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Family honors one of the founders of Green T. Lindon Elementary
A look at the Lafayette Parish School System. Amanda McElfresh
The family of a Lafayette Parish education pioneer is working to ensure his legacy is remembered.
Romain Green started Long Plantation Elementary School in 1920 at the corner of what is now Tolson and Ashy Roads. The two-room schoolhouse offered classes to black children in first through eighth grades.
The school was open until 1959, when it was consolidated with Youngsville Negro Elementary. In 1965, after integration, the school was renamed Green T. Lindon Elementary in honor of people who had worked to educate black children in Lafayette Parish.
One of those men was Green, along with John Thibeaux and Horace Lindon.
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This past spring, Green’s grandchildren created a plaque in his honor. It is now displayed prominently in the school’s entrance, under his photo.
“We decided it would be best if we wrote an inscription of the vision our grandfather had and make sure his legacy lives on,” said John Broussard, one of Green’s grandsons. “The original intent was to educate children of color. Today, it stands as a symbol of a place where children of all races can be educated.”
Kennedy Green, another of Romain Green’s grandsons, contributed a book about his grandfather and Lafayette Parish schools that is available in the Green T. Lindon Elementary library.
Green’s accomplishments are particularly striking to his family because he did not read or write English. He was fluent in Creole and may have picked up some English in his interactions with others.
“He was a visionary in my eyes,” said Gerard Green, one of Romain’s grandsons. “He inspired a lot of his grandchildren to go to college and finish college.”
Besides being an educator, Green was a successful farmer and owned several acres of property in southern Lafayette Parish, including areas along what is now Kaliste Saloom Road. When his children became adults, Green usually gave them property to start their lives and careers.
Several of Green’s descendants have gone on to successful careers in education, medicine, business and other sectors.
“We can only surmise that he saw how progressive other races were and wanted to see the same thing for children of color,” Broussard said of his grandfather’s devotion of education. “He would not settle. He also knew that being a landowner earned someone immediate respect. He had a true vision.