Entergy is proud to support programing on LP and greener practices that preserve Louisiana.

The goal of our environmental and sustainability initiatives really is to ensure that our kids and future generations can be left with a cleaner planet.

Additional support provided by the Fred Bea and Ruth B Ziegler Foundation and the Ziegler Art Museum located in Jennings City Hall.

The museum focuses on emerging Louisiana artists and is an historical and cultural center for Southwest Louisiana and the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

With support from viewers like you.

You do what you know is right and stand up for it.

How the words of Dale Brown's mother became a guiding principle of his life.

It is a bit of a punch to the gut, help finally coming to a grateful mayor city that he knows is not nearly enough.

Everybody really, genuinely is doing their best.

Exasperated teachers, understaffed and overworked.

Everybody needs to know about it.

Everybody, I don't care what color you are uncovering.

The history of Baton Rouge is first African-American hotel.

Hi, I'm Kara St. Cyr.

I'm Andre Moreau.

Mask mandate lifted Governor John Bel Edwards gave that order this week as the worst surge from COVID subsides, so bars, gyms and supermarkets won't require a face covering.

But schools?

They're a different matter.

A mask mandate remains, but many districts have opted out, and there are a lot of exceptions.

At a press conference this week, Governor Edwards said children under the age of twelve remain one of the most vulnerable groups for COVID 19, as they still are not eligible for the vaccine.

But this may change very soon.

A smaller dosage of the Pfizer vaccine was recommended for children ages five to eleven by the FDA on Tuesday, which is the first step toward approval.

That decision is expected to come by November second, and we'll keep you posted.

And now let's check on some other news headlines from around the state.

FEMA has extended the application deadline for victims of Hurricane Ida.

People in 25 parishes now have until November 29th to apply for help for things like rent, temporary housing, home repairs and property losses not covered by insurance.

The governor wants to get people in those temporary housing travel trailers.

The state has bought 2000 of them, but to date only 68 have storm displaced families living in them.

They're located in parishes hardest hit by Ida.

Lake Charles again got the worst of the weather that rolled through the state this week.

one of several tornadoes caused major damage Wednesday to more than a dozen homes.

The preliminary F2 produced winds of 130 miles an hour.

The governor and other state leaders are in Scotland attending an international climate change conference.

They will meet with leaders from around the world through the fourth of November.

Economic development and coastal experts are among the Louisiana delegation.

A group of dads in Shreveport, fed up with fights and arrests, are taking action at Southwood High School.

They're patrolling the campus there, and since they showed up, there hasn't been one incident on campus.

Well, Louisiana is facing a teacher shortage.

The state superintendent of education says that 50% of teachers who've taught for at least five years quit, while 60% of them leave after a decade.

Larry Carter, the president of the Louisiana Federation of Teachers, says the shortage will likely increase until teachers get better pay raises and resources.

A teacher's job usually runs over time.

There are papers to grade in lessons to plan.

But imagine if that workload doubled for five years without any relief in sight.

That's how Matthew Carmichael describes his career as a teacher.

I am a seventh grade math and science teacher.

I'm also a the Final four coordinator for our school, and I'm also the building union rep for the school.

Got a lot of hats.

He's won a lot of hats during his tenure, and the pressure is starting to build.

More and more teachers at his school are leaving, which means more gaps for people like Carmichael to fill.

That's less time Carmichael can focus on his students.

Instead, he's watching another teacher's class or picking up slack in after school activities.

And a lot of the time, there's no notice that you're not going to be having the time that you planned.

I know and the past few years there were days where I was like, I really got to print this thing off so that we can have it for the activity that day.

And then you would show up and sign in.

And by the way, you're covering so-and-so's class today.

Not having time to print out assignments may seem just like an inconvenience, but it creates a backlog of work for teachers.

It means that Carmichael may not be able to take lunch because he's going through lesson plans for two classes instead of just one.

The problem is getting worse.

More teachers are leaving each year for jobs that are more sustainable.

Ever since I first started five years ago, every year there's been at least like three or four or five people that I know that worked in my part of the building where we're on my grade level or my content areas.

People that, like I worked with that at least that were either leaving to retire or we're taking a break and then never came back.

And this last couple of years, it's been even more with COVID.

The Teacher Retirement System found that school personnel retirements increased by 25% from 2020 to 2021.

50% of teachers who've been teaching for about five years or less leave every year, according to Louisiana Superintendent of Education.

60% of them leave after a decade.

Larry Carter, the president of the Louisiana Federation of Teachers, says that the shortage was only exacerbated by the pandemic.

Some of them cited teacher cited that the pandemic related stress and health concerns and even a lack of child care for their own kids are some of the reasons that some of them actually retired and or even some of the new and or mid-level your teachers said the same reasons.

There are some challenging work conditions.

