In 1965, a year after the Civil Rights Act, the Adult Education Center opened in the French Quarter of New Orleans with a very specific goal: teach young Black women typing, shorthand, and interview skills so they could take office jobs that had never been open to them. Students paid forty dollars for books. Teacher Alice Geoffray led the school, inspired by Father Timothy Gibbons, and the graduates went on to become the first African American secretaries at Shell, Standard Oil, Pan-American Life, and city hall.
The center closed in 1972 after graduating 431 women, most of them African American. Today the nonprofit 431 Exchange, run by Geoffray’s children, carries on the work through scholarships, and a PBS documentary about the school is expected in 2027. For those of us on the Suncoast, the story is a reminder that the civil rights era wasn’t only about marches and laws. It was also about typing classes, interview suits, and doors finally opening.
If you’ve got an elder in the family with a story like this one, ask them about it while you still can. History lives in kitchens and family reunions as much as it lives in books. Did your mother or grandmother break a barrier at work? Tell us in the comments.
