Plaisance School is a school, established in 1921, in

Plaisance, Louisiana Plaisance is an unincorporated community in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, United States. It is the location of the Plaisance School, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is home to the Southwest Louisiana Zydeco Music ...

, United States. The school was segregated during the

Jim Crow The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...

-era and served

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

students. It also went by the names Plaisance High School, and Plaisance Rosenwald School. The Plaisance School has been listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

since 2004, for the school's contribution to educational history and Black ethnic heritage. A historical marker commemorates the school history. The Plaisance School is one of very few surviving Rosenwald Schools still actively being used as a school building, and now serves as Plaisance Elementary School.

History

The Plaisance School was built in 1921 as Rosenwald School. The building housed 160 students in grades one through six, seven, or eight, during the period from 1920 to 1953. Up until the 1960s, the Plaisance School was the only school for African American students in the community. Only 393 Rosenwald Schools were built in Louisiana (between 1914 and 1932), and only two still exist in recognizable form; only one, the Plaisance School, remains on its original site.

Merline Pitre Merline Pitre (born 1943) is an American historian and educator. She is a professor of history at Texas Southern University and previously served as president of the Texas State Historical Association in 2011 and 2012. Life and career Pitre was ...

, is an alumna and taught

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

at the school.

Modern history

Plaisance High School was consolidated into Northwest High School in 1991, and the Rosenwald building (one of several buildings on the campus) now serves as Plaisance Elementary School. Opelousas students in grades five through eight take classes in the historical classrooms. In 2017, the school reopened after suffering damages in a flood and, in early 2022, plans to restore and repair the historic Rosenwald structure were set into motion. On November 12, 2022, those plans came to fruition and a dedication ceremony was held at the school building to commemorate the completion of the building’s renovation.

References

* {{Authority control 1921 establishments in Louisiana Educational institutions established in 1921 Historically segregated African-American schools in Louisiana National Register of Historic Places in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana Rosenwald schools in Louisiana School buildings completed in 1921 School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Louisiana Schools in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana

History

Modern history

See also

References