Historians have established that Black students used force to challenge racist repression in schools throughout the United States during the 1960s and 1970s. However, the existing literature’s national focus raises unanswered questions about the extent to which Black students’ forceful responses to discrimination varied across local contexts.
Focus of Study:
This article examines 42 episodes from Louisiana secondary schools in which Black students collectively used force to resist subordination between 1965 and 1974. Drawing upon Black Studies scholarship, it treats these incidents as political acts of rebellion rather than lawless “riots.”
Research Design:
To determine where, when, how, and why Louisiana’s Black students used force, this historical study draws upon archival materials from eight collections at five archives, more than one dozen local and national newspapers, and author-conducted interviews.
Conclusions/Recommendations:
Although Black students acted on shared concerns about systemic inequality, site-specific factors shaped each rebellion. This essay therefore argues that scholars should not mistake the ubiquity of Black students’ violent opposition to white supremacy as an indication that subordination or resistance remained static across time and space. It encourages further localized study that is attentive to the temporal and geographic contingencies that shape the racial politics of education.
Abramson High plans classes. (1971, February16). Times-Picayune, sec. 1, pp. 1, 2.
2.
Alabama Council on Human Relations et al. (1972). It’s not over in the south: School desegregation in forty-three southern cities eighteen years afterBrown. Author.
Assaults on law enforcement officers: Hearings before the Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Part I, 91st Cong. (1970, October6). U.S. Government Printing Office.
8.
Atmosphere remains tense at Abramson high school. (1971, February20). Louisiana Weekly, 1.
9.
BakerL. (1996). The second battle of New Orleans: The hundred-year struggle to integrate the schools. Harper Collins.
10.
BarberL. (2017). Latino city: Immigration and urban crisis in Lawrence, Massachusetts, 1945–2000. University of North Carolina Press.
11.
BaumgartnerK. (2019). In pursuit of knowledge: Black women and educational activism in antebellum America. New York University Press.
12.
BiondiM. (2012). The black revolution on campus. University of California Press.
13.
Black Student Union of Fortier. (1969, January15). Petition. Victor Hess Subseries, Box 10, Orleans Parish School Board Collection. Louisiana and Special Collections Department, Earl K. Long Library, University of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA.
14.
Black, white student fights close school. (1971, November20). Louisiana Weekly, 1.
Blacks, whites in brief clash. (1971, December9). Times-Picayune, sec. 3, p. 14.
17.
BoltonC. (2005). The hardest deal of all: The battle over school integration in Mississippi, 1870–1980. University Press of Mississippi.
18.
BradleyS. (2018). Upending the ivory tower: Civil rights, black power, and the Ivy League. New York University Press.
19.
BrittonR. H. (1970, November18). Annual report. Louisiana—Britton, Harvey Ronald H., Reports, 1970 Folder, Group VI, Series C, Branch Department Files, Field Staff: Field Secretaries and Directors, Papers of the NAACP, Part 29: Branch Department, Series A: Field Staff Files, 1965–1972. Library of Congress. Accessed via ProQuest History Vault.
20.
BrownH. R. (1969). Die nigger die: a political autobiography. Last Gasp.
21.
BynumT. (2013). NAACP youth and the fight for black freedom. University of Tennessee Press.
22.
ByrdD. E. (1972, January14). Special Report, Vermillion Parish, Louisiana. Folder 9, Box 4, Daniel Ellis Byrd Papers. Amistad Research Center at Tulane University, New Orleans, LA.
23.
ByrdD. E. (December1972). Activity Report. Folder 3, Box 4, Daniel Ellis Byrd Papers. Amistad Research Center at Tulane University, New Orleans, LA.
24.
ByrdD. E. (1973a, February12).Special Report. Folder 9, Box 4, Daniel Ellis Byrd Papers. Amistad Research Center at Tulane University, New Orleans, LA.
25.
ByrdD. E., Special to Norman Chachkin. (1973b, March31). Folder 9, Box 4, Daniel Ellis Byrd Papers, Amistad Research Center at Tulane University, New Orleans, LA.
