Photograph: Submitted Photo.
BOBBY ARDOIN
Editor/Consulting Writers
It’s always a prominent event when a J.S, Clark High School class celebrates a reunion and it was no different last weekend when the 1968 graduates met at several Opelousas locations to assess their current lives and swap the stories that shaped their adolescence.
“The reunion really turned out great. Most of the students I graduated with were in the same classes since second grade. Just seeing everyone there that you once ran around the park with barefoot and still walking upright was worth it,” said Wilmer Sam, who has lived in the Houston area since graduating from J.S, Clark.
Classmate Joyce Prudhomme Haynes estimated that about 45 members of the ‘68 class of 176 attended the weekend event that included a visit to the J.S. Clark Memorial and walkway at Le Vieux Village Saturday morning and a banquet downtown that night at Arpeggio’s.
“We had a prayer service and a roll call for those who are not with us and then listened to the history of the walkway and J.S. Clark. Overall it was a good time. We try to have our reunions every five years and now we’re talking about doing (reunions) every three years,” said Prudhomme.
The walkway and memorial project that began about 12 years ago, was a major part of the reunion, said Micahel Daniels, who Haynes and Sam agree was instrumental in starting the project.
Daniels, who graduated with another Clark class but attended the reunion, said the memorial was constructed with private donations and then located at the municipal tourist attraction during the Cravins and Tatum city administrations,
“We tried to get the project located at MACA, but then Mayor (Donald Cravins, Sr.), offered to have the memorial placed at the Village. The bricks on the walkway have the names of graduates and the year they graduated,” said Daniels, who now lives in Baton Rouge.
“The memorial was Michael’s dream and he did a great deal, measuring and calculating the size of the memorial, getting the funding started and seeing the project through,” Sam noted.
Daniels said the reunion last weekend was significant for those who attended.
“I think everyone just enjoyed coming back home and getting back together again with the people that you knew. I grew up going to Little Zion and seeing everyone is always big,” Daniels noted.
Students began attending J.S. Clark in 1953 and the last class graduated there in 1969. The school later became East Junior High School and the students that previously attended J.S. Clark later attended Opelousas High School.
Prudhomme said perpetuating the legacy of J.S. Clark, a school for black students in Opelousas in grades one through 12 for 16 years is important.
“We’re proud of (J.S. Clark) and the fact that MACA is there now and that the charter school (J.S. Clark Leadership Academy) took our name. We will continue to come together. The class of ‘68 was the largest class at the school and we are holding the memories there together,” Prudhomme said.
The Opelousas Museum And Interpretive Center has a copy of the only yearbook ever produced at J.S. Clark and there are also other memorabilia from the school there for viewing, according to Haynes.
Haynes added that there is also a video available at the museum that chronicles the story of the school.
The class contained its share of personalities who went on to work in different fields, said Haynes.
Dr. Sylvia Mason Jenkins is a retiring president of Moraine Valley Community College, Haynes said.
Sam recalled that it was an experience for high school underclassmen to make the transition from the elementary side of J.S. Clark
“The students who were there in the higher grades made you aware right away that it meant something to be a Bulldog. The students in front of you let you know that they expected you to make the most of your potential and cut down the tall weeds for you,” Sam added.
Sam said the teachers were firm, but there was also an element of understanding that some of the teachers showed when dealing with unacceptable student behaviors.
There was no hesitancy by the J.S. Clark teachers who enforce discipline with a whipping in front of the rest of the class, Sam said, but that threat usually kept most of the students abiding by school rules.
Sam pointed out that the legendary Lawrence Emmerson was the only principal J.S. Clark ever had.
“There are stories that Mr. Emmerson went out the recruited the youngest and the brightest that he could find to teach at J.S. Clark. I know that (teachers) kept a watch on
