If you don’t have enough time to visit every historic or entertaining African American site, take along this guide to catch the highlights and visit www.neworleanscvb.com/cultural for the complete Multi-Cultural Directory.

For a quick tour of the city’s Black culture, start in the historic Faubourg Treme neighborhood. Located right outside the French Quarter, Treme is the oldest, urban African American neighborhood in the country. Treme features blocks of historic architecture as well as great museums and restaurants. Be sure to stop at the New Orleans African American Museum on Governor Nicholls Street and the Backstreet Cultural Museum on St. Claude, where you will find the best history of jazz funerals and Mardi Gras Indian tribes. Before leaving the area, take a stroll through Armstrong Park and visit the historic Congo Square, where slaves were allowed to express their ethnic roots during Sunday dancing. This neighborhood, immediately adjacent to the French Quarter, is almost purely residential. With few commercial establishments, tourist traffic is modest, so bring a friend.

After touring Treme, cross North Rampart Street and enter the French Quarter where you will find the Voodoo Museum among the many Royal Street art galleries and Bourbon Street bars. At the Voodoo Museum you can pick up a specially made gris-gris bag to take home with you.

When leaving Treme, you might head the opposite direction to the New Orleans Museum of Art, which has one of the South’s most impressive collections of African Art, as well as fine and decorative arts of the region, including the works of many African American self-taught artists such as Sir Gertrude Morgan, Clementine Hunter, David Butler, and Willie White. Contemporary African American Artists shown there include John Scott, Willie Burch, Jeff Cook, John Biggers, Jacob Lawrence, and Romare Bearden.

The museum also contains a nationally recognized collection of photography including an encyclopedic sampling of some of photographs representing the history of photography. African American photographers include Gordon Parks, Carrie Mae Weems, Lorna Simpson, and James VanDerZee

The newly opened Sidney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden also includes an important work by African American artist Allison Saar.

One of the oldest markets in the city used to be found at the corner of Dorgenois St. and Esplanade Avenue. It was a Native American trading site. A church is based in the structure located there now, which was originally built during the WPA to be a public market. Between this structure and Broad Street are located the beginnings of a new shopping district with a decidedly African and Caribbean accent where a traditional Creole neighborhood shopping district once stood. The One Love at 1430 N. Dorgenois shop sells tie dyed and other colorfully decorated shirts and African clothing, framed paintings and prints, Rasta and Reggae supplies, ethnic jewelry, incense, black soap, shea butter and other African and Caribbean export items.

At 2523 Bayou Road the Community Book Center has become a major bookstore, reading room and community activity center specializing in African and African American books. At 1464 N. Broad Street, Positive Vibrations offers an eclectic mix of African and African American related jewelry, clothing, accessories and other ethnic specialty items. Positive Vibrations owner Milton Carr is also a well-informed tour guide who specializes in African American history in New Orleans.

For a more in-depth look at historical documents and archives, head uptown toward the University Area. On Tulane University’s campus you can find the Amistad Research Center and the Hogan Jazz Archives. The Amistad Center is the nation’s premiere research facility for African American culture, with over a million manuscripts and papers and a great collection of African art. It is one of the city’s greatest resources, although not well known by locals. The Hogan Jazz Archive features an extensive collection of recorded and printed music, videos and photographs, including specialties from the personal collection of renowned local jazz artists.

Before dinner, take a quick ride to another part of town and visit the Gentilly neighborhood. Here you will find homes in a variety of styles popular during the 1930’s when this area developed, including Italianate, California Bungalow, and Tudor. This area has become an important middleclass African American residential area. Gentilly is not a typical tourist area, but offers some important hidden gems, like the beautiful campus of historic Dillard University. Dillard’s campus was recently added to the National Register of Historic Places. The St. Roch Cemetery is the final resting place of numerous New Orleans musicians, including the legendary Professor Longhair, and Moses Hogan, one of America’s leading spiritual music producers.