Ouachita Parish History Tidbits

Tag: Professor M.J. Foster

  • 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…

  • Monroe Colored High School Class of 1929

    You can see Professor M.J. Foster in front in the black cap and gown. The school building was fairly new. One of the ladies in this class is Mrs. Ollie…

  • Odalie Richardson McDonald: OPPL’s first African American Librarian

    I have always LOVED this picture: https://www.louisianadigitallibrary.org/islandora/object/oplib-arc%3A18 . It shows the moment Ms. Odalie Richardson (later McDonald) receives the keys to the Carver Branch Library from B.D. Robinson. The African…

  • A Proposed New Building For the Monroe Academy

    Wouldn’t this have been a gorgeous building? This was published in the Monroe News Star back in 1913. Professor Foster and the trustees of the Monroe Academy were looking to…

  • Students in Other Parish schools

    Last week, I told you about the Monroe Academy, a Leland University affiliate private school for African-American students at the turn of the last century. Leland had affiliate schools all…

  • 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…

  • Dedication Page, 1951

    This page was another jaw dropper! Looking out from this page is probably one of the biggest names in Ouachita Parish educational history. Professor M.J. Foster. WOW! Mrs. H.W. Johnson…