Iberia African American Historical Society "Celebrating the True and Inclusive History of Iberia Parish"
NEW IBERIA, La. — The Shadows-on-the-Teche was recently awarded a Rebirth Grant from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities to offer a fall 2024 lecture series centered on education in Louisiana. For the first of this three-part series, Ruth Foote lead a discussion on the 76 black students who integrated the University of Louisiana at Lafayette 70 years ago. The lecture took place on Thurs., Sept. 19, at the Shadows Visitor Center.
Ruth Foote, author, historian, Iberia African American Historical Society member and community volunteer is an award-winning journalist who served as the co-founder and editor of Creole Magazine. Ms. Foote has also written for The Current, The Acadiana Advocate and The Times of Acadiana. She received her M.A. in Public History from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
In April 1954, a month before the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education, the U.S. Western District of Louisiana ordered the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, then known as the Southwestern Louisiana Institute, to admit African American students into its fold. The permanent injunction, in the case known as Constantine v. SLI, came in July 1954, two months after Brown. The federal court’s decision resulted in the university becoming the first higher education institution in the Deep South to desegregate, forever changing the historical landscape and destiny for decades to come.
- Schooling in the Antebellum South
Dr. Sarah Hyde explored antebellum private and public education systems (or lack thereof) before the Civil War in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. The lecture took place on Saturday Oct 5, 2024, at the Shadows Visitor Center.
Dr. Sarah Hyde received her doctorate from Louisiana State University in 2010. Her first book, Schooling in the Antebellum South: The Rise of Public and Private Education in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, was published by LSU Press in 2016. Her most recent book is a work of historical fiction titled Rebel Bayou, co-authored with her husband, Dr. Sam Hyde, and published by the University of Louisiana Press. Sarah is a professor of history at River Parishes Community College and resides in Baton Rouge.
- Education and Preservation to Heal Communities
Leona Tate, one of the first African Americans to attend a white-only school in Louisiana and founder of the Leona Tate Foundation for Change, will discuss the integration of New Orleans and the impact of historic preservation on healing communities. In 1960, Leona Tate was one of “The McDonogh Three” who integrated New Orleans public schools. More than 60 years later, Tate, along with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, returned to McDonogh 19 to open an anti-racism community center to heal their community.
Dr. Leona Tate and Molly Baker, HOPE Crew, joined in conversation on Thursday, November 7th 2024 at the Sliman Theatre, 129 E. Main Street, New Iberia.