ECONOMY HALL The Hidden History of a Free Black Brotherhood By Fatima Shaik

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ECONOMY HALL
The Hidden History of a Free Black Brotherhood
By Fatima Shaik
Illustrated. 525 pp. The Historic New Orleans Collection.$34.95.

"Economy Hall” is so inviting that the true depth of its scholarship is revealed only in its bibliography, which lists dozens of archival and other sources. Shaik’s monumental book is anchored in 24 handwritten ledgers rescued from the trash by her father years ago. Her painstaking translation of the ledgers, and re-creation of the world that produced them, transports you to the orbit of the Société d’Economie et d’Assistance Mutuelle, a benevolent association and social club begun in 1836 by 15 French-speaking freemen of African descent in New Orleans. The book is simultaneously a history of the men’s iconic meeting place, Economy Hall, and of the city they called home.


Alexis de Tocqueville, commenting on Americans’ propensity to form associations, called this “art of joining” the “fundamental science” of democracy. Shaik emphasizes the political activism of the New Orleans group. Whether refuting the claims of scientific racism, risking their lives for the right to vote or nurturing jazz and other forms of African-American culture, members of the Economie fought to participate in democratic life. Not all of their ventures achieved the desired outcome, as a coalition of New Orleans Black men that included a president of the Economie discovered in 1896, when the Supreme Court upheld Louisiana’s separate train car law in Plessy v. Ferguson.

After 1900, the Economie “evolved from an elite to an inclusive society,” Shaik writes. As segregation tightened across the South, the society was led by the son of a Black mother and a Jewish father and began to focus less on politics and more on culture, particularly jazz. Economie musicians shaped the new musical form, and Economy Hall became famous for its dance parties.

The book is organized around the life of Ludger Boguille, the group’s long-serving secretary and a local leader of New Orleans’s prosperous Creole community. A fierce advocate of Black suffrage, Boguille was nearly killed in 1866 when an armed mob led by police burst into a reconvened Louisiana constitutional convention. Boguille was also a teacher, who prescribed “radical kindness” for students and parents alike. The city of New Orleans is Boguille’s co-star, and Shaik’s rendition of her hometown is lyrical and mysterious and always captivating.

Jane Dailey is a professor of history at the University of Chicago and the author of “White Fright: The Sexual Panic at the Heart of America’s Racist History.”