LSU to name academic programs, building after Black pioneers

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Louisiana State University is recognizing four trailblazing Black alumni whose contributions to breaking barriers has left a lasting impact on the school.

Former students Lutrill and Pearl Payne, Dr. Pinkie Gordon Lane and Julian T. White will be honored with a building and two new academic programs in their names, according to BRPROUD.

Lutrill Payne and his wife Pearl Payne will be namesake to the Lutrill and Pearl Payne School of Education, as reported by the outlet.

Lutrill, initially denied access to graduate studies because he is Black, filed a successful lawsuit against the university and was able to enroll in 1951. Pearl, who enrolled shortly thereafter, graduated in 1956 as the first Black woman to earn a Master’s degree in education from the school, per the outlet.

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Dr. Pinkie Gordon Lane, the first Black LSU student to earn a doctorate, will be honored at the new Pinkie Gordon Lane Graduate School, according to BRPROUD.

Lane, who earned her degree in 1967, worked as an educator and author. She earned acclaim for her poetry as a Pulitzer Prize nominee and the first African American to be appointed as Poet Laureate in Louisiana. She was additionally the first person to chair the english department at Southern University, per the outlet.

Julian T. White, LSU’s first Black professor and the second African American to earn an architecture license in the state of Louisiana, will be honored by the renaming of LSU’s former design building. It will now be called Julian T. White Hall, per the outlet.

White, who is also featured in a mural at the LSU College of Art, taught in the school’s architecture department in 1971, according to BRPROUD.

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In July 2021, LSU hired Dr. William Tate IV as the school’s first ever Black president and the first African American to hold the role in any school in the Southeastern Conference, as previously reported by theGrio.

According to BRPROUD, Tate emphasizes the importance of current students learning more about the contributions of all four Black trailblazers and how they have impacted LSU history.

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