26.
CampbellE. (1968a). Interview with Ed Campbell. NOLA Express, No. 10.
27.
CampbellE. (1968b). Interview with Lionel McIntyre. NOLA Express, No. 5.
28.
CannonP. (2009, June27). Interview with the author. Transcript in author’s possession.
29.
CarsonC. (1981). In struggle: SNCC and the black awakening of the 1960s. Harvard University Press.
CassimereC.SoniatL. (1966, February10). Letter to Matthew Sutherland et al. Folder 301, Youth Chapter/Council Box, NAACP, New Orleans Records. University of New Orleans.
32.
CecelskiD. (1994). Along freedom road: Hyde County, North Carolina, and the fate of black schools in the south. University of North Carolina Press.
33.
Cha-JuaS. K.LangC. (April2017). The ‘long movement’ as vampire: Temporal and spatial fallacies in recent Black freedom studies. Journal of African American History, 92(2), 265–288.
34.
ChaninJ. (2021). The rise and fall of the United Teachers of New Orleans [doctoral dissertation, Tulane University]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.
35.
City trouble not organized—chief. (1970, September21). Houma Daily Courier, 1.
36.
CortezM. (1996). The faculty integration of New Orleans public schools, 1972. Louisiana History, 37(4), 405–434.
37.
DannsD. (2003). Something better for our children: Black organizing in Chicago Public Schools, 1963–1971. Routledge.
DaviesG. (2007). See government grow: Education politics from Johnson to Reagan. University of Kansas Press.
40.
Decision ok’d for Nicholls. (1970, November24). Times-Picayune, sec. 3, p. 22.
41.
de JongG. (2002). A different day: African American struggles for justice in rural Louisiana, 1900–1970. University of North Carolina Press.
42.
DelmontM. (2016). Why busing failed: Race, media, and the national resistance to school desegregation. University of California Press.
43.
DevlinR. (2018). A girl stands at the door: The generation of young women who desegregated America’s schools. Basic Books.
44.
Disorder at EHS Monday leads to one-day closure. (1969, September23). Eunice News, 1.
45.
Disturbance is reported at New Iberia high school. (1969, November6). Daily Advertiser, 6.
46.
Disturbance reported at NI Jr. High. (1969, November7). Daily Advertiser, 6.
47.
DoughertyJ. (2004). More than one struggle: The evolution of Black school reform in Milwaukee. University of North Carolina Press.
48.
DouglasD. (1995). Reading, writing, & race: The desegregation of the Charlotte schools. University of North Carolina Press.
49.
DumasM. J. (2016). Against the dark: Antiblackness in education policy and discourse. Theory Into Practice, 55(11), 11–19.
50.
DuvalC. B. (1970a, September22). Letter to Houma Daily Courier, Folder 3, Box 35, Claude B. Duval Papers. Archives and Special Collections, Ellender Memorial Library, Nicholls State University, Thibodaux, LA.
51.
EastC. (1972, December25). Nicholls high time change. Times-Picayune, sec. 2, p. 17.
52.
EastC. (1973, January16). Teachers rap Carver unrest. Times-Picayune, sec. 1, p. 1.
53.
EastC. (1973, January30). Stability plan for Carver ok’d. Times-Picayune, 1.
54.
ElkinsA. (2018). Urban riots and rioting in the United States, 1800–2000. Oxford Research Encyclopedia: American History. Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.013.572.
55.
EricksonA. (2016). Making the unequal metropolis: School desegregation and its limits. University of Chicago Press.
56.
EricksonA. (2020). How/should we generalize?History of Education Quarterly, 60(1), 86–97.
57.
FaircloughA. (2008). Race & democracy: The civil rights struggle in Louisiana, 1915–1972 (2nd ed.). University of Georgia Press.
58.
FarriaG. (1974, May5). Complaint Form. Folder 7, Box 28, NAACP Office of Field Director of Louisiana Records. Amistad Research Center at Tulane University.
