• Hon. Olin G. Parker – Board President Appointee

OPSB District Representative

• Justin McCorkle – Administrative Appointee

NOLA-PS Director of Community Relations

• Mavia Marsalis – Administrative Appointee

NOLA-PS Director of Legacy Services

• Geriease Hawkins – Administrative Support

Bright Moments, LLC

Historian Review Team Appointees

Historian Review Team

Dr. Eva Semien Baham Eva Semien Baham is an assistant professor of history at Dillard University. She focuses on social and cultural histories, primarily on Louisiana’s African American communities. In doing so, she meshes historical and genealogical methods. Her work may best be described as historical eclecticism, as she studies and researches differing aspects of culture and their inter-relationships and inter-connections. Her most recent book publication is African Americans in Covington (Louisiana); a book chapter, “The Grand Rallying Point: Methodists, Congregationalists, Baptists, Episcopalians, and Jews Forge a Lesson and a Legacy in Interfaith Cooperation;” journal articles, “In the Moral Vineyard to Dispel the Darkness of Ignorance: African American Baptists in Louisiana;” and “Searching for Duplin and Zoe Amid the Contradictions of Being Slave and Free.” She has consulted on two documentaries on African Americans in Louisiana.

Historian Review TeamDr. Sharlene Sinegal-DeCuir Dr. Sharlene Sinegal-DeCuir is the Keller Family Endowed Associate Professor of History at Xavier

University of Louisiana. She earned her Ph.D. in American History from Louisiana State University with concentrations in African-American and Latin American history. Throughout her academic career, she has focused on the New South period through the Civil Rights Movement, with particular interest on African American activism in Louisiana. Dr. Sinegal-DeCuir teaches courses in African American History, including Slavery and Servitude, U. S. Civil Rights Movement, and Hip Hop and Social Justice. She has worked in the field of public history and been featured on MSNBC, History News Network, has been quoted in the New York Times and published a New York Times Op-Ed article, as well as interviews by local news and radio media and the podcast titled Sticky Wicked: Louisiana Politics and the Press. She has written several articles, one of her most noted ones being published in The Journal of African-American History titled, “Nothing Is To Be Feared”: Norman C. Francis, Civil Rights Activism, And The Black Catholic Movement. She currently serves as a committee member for the American Historical Association, Nominations Committee and Committee on Minority Historians, Louisiana Civil Rights Trail Site Review Committee, and is a board member for the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities and the Louisiana Supreme Court Historic Society. Dr. Sinegal-DeCuir was recently nominated to serve on the U.S. Civil Rights Cold Case Commission Review Board and was awarded a $500,000 Andrew W. Mellon Grant to create the African American and African Diasporic Cultural Studies Major at Xavier University of Louisiana. In addition, Dr. Sinegal-DeCuirserves as History Department Chair and Vice President of Faculty Association at Xavier University.

Historian Review Team

Dr. Ken Ducote, Adjunct Professor at the University of Holy Cross; Executive Director of the GNO Collaborative of Charter Schools; 50 years of experience in education and urban planning including 34 years as teacher, school administrator, and planning director for OPSB; lecturer, researcher, and expert witness on the history of OPSB buildings; past president of the Ruby Bridges Foundation.

Dr. Ken Ducote

Historian Review TeamMary Niall Mitchell

Mary Niall Mitchell is Ethel & Herman L. Midlo Endowed Chair in New OrleansStudies and the Raphael Cassimere Professor History at the University of NewOrleans, where she directs the Ethel & Herman L. Midlo Center for New OrleansStudies. She is author of Raising Freedom's Child: Black Children and Visions ofthe Future After Slavery (NYU Press, 2008) and has published essays online forThe Atlantic, Harper’s, the New York Times, The History Channel, andCommonplace among others. Mitchell is one of five lead historians on Freedom onthe Move, a crowd-sourced digital database of fugitive slave advertisements fromNorth American newspapers housed at Cornell University.(Currently serves on City street renaming commission)

Historian Review TeamWilliam “Bill” Rouselle William “Bill” Rouselle was born in New Orleans on August 3, 1946. His life challenge can be summed-up in the words of

the poet, Mari Evans in her poem - SPEAK THE TRUTH TO THE PEOPLE

“Speak the truth to the people

Talk sense to the people

Free them with honesty

Free the people with Love and Courage and Care for their Being…

Speak the truth to the people…

Move them to a BLACK ONENESS

A black strength which defends its own

A black strength which attacks the laws,

Exposes the lies, disassembles the structure

And ravages the very foundation of evil.”

