Institute Catholique
It mainly served the non-orphan children of free people of color, who paid a modest tuition, and was founded with funds from Marie Couvent.
[1] The concept of educating African-Americans was opposed by some members of the white community in New Orleans, and the establishment of the trust for the school was challenged in court.
The widow died in 1837, and when the original executor of the will failed to forcefully implement its terms, a group of ten leading Afro-Creole intellectuals residing in New Orleans formed The Catholic Institute for the Instruction of Indigent Orphans.
The charter authorizing the Institute Catholique to function as a corporation was received from the state of Louisiana in 1847, and the school opened in 1848, renting facilities in the Faubourg Marigny neighborhood just downriver from the French Quarter while awaiting construction of a permanent building on the land donated by Madame Couvent.
Félicie continued to work at the Institute for several years after Lanusse became headmaster, and was responsible for the well-being of the 75 young orphan girls who attended.
The gap was made up through charitable contributions from several mutual aid societies established within the Afro-Creole community of New Orleans.
In 1893, when Afro-Creole philanthropist Thomy LaFon, the financial backer of the famous Plessy v. Ferguson lawsuit, died, he left a bequest to the school in his will for the construction of a new building.
Arthur Esteves, President of the Board of Directors of the Institute Catholique, was one of the men who brought the Plessy lawsuit into litigation.
Lacking funds to rebuild, the Board of the Institute Catholique agreed to terms proposed by Sister Katharine Drexel, founder of Xavier University.
Ernest "Dutch" Morial, the first African-American Mayor of New Orleans, attended Holy Redeemer Elementary School during this period.
Graduates of that elementary school included the author Keith Weldon Medley, whose book on the Plessy vs. Ferguson lawsuit was published in 2003.
