Cuttin' Cane Ain't All We Do

This 2-hour tour is designed for middle and high school students. Students are taken on an interactive journey through plantation life in Louisiana’s sugar country from the antebellum period to the 1960’s Civil Rights era.

Students will gain an understanding of:

  • the role the plantation system played in the lives of enslaved workers.
  • the skills and knowledge the enslaved contributed to plantation life.
  • the political, cultural, scientific, and educational contributions of newly freed African Americans during the Reconstruction era into the 20th and 21st centuries.Cuttin’ Cane Ain’t All We Do
  • the contributions of local African Americans in their quest to achieve political and social equality in West Baton Rouge and beyond.

Tour Information

  • Program Length: 2 Hours
  • Recommended for: 6th Grade through 12th Grade

Supporters

Cuttin’ Cane Ain’t All We Do is being supported in part by an African American Civil Rights Grant from the Historic Preservation Fund administered by the National Park Service, Department of the Interior. This civil rights tour and curriculum guide takes visitors through several of the historic structures on the West Baton Rouge Museum’s six-acre campus, highlighting local contributions to engineering, education, social progress, and music – because music is the ultimate expression of freedom.

Accompanying Documentary

In an effort to give visitors an introduction to Cuttin’ Cane A’int All We Do, the West Baton Rouge Museum is making available six compelling videos. These short documentaries take you on a journey through the local history of the Reconstruction and Jim Crow period to the Civil Rights Movement. The videos are presented in a kiosk format at two of the cabins on the Museum’s campus but can also be viewed by following the links below.

  1. Life After Emancipation
  2. Legally Free
  3. The Hope of Education
  4. Let Freedom Ring
  5. The Motivation of Law
  6. The Key to a Brighter Future

These film clips feature interviews with Southern University Law Professor Angela Allen Bell, local historian Brian Costello, Dialogue on Race Director Maxine Crump, businessman Hall Davis, III, and Cohn High School graduates Wilhelmina Williams Decuir, Sadie Woods, Rose Roche, and Ernest Allen. This project was funded in part by a grant from the National Parks Service and produced by FantomLight Productions.