This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.
BATON ROUGE, La (BRPROUD) –Thursday, September 17th would have been the 99th birthday of a pioneer of education in Baton Rouge.
Odell S. Williams became one of the first to teach African-American history in schools in the parish.
This was done at a time when teaching topics like African-American history was a risk to her.
The late Sadie Roberts-Joseph named her Now and Then African-American Museum in honor of the educator.
Both women advocated for all children to learn about African-American history.
Williams was a 1939 graduate of McKinley Senior High School, and a 1952 graduate of Southern University where she earned her degree in education.
Williams passed away at the age of 90 in 2012.
