School roundup set for tomorrow in Terrebonne
March 3, 2016
Todd Champagne
March 9, 2016
It was always referred to as “The Academy,” from the time it was built in 1896 by the Louisiana Southern Baptist Association of the Fifth District.
Once used as a schoolhouse for blacks at a time when they had limited schooling options, the wood frame building at Roussel and Academy street is about to serve a new purpose, although one still linked to education.
A board of community members called “Finding Our Roots” is moving ahead with a plan to make the privately-owned building into a regional museum of African-American history, featuring the triumphs
and travails of a people who helped build the success of the Bayou Region.
“This building is ideal,” said historian, author and genealogist Margie Scoby, the president of Find Our Roots.
“There are so many people who desire to learn African-American history, I get requests from people who say when are we going to do something here in Terrebonne Parish,” Scoby said.
Organizers announced their agreement with the Fifth District to occupy the site Friday. As they spoke of their plans, they led visitors through the broad halls of the turn-of-the-century structure, that were rich with the smell of old wood, floors scuffed by the feet of students who had received and given so much to the educational process over so many years.
The group’s vice president, former Terrebonne Parish councilman Alvin Tillman, said such a project has been a dream for years; he is hoping that the group can engender enough support to carry the plan all the way through.
“Certainly the importance is to capture the history of blacks locally, in the state and nationally,” Tillman said. “Who better to tell the story than you telling it yourself? The history of blacks in this parish is undertold.
“How many blacks or others can tell you that we had black sheriffs in this parish,” Tillman asked. “That we had a black mayor here and a black justice of the peace years ago?”
While bondage until the time of emancipation and strenuous labor on the region’s sugar fields is an important part of the Bayou Region’s black history story, the history of educators, physicians, musicians and writers, Tillman and Scoby said, require telling as well.
Research is still ongoing regarding where the region fits into the overall African diaspora; the museum will also serve as a cultural and knowledge center.
Tillman said after a board meeting last week held at the Academy that he envisions play-acting, where performers will dialogue as important figures in local black history.
Still in formative stages, the committee welcomes input and will be seeking contributions. Anyone wishing more information may call Scoby at 985-855-9202.
The Houma Academy, a traditionally black institution of learning built in 1893, is slated as the home for an African-American history museum.
