L.B. Landry High School in Algiers was the first school in Louisiana to be named after a Black person – Dr. Lord Beaconsfield Landry.
“Dr. Landry was a prominent physician that was in the Algiers community … because of him and the work that he did with the community and individuals in the community, they decided to name Landry High School after him,” then Landry-Walker High School Principal Tyrone Casby told WGNO in 2019. “He came into a community and saw a need and he met it. Colored people at the time, we were not allowed to go to too many hospitals and a lot were not even open.”
Landry was born March 11, 1878 (some sources say 1879) in Donaldsonville, where his father, Pierre, was the first Black mayor. He graduated from Fisk University in 1902 and received his medical degree from Meharry Medical College in 1908.
“He was called on during the first big influenza epidemic in New Orleans,” a printed high school history states. “His practice was highly pleasing and satisfactory to everyone. When called upon by the schools for treatment of minor accidents to pupils or teachers, he gave of his time and service without accepting remuneration.”
In addition to operating a free clinic, Landry wrote a Louisiana Weekly health column, “How to Keep Well,” and was a volunteer probation officer.
The doctor also could sing. He developed his bass voice as a Fisk Jubilee Singer before directing the Osceola Five, an all-male vocal group. It specialized in Black cultural music for educational and religious programs, Black Then states.
In 1934, Landry died of blood poisoning, after accidentally nicking himself with a surgical knife. The African American Registry states he was buried in New Orleans’ Mount Olivet Cemetery before his remains later were moved to Nashville.
For more tales from New Orleans history, visit the Back in the Day archives.