59.
Fight is vowed by Rep. Fortier. (1970, October26). Times-Picayune, sec. 4, p. 11.
60.
Five Abramson students held. (1971, April28). Times-Picayune, sec. 1, p. 21.
61.
Four students held in protest. (1974, March19). Times-Picayune, sec. 1, p. 6.
62.
FranklinV. P. (2020). The young crusaders: The untold story of the children and teenagers who galvanized the civil rights movement. Beacon Press.
63.
Gas is used to break up Negro protest in Louisiana. (1970, March10). New York Times, 51.
64.
Gas used at Bogalusa High. (1970, May9). Baltimore Afro-American, 18.
65.
GermanyK. (2007). New Orleans after the promises: Poverty, citizenship, and the search for the great society. University of Georgia Press.
66.
GrahamG. (2006). Young activists: American high school students in the age of protest. Northern Illinois University Press.
67.
Green v. County School Board of New Kent County, 391 U.S. 430 (1968).
68.
GriffinD. (1969, January15). Letter to Dr. Schwertz. Victor Hess Subseries, Box 10, Orleans Parish School Board Collection. University of New Orleans.
69.
GriffinD. (2009, August29). Interview with the author. Transcript in author’s possession.
70.
GrundyP. (2017). Color & character: West Charlotte High and the American struggle over educational equality. University of North Carolina Press.
71.
HaleJ. N. (2016). The freedom schools: Student activists in the Mississippi civil rights movement. Columbia University Press.
72.
HaleJ. N. (August2018). Future foot soldiers or budding criminals? The dynamics of high school student activism in the southern Black freedom struggle. Journal of Southern History, LXXXIV(3), 615–652.
73.
HaleJ. N. (2022). A new kind of youth: Historically Black high schools and southern student activism, 1920–1975. University of North Carolina Press.
74.
HaleJ. N.LivingstonC. (in press). “If you want police, we will have them”: Anti-Black student discipline in southern schools and the rise of a new carceral logic, 1961–1975. Journal of Urban History, 49(5).
75.
High school closes after student unrest. (1970, September18). Houma Daily Courier, 1, 8.
76.
HigsonM. (March1969). Black students head boycott at New Orleans high school. Southern Patriot, 1.
77.
HillL. (2004). Deacons for defense: Armed resistance and the civil rights movement. University of North Carolina Press.
78.
HintonE. (2021). America on fire: The untold history of police violence and Black rebellion since the 1960s. Liveright.
79.
HirschA.LogsdonJ. (1992). Creole New Orleans: Race and Americanization. Louisiana State University Press.
House Subcommittee on General Education. (1970, February23). Survey of American high schools 1968–69 academic year. Congressional Record, 91 Cong. Session 2, 4446–4448.
82.
JeffriesH. J. (2009). Bloody Lowndes: Civil rights and Black power in Alabama’s black belt. New York University Press.
83.
JosephP. (2009, December). The Black Power movement: A state of the field. Journal of American History, 96(3), 751–776.
84.
JosephP. (2021, May30). Up in arms. New York Times Book Review, 1, 17.
85.
KafkaJ. (May2008). ‘Sitting on a tinderbox’: Racial conflict, teacher discretion, and the centralization of disciplinary authority. American Journal of Education, 114, 247–270.
86.
KautzM. (in press). From segregation to suspension: The solidification of the contemporary school-prison nexus in Boston, 1963–1985. Journal of Urban History, 49(5).
87.
KelleyR. D. G. (1994). Race rebels: Culture, politics, and the Black working class. Free Press.
88.
KendiI. X. (2012). The Black campus movement: Black students and the racial reconstruction of higher education, 1965–1972. Palgrave Macmillan.
89.
K’MeyerT. (2013). From Brown to Meredith: The long struggle for school desegregation in Louisville, Kentucky, 1954–2007. University of North Carolina Press.
90.
