The Abraham Lincoln School and Black Institution Building in New Orleans

By focusing on the Abraham Lincoln School (ALS), perhaps the largest freedmen’s school in the United States, this presentation uses a campus history perspective to build upon larger historical narratives about African American history in New Orleans. Historians argue that Reconstruction in New Orleans was a continuation of Civil War-era violence, with white supremacist terror undermining the promise of Black empowerment. Yet, the ALS, which lasted for less than a year and was housed in the old buildings of the University of Louisiana (one of Tulane’s ancestral institutions), demonstrates the extraordinary persistence and creativity of Black life in Louisiana under such difficult circumstances. The presentation will explore the institution’s origins in the School of Liberty on Common Street, the rise of the ALS, and the latter’s disestablishment after the University of Louisiana’s faculty returned to reclaim its buildings from the Freedmen’s Bureau. Even as the ALS appears to have faded from historical memory, records show that teachers and students revived the Lincoln School a few doors down from the University, and the Perdido School, another offshoot of the ALS, persisted after Reconstruction.