By Garry Blanson
Established for Black People in Monroe, Louisiana
Today, when I say the words “Delta Vocational School,” most people generally presume that I’m talking about either the Delta school in West Monroe, Louisiana, or the Delta school on Milhaven Road, located a mile or so past Pecanland Mall.
That’s when I have to stop them and inform them about the old “Delta Area Vocational School” that was built for Black students and was once located at 700 Rogers Street, adjacent to Carroll High School in Monroe, Louisiana.
Since white citizens did not approve of their children attending the same school as Black children, Black citizens in Monroe strongly petitioned for a school to be built to train Black students in vocational skills. Incidentally, it was reported that during the Freedom Summer of 1964, many Black people in Monroe received their nonviolence training at this exact Delta Vocational School location.
Additionally, Delta not only served as a vocational training hub within the Black community at a time when Black people were being denied equal access to many vocational job opportunities, but the school also helped Black students gain crucial job skills that enabled them to secure better-paying jobs and provide for their families financially.
In case anyone was curious to know, the school eventually evolved into the Delta-Ouachita Vocational-Technical Institute before later being consolidated into the Louisiana Community and Technical College System, which was eventually absorbed into the current Louisiana Delta Community College system.
Over the past month, I hope that my articles sharing various information about the former Delta Area Vocational School have paved the way for greater discussions about some of the things that took place there during the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Now on to this week’s Black pioneers.
This will be very brief because much of the history surrounding the Black people who graduated from Delta Area Vocational School has been lost, as many have either moved away from Monroe or have passed on.
The only three people that I personally know who graduated from the school were my mother, Mrs. Jessie Mae Phenix Blanson, Mrs. Florence Jenkins, and Clemary Persons Smith.
In closing, I hope more people will come forward with the names of some of the forgotten graduates of Delta Area Vocational School, once located at 700 Rogers Street within the historic Black Booker T. Washington community.