LaFourcadeE. (1969, April8). Striking teachers may be replaced. Times-Picayune, sec. 1, pp. 1–2.
91.
LandphairJ. (December2007). ‘The forgotten people of New Orleans’: Community, vulnerability, and the Lower Ninth Ward. Journal of American History, 94(3), 714–755.
92.
LawsonS. (April1991). Freedom then, freedom now: The historiography of the civil rights movement. American Historical Review, 96(2), 456–471.
93.
LeonardJ. (1971, March24). Letter to A. P. Tureaud. Folder 18, Box 52, A. P. Tureaud Papers. Amistad Research Center at Tulane University.
94.
LevyP. (2018). The great uprising: Race riots in urban America during the 1960s. Cambridge University Press.
95.
List of grievances presented to board. (1970, September20). Houma Daily Courier, 1.
96.
Livingston student knifed during fracas at school. (1971, September11). Times-Picayune, 8.
97.
Louisiana v. Tyler. (1975). Trial transcript, Case No. 74033, 29th Judicial District, St. Charles Parish, LA. St. Charles Parish Clerk of Court Office, Hahnville, LA, United States.
LynchD. (1969, September4). School turmoil still continues. State Times, 8-A.
100.
MasonW. (1974, May6). Complaint Form. Folder 7, Box 28, NAACP Office of Field Director of Louisiana Records. Amistad Research Center at Tulane University.
101.
McIntyreL. (2010a, February24). Interview with the author. Transcript in author’s possession.
102.
McIntyreL. (2010b, July30). Personal correspondence with the author. In author’s possession.
103.
Memo. (ca. 1973). Folder 11, Box 28, NAACP Office of Field Director of Louisiana Records. Amistad Research Center at Tulane University.
104.
MitchellL. (1969, May7). Order, Dunn v. St. Charles Parish School Board, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, Folder 20, Box 52, APT Papers. Amistad Research Center at Tulane University.
105.
MooreL. (2010). Black rage in New Orleans: Police brutality and African American activism. Louisiana State University Press.
106.
NAACP Youth Council probes bombing at Abramson. (1972, January22). Louisiana Weekly, 5.
Negro citizens. (1968, September9). To the Orleans Parish School Board. Folder 6, Box 5, Byrd Papers. Amistad Research Center at Tulane University.
109.
Negro student beaten by gang. (1971, April27). Times-Picayune, sec. 4, p. 8.
110.
Negroes still picket offices (1969, July28). Times-Picayune, sec. 1, p. 18.
111.
NewellL. (1972). Letter to James Brown. Library of Congress. Inter-Departmental Communications, Legal Department, 1972 Folder, Group VI, Series C, Branch Department Files, General Office File, Part 29: Branch Department, Series B: Branch Newsletters, Annual Branch Activities Reports, and Selected Branch Department Subject Files, 1966–1972. Library of Congress. Accessed via ProQuest History Vault.
112.
New Orleans Public Schools. (1970). Facts and finances, 1969–1970. Financial Records, Box 8, Orleans Parish School Board Collection. University of New Orleans.
113.
New Orleans Public Schools. (1971). Facts and finances, 1970–1971. Financial Records, Box 8, Orleans Parish School Board Collection. University of New Orleans.
114.
New Orleans Public Schools. (1973). Facts and finances, 1972–1973. Financial Records, Box 8, Orleans Parish School Board Collection. University of New Orleans.
Nicholls High draws pickets. (1972, January11). Times-Picayune, 16.
117.
OgbarJ. O. G. (2004). Black power: Radical politics and African American identity. Johns Hopkins University Press.
118.
OpotowskyM. (1969, February13). Student demonstrations rock Fortier. Silver and Blue [Fortier High student newspaper], 1. Lusher Charter School Library, New Orleans, LA.
119.
O’QuinnJ. (1971, January23). School melee sparked by charges of racism. States-Item, 1, 2.
120.
Orleans Parish Public Schools. (1969, October 6). Comparison: Membership by grade and by race. Folder 13, Box 46, APT Papers. Amistad Research Center at Tulane University.
