Notre Dame High School Alumni 

Many parishioners of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church are proud almuni of Notre Dame High School of Shreveport. Throughout each year, our parish memorializes the alumni and that great institution, Notre Dame High School, with gatherings and Mass remembrances.

History of Notre Dame High School

Notre Dame High School was opened in September 1958, when there was a need for a Catholic school, where African American Catholics could attend. Notre Dame Catholic High school was built and given to the church in the Fall of 1958 by Mr. and Mrs. Paul F. O’Brien Sr. of Shreveport. The school was dedicated on December 7, 1958.

The school was located at 2932 Murphy Street, on a 10-acre tract of partly wooded land lying between Arkansas and Alabama Avenues, and Murphy and Ashton Streets, in the Lakeside community of Shreveport. Its contruction was completed in the Fall of 1958 at a cost of about $300,000. It was built and furnished by Mr. and Mrs. O’Brien, and was given to what was then the Alexandria Diocese of the Catholic Church, to be operated by nuns of the Order of the Holy Ghost. It was the only Catholic High School for Aftican American Catholics, north of Alexandria, Louisiana. Construction began on the one-story brick building in 1957.

Designed by Neil-Somdal and Associates, the one story two-winged structure is made of steel, brick, and concrete. The classroom wing was equipped with eight classrooms, a library, offices, waiting rooms, a teacher’s lounge, and facilities for science, home economics, music, typing, and commercial studies. A separate wing housed kitchens, a cafeteria, and multi-purpose rooms. A covered outdoor passageway connected both wings.

A feature of the modernistic structure was a sky-dome roof for a maximum amount of natural light in the classrooms. The school was equipped with fluorescent lighting.

Paul O’Brien, a prominent Catholic layman who had an active part in many community enterprises as well as church work, spoke of the possibility of adding a convention center, a gymnasium, a playground, and other recreational facilities to the school grounds.

Other contributions to the school included an intercom system donated by Howard Crumley of Crumley Chevrolet Company, a set of Encyclopedia Americana books for the school library by W.H. Bronson president and editor of the Shreveport Times, and a set of World Book encyclopedias donated by Mr. and Mrs. Herman Selber.

The school opened September 15, 1958 with 130 pupils in grades seven through nine, according to principal, Sister Mary Lucy. A grade was added each year until the school reached the twelfth grade.

The building was planned to accommodate 300 students.

Teachers included Sisters Mary Ferdinand: Home Room, Eighth and Ninth Grade Religion; Mary Sabina: Home Room and Seventh Grade; Mrs. W.E. Hicks: English and Voice; Hosie Sanders: Mathematics and Science; and Mrs. J. Washington: Home Economics. Sister Mary Lucy also taught Foreign Language. Mr. Isaac Greggs volunteered as the Music Teacher and Band Director.

Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church is grateful to the authors of the website, "African American High Schools in Louisiana before 1970" for researching and providing this information.