1952 Blacks gain admission to City Park in New Orleans. In 1952 and 1953, about one hundred blacks enroll in LSU law and medical schools. Loyola University admits two black graduate students. In New Orleans, the United Clubs, a confederation of Mardi Gras clubs and a musicians' union, arranges for a United Negro College Fund ball at Municipal Auditorium, the use of which had hitherto been denied to blacks. New Orleans police arrive but cannot determine who is white and who is black.
Municipal Auditorium is first segregated bastion in New Orleans to fall.
In Baton Rouge, the United Defense League, led by T. J. Jemison, a Baptist minister, stage a boycott of the city's public bus system. The purpose of the boycott, which lasts one week, is to protest segregation on the buses. The boycott is called off after one week. The city's white leadership makes minor concessions, which are later reversed. Archbishop Joseph E. Rummel ordains Aubrey Osborne, the first black priest in the archdiocese of New Orleans.