121.
Orleans Parish School Board. (1969–1972). Minutes. Orleans Parish School Board Collection. University of New Orleans.
122.
Orleans school closed yesterday after disorders. (1972, November4). State-Times, 12-A.
123.
Parents take students home. (1971, February12). Times-Picayune, 2.
124.
Parish schools open peacefully. (1970, September23). Houma Daily Courier, 1.
125.
ParrL. (1998). A will of her own: Sarah Towles Reed and the pursuit of democracy in southern public education. University of Georgia Press.
126.
PierreR. (1973, March29). Statement. Folder 11, Box 28, NAACP Office of Field Director of Louisiana Records. Amistad Research Center at Tulane University.
127.
Police reports. (1971, March9). Times-Picayune, sec. 1, p. 3.
128.
Public schools damaged heavily during strike. (1969, April26). Louisiana Weekly, 1.
129.
Racial. (1972, January18). Folder 99, Box 2, New Orleans: Series III, Alphabetical Files # AP 17.3, U.S. City Bureaus Collection, Associated Press Corporate Archives. Associated Press Collections Online.
130.
Racial lead no pickup. (1971, May). Folder 99, Box 2, New Orleans: Series III, Alphabetical Files # AP 17.3, U.S. City Bureaus Collection, Associated Press Corporate Archives. Associated Press Collections Online.
131.
RemnickN. (in press). “The police state in Franklin K. Lane”: Desegregation, student resistance, and the carceral turn at a New York City high school. Journal of Urban History, 49(5).
RickfordR. (2016). We are an African people: Independent education, Black power, and the radical imagination. Oxford University Press.
134.
RockwellN. (1963). The problem we all live with [oil painting]. Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, MA.
135.
RogersK. L. (1993). Righteous lives: Narratives of the New Orleans civil rights movement. New York University Press.
136.
rossk. m. (2021). On Black education: Anti-Blackness, refusal, and resistance. In GrantC. A.WoodsA. N.DumasM. J. (Eds.), The future is Black: Afropessimism, fugitivity, and radical hope in education (pp. 7–15). Routledge.
137.
School attendance off following Monday incident. (1969, September25). Eunice News, 1.
138.
School board meeting ends in disruption (1969, February1). Louisiana Weekly, 1.
139.
School girl complains of police abuse. (1972, January15). Louisiana Weekly, 1.
140.
School is dismissed early after whites, Blacks clash. (1970, January20). Times-Picayune, 10.
141.
SchumakerK. (2019). Troublemakers: Students’ rights and racial justice in the long 1960s. New York University Press.
142.
SchwertzJ. S. (1969). Student unrest at Fortier senior high school. Education. Schools. Fortier High folder, Vertical Files. Louisiana Research Collection, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA.
143.
Siddle WalkerV. (2018). The lost education of Horace Tate: Uncovering the hidden heroes who fought for justice in schools. New Press.
144.
Six arrested after racial disturbance. (1970, November14). State-Times, 6–A.
145.
SojoynerD. M. (2013). Black radicals make for bad citizens: Undoing the myth of the school to prison pipeline. Berkeley Review of Education4(2), 241–263.
146.
SpearsM. (1971). Report on incident at John McDonogh Senior High. John McDonogh Senior High School, January 7, 1971–August 4, 1975 Folder, General Files, Orleans Parish School Board Collection. University of New Orleans.
147.
Split session for Abramson. (1972, September21). Times-Picayune, sec. 6, p. 7.
148.
SternW. C. (2010). Black, white, silver, and blue: Race and desegregation at New Orleans’s Fortier High, 1960–1975. [Masters thesis, Tulane University].
149.
SternW. C. (2018). Race & education in New Orleans: Creating the segregated city, 1764–1960. Louisiana State University Press.
150.
SternW. C. (2021). The hidden politics of high school violence. In SteeleK. P. (Ed.), New perspectives on the twentieth-century history of the American high school (pp. 237–275). Palgrave Macmillan.
