Alfred Lawless High School was a public high school and junior high school in the

Lower Ninth Ward The Lower Ninth Ward is a neighborhood in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. As the name implies, it is part of the 9th Ward of New Orleans. The Lower Ninth Ward is often thought of as the entire area within New Orleans downriver of the Indus ...

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

, United States.

History

As a part of the

New Orleans Public Schools The Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB) governs the public school system that serves New Orleans, Louisiana. It includes the entirety of Orleans Parish, coterminous with New Orleans. The OPSB directly administers 6 schools and has granted charter ...

, Lawless opened its doors to African American students on January 27, 1964, as historically the first high school in the Lower Ninth Ward.Maxwell, Lesli A.
Up From the Ruins
" ''

Education Week ''Education Week'' is an independent news organization that has covered K–12 education since 1981. It is owned by Editorial Projects in Education (EPE), a nonprofit organization, and headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland in Greater Washington ...

''. Published online on September 27, 2007. Published in print on October 3, 2007 as "Up From the Ruins." Retrieved on April 1, 2013. Prior to Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005, the school had about 900 students. The campus was severely damaged by Katrina. The 43-year-old facility was among those that received the most damage. The floodwaters moved some buildings off of their foundations. As of 2007,

Federal Emergency Management Agency The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), initially created under President Jimmy Carter by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978 and implemented by two Ex ...

(FEMA) officials and State of Louisiana education leaders were discussing the level of damage over the school, causing no action to be taken on the school. FEMA stated a belief that of the six buildings, at least one could have been saved. State education leaders argued that all of the school was totally destroyed. Many in the community, including former students, met at community meetings to inquire about the rebuilding of a high school in the Lower Ninth Ward. On a City of New Orleans website concerning the FEMA Recovery Fundhttp://recoveryroads.nola.gov/NEWSROOM/NewsDetail/TabId/100/ArtMID/466/ArticleID/30/CITY-BREAKS-GROUND-ON-A-SERIES-OF-MAJOR-PROJECTS.aspx in 2013, announcing the groundbreaking for the new Sanchez Center in the Lower Ninth Ward, Mayor Landrieu also addressed how he worked with the Louisiana Recovery School District to ensure the rebuilding of the $37.5 million Alfred Lawless High School which was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Despite discussions about rebuilding the school, it never reopened after Hurricane Katrina.

Notable students and alumni of the junior and senior high school

Fred Luter Fred J. Luter Jr. (born 1956 November 11 in New Orleans) is a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). He was elected on 2012 June 19, and was SBC's first African-American president. According to Southeastern Baptist Theological ...

- Senior Pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church; first African American President of the Southern Baptist Convention * Robert Pack - NBA point guardSmith, Sarah E.
Sonic Report / Seattle 118, Washington 100 -- Family Makes Pack Feel At Home In Puget Sound
" ''

The Seattle Times ''The Seattle Times'' is a daily newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded in 1891 and has been owned by the Blethen family since 1896. ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in Washington ...

''. Sunday December 24, 1995. Retrieved on April 1, 2013. "Pack was a prep teammate of former Washington Husky Eldridge Recasner, now of the Houston Rockets. He was a sophomore starter at Lawless High School in New Orleans when Recasner was a senior." *

Eldridge Recasner Eldridge David Recasner (born December 14, 1967) is an American former professional basketball player. In college, he was a three-time All-Pac-10 Conference guard for the Washington Huskies men's basketball team. After college, he played in a v ...

- NBA guard *

Kermit Ruffins Kermit Ruffins (born December 19, 1964) is an American jazz trumpeter, singer, composer, and actor from New Orleans. He has been influenced by Louis Armstrong and Louis Jordan and says that the highest note he can hit on trumpet is a high C. He ...

- award-winning trumpet player; band leader of the BBQ Swingers; co-founder of the

Rebirth Brass Band The Rebirth Brass Band is a New Orleans brass band. The group was founded in 1983 by Phillip "Tuba Phil" Frazier, his brother Keith Frazier, Kermit Ruffins,Skelly, RichardAllMusic Profile Retrieved 2013-02-9 and classmates from Joseph S. Cla ...

* Korey Williams -

CFL The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

wide receiver

References

Defunct public high schools in New Orleans Defunct middle schools in New Orleans Lower 9th Ward, New Orleans Historically segregated African-American schools in Louisiana Educational institutions established in 1964 1964 establishments in Louisiana 2005 disestablishments in Louisiana {{Louisiana-school-stub