Gilbert Academy

Academy returned to New Orleans, achieved accreditation by the Southern Association of Secondary Schools and Colleges, and graduated many notable students until it closed in 1949.

• Name — Gilbert Academy • Location — 5318 St. Charles Avenue, New Orleans, Louisiana • Country — United States • Former Name — Gilbert Industrial College • Type — College-preparatory school • Established — 1873 • Closed — 1949 • Affiliation — New Orleans University

The Union Army captured New Orleans on April 25, 1862, one year into the American Civil War, and the United States Department of War set up the Department of the Gulf as part of the United States Army. Nathaniel P. Banks, the Gulf Department's second commander, appropriated the vacant mansion of Confederate exile Pierre Soulé on Esplanade Avenue to house the Colored Orphans Home in 1863. Banks appointed fellow Bostonian Louise De Mortie to run the Home (Some sources name De Mortie herself as the founder). The Orphans Home remained in the Soulé mansion under De Mortie's care until 1866. She fundraised tirelessly, holding concerts and fairs at the Soulé mansion itself and touring the country to raise money until her death from yellow fever in New Orleans in 1867. Banks himself assisted in raising money for the orphanage, as evidenced by his name appearing on the imprint of cartes de visit sold on behalf of the institution. When the Civil War ended, New Orleans residents returned to reclaim their homes, Pierre Soulé among them. This necessitated finding the Colored Orphans Home new quarters. The Freedmans Bureau, a government agency created in 1865, transferred the children in 1866 to a Marine Hospital being built to replace one destroyed by explosion in 1861. Due to cost overruns and construction problems the hospital was never finished, requiring the children be moved yet again with a year. A combination of private donations and public funds enabled supporters to purchase a former sugar plantation 104 miles west of New Orleans. The orphans were moved there in 1867, to the area that eventually became today's town of Baldwin, Louisiana. The hope was that the Colored Orphans Home could become self-sufficient in its new location. However, promised public funds were withdrawn and a series of setbacks at the plantation made this impossible. Most of the orphans were placed with families by the end of 1874.

• Illustration — Gilbert Academy band emblem, worn on the front of a blue sweater Already known for high academic standards while in Baldwin, Gilbert Academy became the premier private, independent college preparatory school for African-American students in New Orleans, the first in the nation accredited by the Southern Association of Secondary Schools and Colleges. • Illustration — Gilbert Academy Band circa 1947 Well before Gilbert Academy moved to its new home in Uptown New Orleans, as the area became known, the city was undergoing a transformation. Originally rural, improvements to the St. Charles Streetcar Line made the Uptown neighborhood more accessible and one of the most desirable places to live in the city. By the beginning of the 20th century, Uptown became more residential, segregated and expensive. In the 1910s, two African-American universities in the Uptown area left or closed, their land purchased to build homes for the white population wanting to live there. Issues on a more state-wide basis also beset private academies like Gilbert. Research published on Negro education in 1939 reported: "At least four factors influenced the rapid decline of the schools, namely; (a) inadequacy of support;(b) consolidation with each other, and with public school systems; (c) perpetuation of a feud between publicly and privately supported education which hampered reconciliation, mentioned in b; and (d) the momentum given State-supported education with the reorganization of the State college and the inauguration of the Parish (County) Training School movement, which took place in Louisiana."

During its long and distinguished history Gilbert Academy educated students who went on to become important national figures. Margaret Davis Bowen became the Academy's principal about 1935; Marjorie Lee Brown was a mathematics teacher there for a short time; Joseph Henry Reason a language instructor. The school remained at 5318 St. Charles Ave until 1949, graduating its last class in June of that year. A historical plaque stands on the property, placed there by alumni of Gilbert Academy in 1993. It reads:

Football championships • (1) State Championship: 1945

Taken from Gilbert Made Lofty Contribution unless otherwise noted. • Harold Battiste • Yvonne Busch • Robert Frederick Collins, United States District Judge • Thomas Dent (writer) • Lolis Edward Elie • Ellis Marsalis Jr • Audrey "Mickey" Patterson • Margaret Walker • John Louis Wilson Jr. • Andrew Young