By Garry Blanson
Part 2 of a 2 Part Series
“In order to preserve the HERITAGE, MEMORY, and LEGACY of a VITAL, HISTORIC, GROUND-BREAKING FORMER NEGRO ORGANIZATION, you must keep your head to the plow and stay on course with your mission” -unknown
As stated in my last article, the L.I.A.L.O. Negro Organization ended up merging with the LHSAA in 1970. However, a couple of years prior to the merger, in 1964 and 1965, St. Augustine High School in New Orleans Louisiana, which at the time was a predominantly Black school, had applied to join the LHSAA. Both times the LHSAA changed its policy on accepting new schools, and rejected St. Augustine’s applications! After being denied membership, St. Augustine decided to sue the LHSAA to gain membership into the organization. Two of the main arguments in St. Augustine’s case against the LHSAA was that the LHSAA benefited from public funds and public property, “just as they do to this very day,” and that the LHSAA had systematically denied predominantly Black schools from joining the LHSAA.
In 1967, Judge Frederick J.R. Heebe ruled in favor of St. Augustine, and his ruling was upheld by the courts in 1968. Not only did the ruling stipulate for the LHSAA to accept St. Augustine as a new member school, but it prohibited the LHSAA from further discrimination against predominantly Black schools in Louisiana. Furthermore, the ruling led to the eventual merger of the L.I.A.L.O with the LHSAA, in 1970.
Today, with the help of people like Dr. Kirk Clayton, a teacher in California and a 1965 graduate of Scotlandville High School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and myself, efforts continue to inform the citizens of Louisiana about “L.I.A.L.O.,” the former Negro Organization that helped bring out the best in Negro Students, and helped Negroes to see that they were well capable of funding & running their own Interscholastic Athletic & Literary Organization! By the way, some of the schools that were members of L.I.A.L.O included : Richwood High(Monroe), Carroll High(Monroe), Combs-McIntyre(Oak Grove), St. Augustine(New Orleans ), Booker T. Washington(Shreveport), Webster High(Minden), Alma Brown(Oberlin), Rosenwald High(Port Allen), and Jonas B. Henderson(New Iberia) just to name a few.
