Row 1  1) Doris Colson   2) Noel Ellis   3) Salvador Margin   4) Albert Gregoire   5) Yolanda LeGeaux   6) Dolly Desselle   7) George St. Julien   8) June Walker   9) Jeannette Williams.

Row 2   19) Mercedes Picou   20 Edward Brown   21) Carolyn Lombard   22) Frances Gordon   23) Zenobia Randolph   24) George Griffin   25) Jeannine Epps   26) Vivian Reissland   27) Thais Woodfox. 

Row 3   37) Vera Williams   38) Eleanor Benjamin   39) Earl Bakewell   40) Rene Saulney   41) Octavia Miller  42) Wilma Saulney   43) Justine Labat   44) Edward Stuart   45. Jocelyn Watts.

Row 4   55) Marguerite Daigre   56) Lydia Martin   57) Helen Martin   58) Shirley Morris   59) Marlon Green   60) Floyd Gray   61) Sophie Watts   62) Altheanaise Conrad   63) Rose Mary Romant.

Row 5   72) Beverly Joseph   73) Ramona Forstall   74) Neomia Woodfork   75) Charmaine Haydel   76) Claire Dejoie   77) Marilyn Jacques   78) June Fagot   79) Marilyn Young   80) Julius Davis   81) Rita Mae Breaux.

Row 6   91) Anthony Lombard   92) Ruth White   93) Hannibal Robertson   94) Jewel Lawrence   95) Rodney Smith   96) Lancelot Lewis  97) Ned Kennedy   98) Hamilton Brown   99) Juliette Parker.

Row 7   109) Desmor King   110) Leo Provost   111) Rose Mary La Branche   112) Vernon Washington   113) Lois Gonzales   114) Walter King   115) Joyce Maury   116) Alice Anderson   117) Lois Deslonde   127) Hellane Bourgeois   128) Marion Franklin   129) Marion Ganier.

Row 1   10) Audrey Christophe   11) Lucien Arceneaux   12) Evelyn Sampson  13) Charles Fagot   14) Louise Nicholas   15) Leon Bordenave   16) Genevieve Fauria   17) Helen Bibolet   18) Bernadine Robinson.  

Row 2    28) Joyce Delacroix   29)   Menolia White   30) Mabel Smith   31) Lois Melton   32) Carolyn Kiper   33) Marion Moore   34) Merlin Taylor   35) Earline Henderson   36) Barbara Lewis.

Row 3   46) Evangeline Kimball   47) Mary Louise  Stuart   48) Mary Belle Singleton   49) Ramona Winnier   50) Ethel Garrett   51) George Dugue   52) Ethel McClain   53) Wilbur Williams   54) Jean Haydel.

Row 4   64) Eloise Jackson   65) Janet Suane   66) Alfred Aubry   67) Helena Auzout   68) Beverly Martin   69) Marie Gates   70) Leonard Robertson   71) Rose Marie Terrence   72) Beverly Joseph.

Row 5   83) Joan Jeffrion    84) Leo Dunn   85) Lorraine  Watkins   86) Margaret Brown   87) Sidney Cates   88) Gerald Cheatham   89) Marcella Cuillier   90) Dorothy Romain.

Row 6   100) Pierre Charles   101) Marshall Bergeron   102) Henry Harris   103) Eva Mae Priestly   104) Miriam Baudy   105) Mabel Dupart   106) Justin Wright   107) Eunice Washington   108) George Rieras.

Row 7   118) Henry Heins   119) Teresa Le Boeuf   120) Morris Duplessis   121) Rose Marie Christophe   122) Ferrell Daste   123)   Anna Mae Romant   124) Marie Robert   125) Leonard Tureaud   126) Louise Cherrie   130) Conklin Vavasseur   131) Earl Millard   132) Edward Eugere

Note:  If any of our readers are aware of any misspelled names or other errors, please let us know and it will be corrected.

A special thank you goes to Denise Galbreath Perez for locating the above class photo and allowing us to publish it in honor of her mother, Joyce Maury who is a member of the 1947 class. Also, thanks to Lionel Khaton for making me aware of its existence and delivering the information.

Lolita Villavasso Cherrie

LIFE IN 1947

The students shown above were graduating at a time when our country was still recovering from the carnage of WW2.  New cars and kitchen appliances, which were scarce during the war, were now selling at a wild pace. Radio devotees began to flock to the new technological invention known as television and two other major inventions that would impact everyone’s lives for many years to come, the transistor and the mobile phone.

Students could purchase a loaf of bread for 13 cents and a postage stamp for just 3 cents. The average cost of a new home was $6,600.00 while the average wage earner brought home $2,850.00 annually. A new automobile cost $1,300.00 and gas was 15 cents per gallon.

Mayor de Lesseps “Chep Morrison” was the mayor of New Orleans. Ironically, he fought prostitution but supported segregation. Of course, the students above attended an all black school since “Jim Crow” was the law of the land. Even though they made up one third of the city’s population and had helped win a war against Hitler and fascism, the black community was embittered that they still had to face apartheid at home.

Many of the students shown above lived in integrated neighborhoods (Treme, 7th ward, uptown, lower 9th, old Algiers, Irish Channel), but were socially segregated in the community. They ate at different restaurants and drank from separate water fountains. They even played at different parks and attended separate sports events.

White families gathered at Pontchartrain Beach, while they gathered at Lincoln Beach. Audubon Park was opened to both races, but City Park was not. Black baseball fans were forced to sit in separate areas overlooking 3rd base at the all-white players Pelican games. Buses and street cars had segregated seating while many churches housed separate pews (usually to the rear) for people of color.

Students would be taken to Flint-Goodridge Hospital or the segregated sections of Charity for medical care but were not allowed else where. Firefighters and bus drivers were all white while blacks were not hired for jobs at City Hall that involved public contact. Those students seeking a library could only use the Dryades Street Library (later Nora Navra) and no others. Even the housing projects ( St. Thomas, Florida, and Iberville) were for whites only. St. Bernard, Calliope, Magnolia and Lafitte were built for blacks.

This was the world the graduating students were moving into. As a result, many moved away, beyond the chains of “Jim Crow”. Others remained, worked, and educated their kids. It would be this generation of the 1940s and their off -springs that would take on the system and bring about the changes so desperately needed.

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