Gumbo City (New Orleans nickname)

Gumbo was designated in 2004 as the official state cuisine of Louisiana. The city of New Orleans has sometimes been called the “Gumbo City,” often used as a metaphor similar to “melting pot.”
 
“The 1938 boxing team of the Gumbo City” was cited in a July 1938 newspaper. “Sweetie Walker says he is doing O.K. around the Gumbo City of New Orleans” was printed in a May 1940 newspaper. “One dark a few sevens ago I grabbed one of them hard rollin’ iron horses for a few brights of joy in the old Gumbo City” was printed in The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA) on March 26, 1944.
 
Other New Orleans nicknames include “America’s Most Interesting City,” “Baghdad-on-the-Bayou,” “Big Crescent,” “Big Easy,” “Big Greasy,” “Big Sleazy,” “Birthplace of Jazz,” “Chocolate City,” “Chopper City,” “City of a Million Dreams,” “City of Yes,” “City That Care Forgot,” “City That Forgot to Care,” “Convention City,” “Crawfish Town,” “Creole City,” “Crescent City,” “Erb City,” “Gateway of the Mississippi Valley,” “Hollywood South,” “Jump City,” “Mardi Gras City,” “Metropolis of the South,” “N’Awlins,” “Necropolis of the South,” “Nerlins,” “No Orleans” (after Hurricane Katrina), “NOLA,” “Northernmost Banana Republic,” “Northernmost Caribbean City,” “Old Swampy,” “Paris of America,” “Queen City,” “Saint City,” “Silicon Bayou,” “Silicon Swamp” and “Sweet Lady Gumbo.”
   
 
Wikipedia: New Orleans
New Orleans (/njuː ˈɔːrli.ənz, -ˈɔːrˈliːnz, -ˈɔːrlənz/, or /ˈnɔːrlənz/; French: La Nouvelle-Orléans [la nuvɛlɔʁleɑ̃]) is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana.
 
The population of the city was 343,829 as of the 2010 U.S. Census. The New Orleans metropolitan area (New Orleans–Metairie–Kenner Metropolitan Statistical Area) had a population of 1,167,764 in 2010 and was the 46th largest in the United States.
 
Wikipedia: Gumbo
Gumbo is a stew popular in the U.S. state of Louisiana, and that state’s official state cuisine. It may have originated in southern Louisiana during the 18th century, possibly as a stew of the Choctaws served over corn grits. Gumbo consists primarily of a strongly-flavored stock, meat or shellfish, a thickener, and what Louisianians call the “Holy Trinity” of vegetables, namely celery, bell peppers, and onions. Gumbo is often categorized by the type of thickener used, the okra, the filé powder (dried and ground sassafras leaves), or roux, the French base made of flour and fat. The dish likely derived its name from either a word from a Bantu language for okra (ki ngombo) or the Choctaw word for filé (kombo).
     
16 July 1938, New York (NY) Amsterdam News, “New Orleans Boxing Team To Appear in Windy City,” sec. 2, pg. 6, col. 6:
The 1938 boxing team of the Gumbo City is topped by Kid Hamilton one time fly-weight champion of the south.
 
4 May 1940, Chicago (IL) Defender, “Gossip,” pg. 20, col. 6:
Sweetie Walker says he is doing O.K. around the Gumbo City of New Orleans.
 
26 March 1944, The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), sec. 2, pg. 6, col. 6:
Gumbo Goops on Visit Here;
Jives a Jint, or Is It Clear?
Fort Warren, Wyo.—(...) Sergeant Hart recently took a furlough to the Crescent City and reported it in this manner:
 
“One dark a few sevens ago I grabbed one of them hard rollin’ iron horses for a few brights of joy in the old Gumbo City.”
(One night a few weeks ago, he took a train in New Orleans.—ed.)
 
11 July 1964, The Louisiana Weekly (New Orleans, LA), “Time Out” by Jim Hall, pg. 10, col. 1:
Today, the world looks to the United States as the best example of democracy. New Orleans is one of the most important cities in this country, but look around and you will find that the Gumbo City is anything, but a symbol of democracy to Negroes.
       
