Francis T. Nicholls High School

Francis T. Nicholls High School and later Frederick Douglass High School are the former names of a high school at 3820 St. Claude Avenue in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans, Louisiana. Initially named for Francis T. Nicholls, a former Confederate general, governor of Louisiana, and Chief Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court, the school opened as a segregated white institution on January 29, 1940. During the middle 1990s, having since long been desegregated, Nicholls High School was renamed in honor of the African-American abolitionist Frederick Douglass of Maryland.^[1] The school has since been again reorganized and renamed. The Douglass building is now home to a public charter school known as KIPP Renaissance High School which earned an "A" letter grade from the Louisiana Department of Education in 2016.^[2]

History

From 1880 to 1939, another school, McDonogh No. 12, was located at the site on St. Claude Avenue. That school was demolished to make way for Nicholls High School. The land on which Nicholls and Frederick Douglass High School stood was originally part of the Louis Barthelemy Macarty plantation. After Macarty died in 1846, philanthropist John McDonogh purchased the property and donated it to the City of New Orleans. McDonough also donated other properties and money for use of New Orleans public schools.^[1]

The Nicholls school teams were named "The Rebels"; the school newspaper was The Rebel Yell.^[1] The school teams have long since been renamed "The Bobcats".^[3]

The renaming of the school to was part of a campaign to remove the names of Confederate leaders from the public square in Orleans Parish. During the 1990s, Nicholls faced increased narcotics usage and crime in the surrounding area. Stronger students abandoned Douglass for magnet schools with selective admissions, such as McDonogh 35. "People considered Douglass totally out of control," said Vincent Lee Nzinga (born November 1941),^[4] a Ninth Ward resident who became the principal in 1997. Custodians even declined to stock the school with trash cans and toilet paper. The school had seven principals in a four-year period and a large turnover of teachers.^[5]

In 2008, Orleans Parish had about 33,000 students, compared to its peak of 115,000 in 1970. In recent years, white flight to the suburbs, a weak economy with lack of employment prospects, and Hurricane Katrina all took their toll on the community, its schools, and families.^[5] In December 2008, unruly pupils set six fires at Douglass High School in either trash cans or bathrooms.^[6]

Because of repeated poor academic performance, Douglass High School before it became Renaissance had been governed by the statewide Recovery School District. In 2010, the school had only 291 pupils (since 296) in grades nine through twelve, virtually all blacks, ten students for every instructor. More than 70 percent were then eligible for free or reduced-priced lunches.^[7]

Still named for Francis T. Nicholls is Nicholls State University in Thibodaux in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana.

Notable alumni

• A. G. Crowe (Class of 1966), former member of the Louisiana State Senate from St. Tammany Parish
• Harry Lee (Class of c. 1950), sheriff of Jefferson Parish, 1980-2007, his death
• Edward Ripoll (Class of 1941), former member of the Louisiana House of Representatives for Orleans and St. Bernard parishes; owner of Bud Rip's Bar in the Ninth Ward^[8]
• John Larroquette, (Class of 1965), Emmy award-winning actor.
• Wyatt Emory Cooper (Class of c. 1955), author and screenwriter, known for being the fourth husband of Gloria Vanderbilt and the father of Anderson Cooper.

References

Coordinates: 29°57′55″N 90°02′13″W / 29.9654°N 90.0370°W / 29.9654; -90.0370