Dr. J.K. Haynes, Sr. (1906 - 1997) was a key figure in education and during the Civil Rights Movement. He was a longtime Educator and Civil Rights Activist in Louisiana. 

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He helped to organize, charter, and promote the development of The Louisiana Colored Teachers Association (later named The Louisiana Education Association) and served as its President until 1955. After 1955, he became the Executive Director until the organization merged with The Louisiana Teachers Association in 1977 to become what is now known as The Louisiana Association of Educators. 

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Dr. Haynes served as the Principal and Coach at Lincoln High School in Ruston, Louisiana.  A noted moment during those days for Dr. Haynes while at Lincoln is when Lincoln played against McKinley High’s (Baton Rouge) football team and McKinley’s quarterback, (the future legendary Coach) Eddie Robinson, Sr. - a testament of the greatest of a generation of men who understood the value and responsibility of education for Blacks in Louisiana.

 

In 1950, Dr. Haynes personally escorted the first Black student to integrate Louisiana State University’s campus.  Haynes was a Charter Member of The Louisiana Board of Regents, a Founding Member of The J. K. Haynes Foundation, and a Member of The Louisiana Constitution Convention. 

 

As a Founding Member of The Louisiana Interscholastic Athletic and Literacy Organization (LIALO), Dr. Haynes was also instrumental in the development of the LIALO, an athletic association formed for Negro schools as Black students were not allowed to participate at or in white schools during segregation.  

 

The Consummate Educator, Dr. Haynes organized the first Head Start Program in Louisiana. And shortly before his death in 1997, Dr. Haynes witnessed the opening of The J. K. Haynes Elementary Charter School in Baton Rouge, pioneering another movement of change in the quality of education for African-American children in the state.

 

Today, the countless marks of his legacy range from his name making history, being etched as the title for The School of Nursing at Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge, to the thousands of black educators and students throughout Louisiana who benefitted from his lifelong fight for balance in equal pay for black educators and fair resources for children of color so that they could reach their given potential.