The Louisiana Education Association, 1901-1970

The growth and development of Black people in Louisiana depended largely upon their ability to adjust to existing conditions. Many times, however, conditions were such that one could not readily adjust or adapt to maintain a level of subsistence equal with the dominant sector of the system. Thus, self-help and racial solidarity became increasingly popular among Blacks as discrimination and the failure to obtain basic human and civil rights by agitation and protest became apparent. In all phases of life, behind the bulwark of segregation, the majority of Blacks had come to believe in the necessity of binding together and building counterparts to white institutions-whether cultural, welfare, religious, political, economic or educational. By the last decade of the 1800s, the main theme of Black thought in Louisiana on the race question was that for the most part Blacks must work out their own salvation in a hostile environment. Black educators and parents saw a tremendous gap to be bridged if they were ever going to step into or challenge the social, political, or educational structure of the state. Many recognized that there were significant problems which the state educational leaders were ignoring. However, through the pioneering efforts of J. B. LaFargue and others assembled in Alexandria, Louisiana in 1901, an idea to initiate change was born. The men and women gathered at Alexandria saw the wisdom of exchanging ideas and the necessity of organization to deal intelligently with various problems that were stifling the productivity of Blacks in Louisiana. They believed that wisdon and unity evolved from the exchanging of views. Through these efforts the Louisiana Colored Teachers Association (LCTA) was born

Association (psychology) · Sociology · Demography · Diverse Education Studies and Reforms · Psychology

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• Civil Rights, Labor Conflict, and Integration

  Open Access•Jesse Chanin•Labor Studies Journal•2021

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