Ouachita Parish History Tidbits

Tag: African-American History

  • Students and Faculty of the North Louisiana Industrial Institute

    The bulletin for Leland University I found these lists of students in, can be seen on the Internet Archives here : https://archive.org/details/bulletin189798191011lela/page/n121/mode/2up?q=%22Monroe%2C+LA%22 . I also found them digitized on the…

  • Monroe’s Ties to a Lost Black University

    I am just recently hearing about a private school for African-Americans that was here in the 1890’s and the early 1900’s. To call out my own biases, I thought that…

  • Lincoln School

    This picture is amazing! https://www.louisianadigitallibrary.org/islandora/object/oplib-bsc%3A44 It shows the faculty and staff of Lincoln School, which was an African American school during segregation. In 1962 or so, the Elm Street Elementary…

  • Mahalia Jackson Comes to Monroe

    In 1970, the Queen of Gospel herself, Mahalia Jackson sang at the Monroe Civic Center. Mayor Jack Howard presented her with a Pacemaker Bracelet and rolled out the red carpet…

  • A History of Library Service to the African-American Community in Ouachita Parish

    I have found another digitized thesis! This one was written in 1967 by Ms. Shirley Rush at Atlanta University. It details the history of the establishment of the Carver Branch…

  • Layton Castle Blog

    The other day, I found a blog run by the current owner of Layton castle, which only has a couple of posts. They are very interesting though! The first post…

  • Boley Jr. High Students, Circa 1967

    Did your family have a member who attended Boley Jr. High in the mid to late 60’s? Take a look at this picture from the library’s collection. You can click…

  • Liller Maddox Marbles Recreation Center Photo

    This one is a little bit of a mystery. Can anyone identify the people in this photo? Our best guess is that it was taken when the center was dedicated,…

  • Junior Chamber of Commerce Bubble Blowing Contest – 1946

    Our grandparents and great grandparents knew how to party! On September 28, 1946, the Junior Chamber of Commerce threw what they called a “Big Teen-Age Party” at the new teen…

  • A List of Monroe’s African-American Newspapers

    I was browsing through the Genealogy Department’s collection, when I found a book called “Bibliographic Checklist of African American Newspapers” by Barbara K. Henritze. It was published in 1995. It…