151.
SternW. C. (in press). School violence and the carceral state in the 1970s: Desegregation and the new educational inequality in Louisiana. Journal of Southern History.
152.
SternW. C. (in press). Where protection meets punishment: Public education and the carceral state in urban America. Journal of Urban History, 49(5).
153.
Student group lists demands. (1970, October24). Times-Picayune, sec. 4, p. 22.
Students’ petition for Smith’s reinstatement. (1971, March6). Louisiana Weekly, 1.
156.
SugrueT. J.GoodmanA. P. (2007). Plainfield is burning: Black rebellion in the suburban north. Journal of Urban History, 33(4), 568–601.
157.
TateL. (1962, October6). Letter to Superintendent of Education. Folder 28, Box 43, APT Papers. Amistad Research Center at Tulane University.
158.
TateL.EtienneG.WilliamsT. (2020, November13). Sixty years later, New Orleans school desegregation: A look back and a way forward [panel discussion]. Center for Equity, Justice, & the Human Spirit, Xavier University, New Orleans, LA. Recording in author’s possession.
159.
TaylorK. (2016). From #BlackLivesMatter to Black liberation. Haymarket Books.
160.
TaylorO. C. W. (1970, October31). Humiliation is charged by students. Louisiana Weekly, 1.
161.
Teachers end 2 week old strike, return to classes. (1969, April26). Louisiana Weekly, 1.
162.
Teachers’ strike erupts in incident of violence. (1969, April10). Times-Picayune, 1.
163.
TheoharisJ. (2018). A more beautiful and terrible history: The uses and misuses of civil rights history. Beacon Press.
164.
Thib. High School classes scheduled to convene Monday. (1970, January 23). Houma Courier, 1.
ThompsonH. A. (2013). Criminalizing kids: The overlooked reason for failing schools. In KatzM. B.RoseM. (Eds.), Public education under siege (pp. 131–139). University of Pennsylvania Press.
167.
3 injured in interracial row at Fortier. (1969, March15). Louisiana Weekly, 2.
168.
Todd-BrelandE. (2018). A political education: Black politics and education reform in Chicago since the 1960s. University of North Carolina Press.
169.
Two students are arrested. (1971, April24). Times-Picayune, 22.
170.
TysonT. (1999). Radio free dixie: Robert Williams and the roots of Black power. University of North Carolina Press.
171.
U.S. Census Bureau. (1970). Census of population: 1970 (Vol. 1: Characteristics of the population. Part 20: Louisiana). Author
172.
U.S. Census Bureau. (1980). Census of population: 1980 (Vol. 1: Characteristics of the population. Chapter A: Number of inhabitants. Part 20: Louisiana). Author
U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. (1978). Violent schools—safe schools: The safe schools study report to Congress. Vol. 1. Author.
175.
WelchS. B. (2009, July8). Interview with the author. Transcript in author’s possession.
176.
White, Black pupils battle in Bogalusa. (1970, September15). Los Angeles Times, 17.
177.
WildersonF. (2020). Afropessimism. Liveright.
178.
WilliamsH. (1971, March22). Report on conditions at John McDonogh Senior High School. John McDonogh Senior High School, January7, 1971–August4, 1975 Folder, General Files, Orleans Parish School Board Collection, University of New Orleans.
179.
WilliamsJ. (2013). From the bullet to the ballot: The Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party and racial coalition politics in Chicago. University of North Carolina Press.
180.
Williamson-LottJ. A. (2008). Radicalizing the ebony tower: Black colleges and the Black freedom struggle in Mississippi. Teachers College Press.
181.
WillisV. D. (2021). Audacious agitation: The uncompromising commitment of Black youth to equal education afterBrown. University of Georgia Press.
182.
WilsonM. (1973, March29). Statement, Folder 11, Box 28, NAACP Office of Field Director of Louisiana Records. Amistad Research Center at Tulane University.
