Southern Reflects on History, Celebrates 100 Years in Baton Rouge

BATON ROUGE, La.—The people who make up the Southern University community will never forget the institution’s history. It’s a point of pride, from the recruiters who visit high schools, to the students counting down the days until graduation and to the alumni who stay in touch decades after they last took a class.

To them, Southern is the school that welcomes everybody regardless of race and socioeconomics background. More important, they know Southern as the institution that took students who didn’t have a lot of college options and turned them into quality graduates despite a history of being treated as lesser by the state.

On Thursday, the Southern community celebrated 100 years in Baton Rouge with the Centennial Gala at L’Auberge Casino.

It was the school’s premier 2014 event to raise money for student scholarships. It was one event in a year full of centennial celebrations as Southern’s community looks back on its history.

Among Southern’s most distinguished students are jazz saxophonist Branford Marsalis, Major League Baseball Hall of Fame player Lou Brock and retired Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré.

But Southern Chancellor James Llorens said the rank-and-file alums who attended Southern through the Jim Crow era are the ones who built Southern’s legacy.

“With very little resources, Southern produced graduates who made a contribution,” Llorens said. “It was a segregated environment. We were separate, and certainly not equal, and Southern had to produce the teachers and others who could go back into their communities and contribute.”