From Slavery to Self-Sufficiency, How This Black Town Built Its Future

map of west feliciana parish
Tremain Prioleau II
January 12, 2025

The end of the Civil War left newly freed Black people with a choice: move North in search of opportunity or stay in the South they’d always known. This was no different for the people of West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, who stayed behind to leave a legacy.

While many people departed from 1863 through 1868, those who stayed worked at sawmills and sharecropped. West Feliciana started out as a farming community, but the arrival of one man would change its future.

In 1890, a 19-year-old Black teacher named John Sterling Dawson, later known as “The Professor” arrived to educate the formerly enslaved and their children. Most of these children couldn’t read or write, but once they learned, they became an integral part of the town’s success.

Dawson encouraged the children who knew how to read to help teach their friends and classmates. Over time, Dawson’s students were sent to other schools to teach. In this way, all children in the parish would be literate. They also acquired the vocational and professional skills that helped them strengthen their community.

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