Our Rich Black Heritage: Pythina “Pye” Brown

By Garry Blanson

“The education of the Negro has become the perfect device for control (by the American government) from without.” — Carter G. Woodson

What if I told you that the very system Black people in Monroe, Louisiana, have come to think of as the “great equalizer,” the one that was supposed to “level the playing field,” is the same system that has been used to control and oppress Black people from without for over 150 years?

Well, Garry Blanson, please don’t keep everyone in suspense—tell us what institution you’re referring to!
Okay, since you all are curious to know, the “great system” is none other than the American education system. Before I go any further, let me speak on Carter G. Woodson’s quote about how the education of the Negro is a perfect device for control from without.

You see, contrary to what most Black people in Monroe have been conditioned to think and believe, Carter G. Woodson believed that the American education system was not designed to empower Black people, but to oppress them. How might this be done, you ask? By controlling how Black people think, of course.

Additionally, in his great classic, The Mis-Education of the Negro, Carter G. Woodson wrote, “When you control a man’s thinking, you do not have to worry about his actions, because when you determine what a man shall think, you do not have to concern yourself about what he will do.” Thus, by controlling how Black people think, you retard their power to think for themselves, and this is one of the main reasons I feel that “schooling,” which is masqueraded and paraded throughout our Black communities in Monroe as “true education,” continues to hinder the progress and advancement of our community. Therefore, I certainly agree with Carter G. Woodson’s assertion about the American education system being a perfect device for control from without.

Now, on to this week’s Black Pioneer — Pythina “Pye” Brown.

In 1929, the same year Martin Luther King Jr. was born, about nine miles outside of Shreveport, Louisiana, in a rural town known as Blanchard, the Brown family welcomed their baby girl, Pythina “Pye” Brown, into the world. When it came time for Pye to attend school, her father insisted she attend a city school in Shreveport. This meant she could attend school during the week and return home to Blanchard on the weekends.

During her time in school, there was a popular saying: “Don’t bend the child to fit the book; bend the book to fit the child.” Oh, how I wish today’s Board of Education members, principals, and schoolteachers would embrace the sentiment of that old adage.

So, through the week, this little country girl traveled all the way to Shreveport to attend Mt. Zion Elementary School, and on the weekends she returned home to be with her parents. When people would ask Pye what she wanted to be when she grew up, she would always tell them she was going to be a schoolteacher. From the very first time she learned about school, she knew teaching was her calling.

Interestingly, when Pye graduated from high school, she became the first member on both sides of her family to do so.

By the way, Pye’s father had always heard that Grambling College was the place to attend if a Black student wanted to obtain a teaching degree. He planned for her to attend Grambling and earn her degree; however, Pye had plans of her own. Without telling her father, she applied to become a teacher in the Lake Charles School System.

For some reason, her contract from Lake Charles was delayed in the mail to the point that she almost took a teaching job in Caddo Parish—something she really did not want to do. Days before she was set to accept the Caddo Parish job, something told her to check the mail one last time. It was a good thing she did, because the teacher’s contract she had been waiting for had finally arrived.

A couple of weeks later, Pye began her teaching career at the First Ward Colored School in Lake Charles, Louisiana, where she taught for 17 years. To this day, Pythina “Pye” Brown is remembered as a Black trailblazer and heroine in the city of Lake Charles.