WWOZ will be video streaming as The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation presents the 2025 Tom Dent Congo Square Lecture Series on Wednesday, March 12. This year’s lecture explores the history of Economy Hall and how the legacy of that famed cultural institution remains alive and well in New Orleans today. Former Louisiana Poet Laureate Dr. Mona Lisa Saloy will open the event.

Economy Hall was the meeting place of the Société d’Economie et d’Assistance Mutuelle, a benevolent organization formed by men of African descent in New Orleans who were legally free. The society was uniquely defined by its international reach, antebellum wealth, cultural influence, and longevity.

Founded in 1836, the society’s 15 original members were French speakers with ancestral roots in Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, and Central America. From the creation of the organization to its demise in the early 1950s, the men of the Economie were characterized locally as Creoles due to their language and cultural traditions—the hybrid of African, Indigenous, and European foodways and family practices—or ancestry dating from French and Spanish colonial Louisiana. The US census and newspapers designated them racially as coloreds, Negroes, and blacks.

Built in 1857, the hall became world-renowned for jazz music. Economy Hall was one of the central places where jazz was born as all the early players from Kid Ory to King Oliver to Buddy Bolden made music inside its wall.  In addition, over the building’s 108-year history, an important and largely undocumented social and racial commingling of citizens occurred.  From Black benevolent associations to German laborers to Cuban cigarmakers to Republican Radicals to musicians to undertakers and many others, their networking in the society’s restaurant, ballroom, theater, and meeting rooms of the hall created a strong cultural inheritance that is still being felt today. Reserve your ticket to attend in person at events.jazzandheritage.org.

PANELISTS

• David Kunian: Curator, New Orleans Jazz Museum
• Fatima Shaik: Author, Economy Hall: The Hidden History of a Free Black Brotherhood
• Doratha “Dodie” Smith-Simmons: Civil Rights Pioneer and Co-Founder of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
• Dr. Michael White:  Clarinetist, Composer, and Scholar of Jazz History
• Curator and Moderator: Megan Holt, Ph.D, One Book One New Orleans

DISCUSSION

Many of us have stood under the Economy Hall tent at Jazz Fest, but how many of us know the story of the place for which it’s named? A discussion moderated by Megan Holt, executive director of One Book One New Orleans, will delve into the history and enduring legacy of “the Carnegie Hall of Jazz.” As we focus on the place, we will also highlight the brotherhood of free men of color who built Economy Hall during a tumultuous time in American history. The discussion with the panelists will include these key points:

• Early History of the Economy Society: Exploring the founding of the society and understanding its significance to free people of color in New Orleans
• The Economy Society and Civil Rights: Examining how the members of the Economy Society responded to changing laws designed to strip people of color of their rights
• Economy Hall’s Enduring Impact on Jazz: Reflecting on how musical performances at Economy Hall shaped Jazz music as we know it today

*Time will be allowed for questions from the audience following the conversation.