Google Books
United States, 1981
By Stephen Birnbaum
Boston, MO: Houghton Mifflin
1980          
Pg. 304:
Carre serves up some of the best gumbo around, and in Gumbo City, that’s saying something.
   
7 May 2005, Atlanta (GA) Journal-Constitution, “Death, racism trouble minds in Big Easy: Fatal scuffle at bar stirs ‘winter of discontent’ by Drew Jubera, pg. A1:
Added historian Douglas Brinkley: “New Orleans likes to call itself the Gumbo City—- people of mixed bloods mixing together. In truth, there’s very little interaction between black and white. Although the neighborhoods intertwine, seldom to do the rivers meet.”
 
Google Groups: alt.politics.republicans
“Ethnic Cleansing?” Dem06 Race Card Politics
YankFan ®
3/6/06
(...)
“We want all of New Orleans rebuilt, not just parts,” said Dorothy Stukes, founder of the Katrina Survivors Association, which coordinated the events. “And we don’t want a Chocolate City. We want a Gumbo City, a city that has a little bit of everything in it.”
     
Google Books
Walking to New Orleans:
Ethics and the Concept of Participatory Design in Post-Disaster Reconstruction
By Robert R. N. Ross and Deanne E. B. Ross
Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock
2008
Pg. 352:
In New Orleans’ self-perception as a polyglot, ‘gumbo’ city, the question of city-wide cohesion becomes even more complex when considering those neighborhoods that have not repopulated to anywhere near their pre-storm numbers.
 
Salon
Gumbo city
Author Sara Roahen talks about her love affair with the big, decadent flavors of the Big Easy — from crawfish and beer, to gumbo, and deep-fried oysters and brie. All guilt-free.
SARAH HEPOLA
02.05.2008•6:50 AM
While the rest of the country awaits the outcome of Super Tuesday, New Orleans is celebrating Mardi Gras
 
Twitter
Craig Green‏
@CRAIGJGREEN
Off to New Orleans for a few days. Gumbo city here we come!
8:14 AM - 4 Sep 2010
   
Echelon
New Orleans Gumbo City
Good times roll in the Big Easy
By: Padraig Colman
Published on December 08, 2013
People call us a gumbo. It’s really important that we get focused on the very simple notion that diversity is a strength, it’s not a weakness. Mitch Landrieu – Mayor of New Orleans.
Gumbo is official cuisine of the state of Louisiana. It combines ingredients and culinary practices of several cultures, including West African, French, Spanish, German, and Choctaw. Gumbo may have been based on traditional West African or native dishes.
 
Twitter     
Sandy Rogers‏
@Psalm_girl
Replying to @EWL_Casting
@EWL_Casting when will we see you in New orleans? Gumbo City!
6:46 PM - 15 Feb 2014
 
Twitter
I am‏
@PresidenTurnerV
I’m on my gym flow while I’m in NOLA, the gumbo city! #TeamNike #AnyTimeFitness
9:55 PM - 22 May 2015
 
Twitter
Nick Theoret‏
@NickTheoret
GLE has its sights on GUMBO CITY aka New Awlens #springbreak2016… never mind the RV on I-75
3:25 PM - 13 Jan 2016
 
Twitter
Gambino Santana‏
@GambinoSantana
New Orleans got the flavor baby! That’s why we the gumbo city.. #GumboCity #NewOrleans
4:50 PM - 27 Aug 2016
 
Twitter
Ltanyafordltanysford‏
@Ltanyafordltan1
Welcome to neworleans,,,,gumbo,city.
6:40 AM - 16 Dec 2016 from New Orleans, LA
 
Twitter
Hostile‏
@HostileMusik504
Replying to @Nola_Brat_90
She definitely look like she drink beer! And they don’t call us the gumbo city for nothing! It’s nothing but mixed ppl here!
11:44 AM - 28 Jan 2018