Professor Barry Jean Ancelet presents “No Gains without Pains, Part 1. An Oral History Project of the Center for Louisiana Studies.” View here (MTM Youtube site).

In collaboration with MTM LEARNING, Prof. Ancelet here introduces, in context, segments of audio interviews with seven pioneering Lafayette and Louisiana actitivists of the 1930s through the 1960s. The voices of women and men who lived the struggle and heartily fought racial injustice.

The guest speaker (and CLS interview subject) is Ms. Myrtle Cain, the first black student to enter segregated Crowley High School (1967). Ms. Cain graduated from USL and returned to Crowley High to teach for 37 years. Her stories of integration and teaching are remarkable. Together again, Myrtle Cain and Barry Ancelet open up about interview experiences and life lessons they learned during long careers in education.

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This specific CLS interview series consists of over 18 hours of material recorded for the Center for Louisiana Studies by Prof. Ancelet during the later 1970’s. It rigorously documents the experiences of many important Louisiana Civil Rights Era figures… their own stories. This CLS series is considered PRIMARY SOURCE MATERIAL for Louisiana and U.S. history teachers.

Original photography during the interviews was performed by Mr. Elemore Morgan Jr, the distinguished Louisiana artist.

This lecture was delivered at the Lafayette Downtown Public Library on Sept 17th, 2019.