His life is rooted in a desire for the truth, a commitment to change, and a will to leave this world a better place. The son of a public school teacher, Bill grew up in Uptown New Orleans. Nurtured by the rich New Orleans culture, he developed a love for his City, its people and a commitment to speaking truth to power!

Historian Review TeamDr. Jana M. Smith Jana M. Smith is the Program Coordinator and Associate Professors of the Health and Physical Education

Department in the School of Health and Wellness at Dillard University. Dr. Smith is also an Associate Professorin the Urban Studies Department, School of Social Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences. She received herB.A. in Health and Physical Education, Southern University at New Orleans; M.S. in Sports Administration,Grambling State University and Ph.D. degree in Urban Higher Education Administration, Jackson StateUniversity. Dr. Smith’s current research is on Lucile Levy Hutton’s biography and professional educational careerin the New Orleans Negro Public Schools. She has presented her research of Ms. Hutton at the LouisianaHistorical Association annual meeting 2020 and Louisiana Creole Research Association, Xavier University 2019,with a forth coming article for journal submission, tentatively titled, “Lucile Levy Hutton; Portrait of New OrleansEducation in the Festival’s Pageantry of Music, Theatre, Arts and Dance 1939-1962. She has also presentedresearch titled: Comparative Study on Wellness between Traditional and Non Traditional Students at the InauguralResearch Symposium sponsored by The Center for Teaching Learning and Academic Technology and the Officeof Academic Affairs. The committees Dr. Smith serves on at Dillard University are the General Education CoreCurriculum, Quality Enhancement Program Implementation and Internal Curriculum for the School of Healthand Wellness. She served as a Faculty Senator with the Faculty Senate, the Faculty Handbook committee,Faculty Trustee Liaison (Chairperson), the Chairperson of the School of Social Sciences Curriculum, theIntercollegiate Athletics (Chairperson) and Recruitment and Retention Committees.

Historian Review TeamDr. Walter C. Stern

New Orleans native Walter C. Stern is Assistant Professor of Educational Policy Studies andHistory at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is the author of Race and Education inNew Orleans: Creating the Segregated City, 1764-1960, which received the 2018 WilliamsPrize for the best book on Louisiana history. His teaching and research focus on the historicalintersection of race and education in the nineteenth- and twentieth century US, with anemphasis on metropolitan areas and the US South. Much of his work considers how stateactions pertaining to education, housing, and criminal justice historically structuredopportunity and inequality and gave material meaning to the concept of race. His work hasappeared in the Journal of African American History, Journal of Urban History, and New OrleansAdvocate, among other publications. He is currently working on a book about schooldesegregation and the making of mass incarceration.

OPSB NAMING OF FACILITIES POLICYThe Orleans Parish School Board believes all schools should be welcoming, inclusive, and inspiring places for all students, and desires to ensure that the names of our school facilities and the people that we honor through naming reflect the values of the school district. The School Board is fundamentally opposed to retaining names of school facilities named for persons who were slave owners, confederate officials and segregation supporters.

The Orleans Parish School Board shall have sole authority to name or rename any school facility (i.e, school campuses, individual buildings, athletic fields, stadiums, gymnasiums, libraries, fields, tracks, and multipurpose rooms) private drive, or street it owns. No school facility or other public building or facility shall be named in honor of any living person. However, a street that is maintained by the School Board and that is not a state or federal highway, or any existing athletic facilities at a school within the School Board’s jurisdiction may be named in honor of a living person.

