Ouachita Parish History Tidbits

Tag: African-American History

  • The Death of Wisner Colored School

    I have always wondered when Wisner school closed. A few weeks ago, i was given a High School diploma from Wisner, dated 1920. I nearly cried! It was for future…

  • Felix McCloe: First Black Justice of the Peace in Ouachita Parish

    I stumbled across this little tidbit of lost Ouachita Parish history earlier this month. On the front page of the News-Star, April 8, 1921, Was the headline, “FORMER SLAVE, OFFICE…

  • Unmarked Slave Burial Ground in Sterlington

    This one I stumbled upon Wednesday. I have told you about the Phillips family cemetery in Sterlington on 165 North. It is the one marked with a stone cross, just…

  • Captain Ansley Reed: Monroe’s First Black Police Officer

    Have you ever heard of Capt. Ansley Reed? You should. He is known as Monroe’s first black police officer. Mr. Reed grew up in Caldwell Parish and attended Southern University.…

  • Harriet Gordan Foster – Pioneer Nurse

    The name is unfamiliar to most of Ouachita Parish residents. You may have heard of her husband, Dr. Madison Wright Foster, son of Professor Madison James Foster. Dr. Foster was…

  • Legends of Bryant’s Addition Documentary

    Please forgive the short post today. I’m still recovering from Saturday’s parades and my legs and hips are still in pain! OW! Riding a float hurts! A local filmmaker has…

  • Pioneer West Monroe Figure Ben Allen

    Monroe Morning World, November 18, 1934, Page 6. Ben Allen was born enslaved in Alabama. According to his death certificate, he was the son of Fed Allen and Willie A.…

  • Monroe Academy Graduating Class of 1914

    While going through our photo archives, I found this little gem I didn’t know we had. It shows a graduating class of the Monroe Academy (1000 Texas Avenue), which I…

  • The History of The Bright-Lamkin-Easterling Home

    The land that the above home would be built on, was once part of Henry Bry’s Mulberry Grove plantation. The Bry family sold the land to William A. Bright, a…

  • Ouachita Parish Rosenwald Schools

    Just after the Civil War, the Freedmen’s Bureau, along with local African American churches, established the first schools in the south for the formerly enslaved. After Reconstruction ended, education for…