MONROE, LA. (KTVE/KARD) — While Carroll High School may be a well known name to most people in the Ouachita Parish area, many people may not know the rich African American history behind the school. The high school started as Monroe Colored High School and was the only black school in Monroe, LA.

In the fifties, it was renamed to Carroll High School and moved to a new location in the city. We spoke to Janice Fleming, a former student turned faculty member who has been working at Carroll for almost 30 years, about what this history means to her.

“Carroll High School was was like, second nature to me. I graduated from Carroll, I grew up in Caroll and at marbles Recreation Center. my prayer was ‘Lord if I got to be in a classroom, please let me go home’, and home to me was Carroll High School.”

Fleming says that now, the school offers a wide variety of extracurriculars to create well rounded students, and Carroll continues to teach students about its history and history making alumni so that they never forget where they came from.