INITIAL FACILITIES

TO BE CONSIDERD

BY THE RENAMING COMMITTEE

Site/Facility Name Slave Owner/ Confederate Official/ Segregation Supporter Reference

Allen, Henry W. Confederate Official/ Segregation Supporter https://louisianadigitallibrary.org/islandora/object/state-lwp:2154

Audubon School Slave Owner https://www.audubon.org/news/the-myth-john-james-audubon

Fortier, Alcee Segregation Supporter In Race and Education in New Orleans: Creating the Segregated City, 1764–1960, Walter C. Stern

Franklin, Benjamin ESFranklin, Benjamin HS Slave Owner http://www.benjamin-franklin-history.org/slavery-abolition-society/

Behrman, Martin Segregation Supporter https://nolaccsrc.org/NOCCSRC-FinalReport.pdf

Jackson, Andrew Slave Owner https://thehermitage.com/learn/mansion-grounds/slavery/

Lafayette, Marquis de Slave Owner https://www.lafayettesociety.org/lafayette-and-slavery/

Lusher, Robert Mills Segregation Supporter Timeline of the Life and Work of Robert Mills LusherResearched and written by Michael TisserandSources: Newspaper accounts and Robert M. Lusher Papers, archived at Louisiana State Universitywww.michaeltisserandbooks.com

McDonogh, JohnMcDonogh 07McDonogh 15McDonogh 28McDonogh 32

McDonogh 35 (Kelerec)McDonogh 35

(Phillips/Waters)McDonogh 42

Slave Owner https://www.wwno.org/post/slave-owner-john-mcdonoghs-money-left-long-legacy-inequitable-education-new-orleans

Walker, O. Perry Segregation Supporter Earl Benjamin BUSH et al., Plaintiffs, v. ORLEANS PARISH SCHOOL BOARD et al., Defendants.

Wright, Sopie B. Segregation Supporter https://nolaccsrc.org/wright/

PUBLIC FEEDBACK• Renaming submissions• Buildings to be considered for renaming• Submissions

• E-mail: community@nolapublicschools.com • Mail:

Renaming Initiative2401 West Bend Pkwy, Ste 5096New Orleans, La 70114

• Public meeting March 30, 2021 4:30Phttps://zoom.us/j/96364386654April 27, 2021 4:30Phttps://zoom.us/j/94264365004

www.nolapublicschools.com/renaming

• Student Feedback Sessions• March 30, 2021 3:15P• April 27, 2021 3:15P*Zoom registration can be found on renaming website

How is public feedback handled?Submissions

Recommendation of

facility to be considered for renaming

Supporting documentation submitted to Historian

Review Team

Validated recommendations to be sent to Renaming

Committee

Renaming Committee adds facility to list of facilities to

be renamed

Nomination of individuals to be

honored

Supporting biography submitted to Historian

Review Team

Validated nominations sent to Renaming

Committee

Renaming Committee adds nomination to list

of considerations.

SUBMITTALS• Recommendation for facilities to be renamed

• Name of facility that should be considered for renaming• Address (if known)• Rationale (why should this building be renamed)• Supporting information (cited publications, websites, documentaries)

• Recommendation of Honorees• Name of person, place, or historical event to be honored• Date of birth and death• Rationale (why should this event, person, or place be honored)• Supporting information (biography, personal testimony, cited publications,

websites, documentaries)

CRITERIA FOR SUBMITTALS1. When naming a school facility, private drive or street in honor of a historic event or place including generally accepted community subdivisions or geographic areas, the Superintendent and School Board shall ensure that naming the school facility, private drive or street in such a manner would honor the school system as well as the historic event, community subdivision or geographic area.

2. When naming a school facility, private drive or street in honor of a deceased individual, the Superintendent and School Board will be guided by the following criteria. The individual for whom a school facility, private drive or street would be named shall:

a. Have made substantial contributions to his/her field of endeavor or to society in general; or,

FILE: FDC

b. When possible, have had some significant connection with the school, either as a student, an alumnus, a faculty member, an administrator, a donor, or a supporter; or,

c. Have made significant contributions to the development of the Orleans Parish school system or to the State of Louisiana in education, the arts, public life, or some other appropriate field of endeavor;

d. In any event, the individual must have been of such outstanding character and distinction that naming a school facility, private drive or street after him/her would honor the school district as well as the individual and would provide educational or motivational value to the students served at the school.