The school for African American students was located at Pan American Petroleum. Negro schools began in churches or other dwellings. This church, on the Pan American Oil Refinery at Destrehan, served as a school for black children whose parents worked at the refinery. John Smith, a member of the St. Charles Parish School Board since 1991, attended his first education classes in this building. Smith is currently a retired deputy superintendent of schools in Orleans Parish. (Photo courtesy of the Louisiana Library, Works Progress Administration Program.)