Sylvester Francis, founder of Backstreet Cultural Museum, dies

By Geraldine Wyckoff
Contributing Writer

“A Powerhouse of Knowledge” stands as the slogan of the Backstreet Cultural Museum. It also is an apt description of the museum’s founder and curator, the much loved and highly respected Sylvester Francis. Francis came up within the Black street cultures of Mardi Gras Indians, social aid and pleasure clubs and jazz funerals that the singular gallery honors and celebrates. Sylvester Francis, who shared his acquired wisdom with visitors from New Orleans and around the world through his fact- and story-filled tours, died on Tuesday, September 1, 2020. He was 73.

Francis’ seemingly destined journey to opening the Backstreet Cultural Museum in 1999 began in childhood when he and his family lived “back-of-town” in New Orleans 7th Ward. On Mardi Gras Day the neighborhood was alive with Black Indians, baby dolls, skeletons and “men who dressed like women” plus social aid and pleasure club parades that often jumped in the streets. Francis once recalled the first time he experienced a jazz funeral and later found out it was led by the world-renowned Olympia Brass Band with the legendary Fats Houston acting as the grand marshal. “After that day, I started asking everybody about jazz funerals,” Francis said. “Where you find them?’

It is not surprising that in the Backstreet Cultural Museum’s wonderful collection of photos and memorabilia those two New Orleans icons hold a place of honor. From the museum’s beginning “Keeping Jazz Funerals Alive” has been one of its major goals.

Having continually followed the Sunday afternoon social aid and pleasure clubs, in 1979 Francis put enough money together to join the Gentlemen of Leisure organization. Francis tells the rest of the story: “The next day, the parade was gone and I didn’t have a picture,” he lamented. “This guy told me he had my picture and he’s selling them for $35. So I bought a picture.” The photograph of a young Sylvester Francis looking sharp in a light blue outfit hangs in the hall of the museum near the entrance way.

That very same week, a five-and-dime store was going out of business and offered a movie camera, projector and screen for $99. Steamed that he was forced to buy a photo of himself, Francis jumped at the offer plus he purchased a small still camera. As a cameraman, absolutely not a photographer, he always insisted, Francis was on his way to documenting the cultures that were central to his life. Hundreds of reels of film, many of which have now been digitized, fill the museum’s back room. He recently recalled that early on when he worked at a car wash he’d hear about a jazz funeral and run off much to the consternation of his coworker. Years later, when his partner came to the museum he said, “Oh, now I get it.”

In 1988, Francis moved to a house on Frenchmen and Rocheblave streets that boasted a double garage. He began hanging some of his photos in the space as well as Indian suit pieces given to him by his friend Victor Harris the Spirit of the Fi Yi Yi and the Mandingo Warriors.. He described the spot as a “little baby museum.” When his brother-in-law died, Francis expected his wife’s relatives, many of whom were active with the Indians, to attend the repast held at their home.

“Knowing they were coming, I put more stuff out,” Francis explained. When word spread about the display, other Indians offered Francis more accessories as well as entire suits. During this time, many of the Indians either dismantled their suits to utilize some of the bead work and patches or simply discarded them. Francis became the loving caretaker of these works of art that eventually moved to fill one room of the Backstreet Museum with color, feathers and wonder. Maintaining these feathery suits, all of which have been donated, was no easy chore as they required constant dusting and temperature and humidity control.

Joan Rhodes, of the Rhodes Funeral Home family, with whom Francis had worked, had been presenting tours of the Treme area and asked if she could bring her people by to see his display. One day he got a call from Rhodes who realized Francis’ passion for the cultures and the potential of his “baby museum.” She asked him if he wanted the historic Blandin Funeral Home, which was owned by the Rhodes’ enterprise, for his museum. Francis declined as he just didn’t have any money for such an endeavor. “She insisted,” Sylvester remembered. “When word got out that I was going to open this museum, a lot of people started calling me up and saying what they had. “I got a suit. I got my grandfather’s this; my brother’s that.”

Francis knew the soul and was part of the community that the Backstreet Cultural Museum represents and pays tributes to. That’s why it became the heartbeat of the Treme, a center for the neighborhood, a gathering place on Mardi Gras Day and a place to remember the ancestors on All Saints Day. Francis, an engaging, often humorous, always busy with something man, was “A Powerhouse of Knowledge,” offering the kind of perspectives on the Black street cultures found in few books and remain a mystery to many people. The world is a lesser place without Sylvester Francis.

The funeral for Sylvester Francis will be held on Friday, September 11, which is his birthday. No further details are available at this time.

This article originally published in the September 7, 2020 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.