Exchange Place: How A Small Struggling School Transformed Civil Rights in New Orleans and the Nation
Exchange Place is the story of a school whose mission was to train mostly African American women the skills they needed to integrate the secretarial offices of the Deep South between 1965 and ‘72. Those offices were not just segregated, for the most part they were completely off limits to women of color, and many were fighting to insure the workplace would stay that way for years or decades to come. Over the course of the school’s history, it was shut down multiple times and constantly under duress from forces conspiring to defeat it. But, it survived to became one of the most successful programs of its kind in the War On Poverty, lauded on the front pages of national newspapers like The Wall Street Journal and the subject of an Emmy Award winning documentary in 1968 entitled, appropriately, "The School That Would Not Die". The first season of the podcast tells the inspirational biographies of four of the school’s graduates who changed the moral skyline of their city -- how they did it -- and how the school’s teachers and supporters struggled to overcome the massive forces arrayed against them.
Exchange Place: How A Small Struggling School Transformed Civil Rights in New Orleans and the Nation
Ep. 12 A Cowardly Lion
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The 431 Exchange; Mya Carter (Host); Kevin Gullage (Music)
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Season 1
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Episode 12
Episode 12. A Cowardly Lion. Season 1 of Exchange Place culminates with the story of a single mom named Alice Geoffray, the first Director of The Adult Education Center. With seven children back home and no administrative experience, Alice courageously stepped into the role of a lifetime as widespread antipathy against educating women of color brewed in the wake of a newly desegregated Deep South.
This is a presentation of The 431 Exchange. We are a non-profit scholarship fund dedicated to adult students seeking to transform their lives through continuing education. We invite you to learn more about us by going to our website www.431exchange.com where you can hear more inspiring stories by signing up for our newsletter. Thanks!