| The Old South Baton Rouge (OSBR) neighborhood of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is surrounded by the Mississippi River to the west, Louisiana State University (LSU) to the south and southeast, and the city's central business district to the north. What was once a working class, racially integrated community has become, with White flight and declining blue-collar employment, a predominantly low-income, African-American enclave.
Poverty, unemployment, and deteriorating housing conditions are common in OSBR. The neighborhood's core area is home to 3.1 percent of the Baton Rouge population, but brings in only 1.2 percent of the city's total income. More than half (52.5 percent) of core residents live at the poverty level, subsisting on $12,575 per year or less. Eleven percent of all households in the core area receive public assistance, compared to 4.4 percent in the city as a whole. The unemployment rate for the core area--a staggering 20.9 percent--is also more than twice that of the city, which is 9.4 percent. More than half (57.2 percent) of all housing structures were built before 1949.
LSU and OSBR share a long history of collaboration. The relationship between the university and the neighborhood was formalized in 1994 when an interdisciplinary task force of LSU faculty, staff, and students joined together with community partners to promote the social, economic, and physical development of neighborhood communities. A new organization called the Community-University Partnership (CUP) was formed to direct this partnership. CUP has since been involved in numerous projects, including an oral history project and tutoring program with McKinley High School; a survey to examine social and economic isolation in the area; and a graduate-level seminar through which students gave economic revitalization assistance to communities in the Lower Mississippi Delta.
CUP will use Community Outreach Partnership Centers funds to focus on the redevelopment and rehabilitation of Thomas Delpit Drive, the main commercial corridor of OSBR. Named after a beloved African-American community leader, this now-dilapidated and inactive corridor was once a thriving part of the OSBR neighborhood. Lined by old Louisiana homes and the first public school for Louisiana African-Americans, this corridor still embodies the memories and history of the neighborhood. CUP believes that revitalization efforts here will gradually affect surrounding areas.
Partners in the project include Fannie Mae; the Young Leaders' Academy of Baton Rouge Inc., a leadership program for young African-American males; Baton Rouge Green, which promotes urban reforestation; the City-Parish Office of Community Development; Old South Baton Rouge, a nonprofit organization committed to revitalizing the economic and cultural foundation of Old Baton Rouge neighborhoods; Louis A. Martinet Legal Society, a forum for African-American lawyers to express their views and concerns; Shiloh Baptist Church; The Dr. Leo S. Butler Community Center, which serves residents in social, civic, medical, cultural, spiritual, and recreational pursuits; the Baton Rouge Housing Authority; the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, a clearinghouse for philanthropic funding organizations; Volunteer Baton Route!, a clearinghouse for volunteer efforts in the Baton Rouge area; and Fort Worthing, a real estate company specializing in the management, acquisition, development, renovation, and construction of multifamily properties.
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