Armand Lanusse

He is the editor of Les Cenelles (1845), a collection of poems by fellow Creoles of color in New Orleans widely considered to be the first African-American poetry anthology published in the United States.

[3] According to Rodolphe Desdunes in his book Nos hommes et notre histoire, Lanusse received his entire education in New Orleans and did not travel to France.

[4] During the Civil War, Lanusse served as a captain in the First Louisiana Native Guard in the Confederate Army and opposed the Union occupation of New Orleans.

[5] Lanusse renounced his allegiance to the Confederacy[4] and began to believe that Creoles would be unable to build a better future for themselves separate from other people of color in the United States.

[6] According to Desdunes, despite passing as white, Lanusse never tried to hide or deny his African heritage and identity as a Creole of color and "encouraged his people to love their fellow men.

Creoles of color in New Orleans, due to their mixed racial heritage from the French colonial history of plaçage, occupied a position somewhere in between the boundaries of Black and white.

Escape, fantasy, individualism, melancholy, love, suicide and death, nature, and faith are all common themes of the poetry in Les Cenelles.

Many cultural traits possessed by Creoles of color, including their French language and heritage, Catholicism, and oftentimes greater accumulations of wealth separated them from other Black Americans.