here. it s pretty remarkable. >> it is-- it s one of the triumphs of the-- civil rights movement-- in new orleans. it was in response to-- the ugly part of jim crow, which was black people could only go to parks one day a week on wednesdays. >> black day >> black day negro day was wednesdays. and a.p. tureaud-- started the advocacy and the civil rights movemen

crime drama the wire but pierce , who grew up in the historic african american neighborhood of pontchartrain park