I know last year, in particular, a year before, teachers had to not only teach a cluster of students for in-person, but also students virtually.

So you had two classrooms within one classroom setting basically happening at the same time, which presented his own set of challenging work conditions.

The Legislature passed pay raises for teachers this last session.

Teachers got an 800 dollar annual raise and support personnel received $400.

But Carter says that teachers still feel they aren't making a salary that equals the workload.

The National Center for Education Statistics reported that the average teacher makes about $63,000 in Louisiana.

Teachers are averaging about 56,000, and it's about 49,000 for new teachers.

We saw, especially our newer teachers having look at themselves, having a four year college degree and others with four year college degrees earning anywhere from 20 to $30,000 more was enticing to go into another profession before they even went into college.

They were talking about why they weren't going into education versus other professions.

Teachers say support is one of the biggest issues they face.

Isolation during the pandemic is putting pressure on an already depleted staff.

Carmichael says that having support from the principals and veteran teachers is crucial during those first years without it.

He says that younger teachers are struggling to find balance having that kind of like mentoring from the more like seasoned teachers.

People that have been there longer kind of know how things like what things work better than other things.

There's not as much of that support because everybody's like so thinly stretched.

They don't have the time like literally or like emotionally.

They're just like drained by the end of the day that they don't have it.

And then to then spend the time mentoring someone, Carmichael says he's been on the verge of quitting for a while now , but can't bring himself to leave the kids behind.

Your teachers and your administration are trying their best.

It may not always look like they're doing things the way that you might perceive as being the best way to do it, but the everybody really genuinely is doing their best.

Carter says that right now, math, science and special needs teachers are crucial positions.

Schools are looking to fill.

That's your ceiling.

Yeah, this is actually a nook.

My office is worse, it's destroyed.

So this is kind of a little nook I'm in right now until stuff gets back to where it should be.

That's Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter and what he's using for a makeshift office this week, 14 months after Laura.

Federal disaster money is making its way to the state.

$595 million Governor Edwards asked for 3 billion.

About 20% of that is estimated to be tagged for Southwest Louisiana and Lake Charles.

And now more of my conversation with the mayor to receive 20% is it is a bit of a punch to the gut.

Typically, we hear that local municipalities and states consider it a quote unquote win when you get about half of the unmet need.

So now that money is with the state, rightfully so, we believe the majority will go to housing and that's the way it should be because housing is by far our number one named after money goes towards housing.

There's probably not going to be a lot left.

It's a dangerous thing to compare storms.

I get that, however.

Let's do it for a moment.

Yeah.

Compare awards from other disasters that have waited a few days or weeks compared to us waiting over a year.

It's just it's not a very equitable response and the federal government.

But but I will say that we're going to make sure and advocate on behalf of our citizens that those who need it the most get the money.

And as a local government, I think we've got to pivot.

We've got to find some creative and unique ways to do some things on a local and state level.

When you say, pivot, what are we talking about?

Well, we're going to have to try to apply for competitive grants on a federal level.

We're going to ask the state government to do some creative things to help southwest Louisiana.

Some of that could be financial.

Some of it could be through asking the Legislature to allow the city to do certain things with blighted properties.

But we're going to try to incentivize and use local resources as much as we can to encourage people to reinvest in the community to develop on properties that used to have single-family homes .

There's a lot of properties in the city where there used to be a single family home, and we want to see those infill lots redeveloped.

Did you ever expect to be here right now?

No, because I kept getting reassurances from so many people that help was on the way, it was right around the corner.

I remember immediately after Laura, so many people on a federal and state level visited Lake Charles, and they were pat me on the back saying, Nick, this is one of the worst hurricanes in this country's history.

You guys are going to get supplemental disaster aid.

FEMA's going to be there, but also HUD is going to be there.

Where are those people now?

I mean, they're they're still there.

Those people are still there.

But you haven't gotten the help.

No, it it didn't materialize.

There has to be a discussion on a broad level of how supplemental disaster aid happens.

It is a an uber political animal and it should not be that way.

Americans should be treated equitably in the in the aftermath of natural disasters, and we just simply haven't seen that in our case.

Quick question about insurance, because that has also been a huge problem with insurance companies dropping policies after giving some sort of payment.

So there has obviously been a philosophical shift from the insurance companies between Hurricane Rita and today we hear so many more horror stories from the general public.

So we are certainly supportive of the state legislature taking a strong look at insurance reform and making sure that these companies are fulfilling, fulfilling the covenant that they have with their with their customers.

As always, good to talk to you.

I am so sorry about the lack of action.

But keep on keeping on.

Thank you, Andre.

I appreciate checking them.

In the early thirties, there weren't any hotels in the Baton Rouge area for African-Americans to stay, but in 1939. one family built up the city's downtown area with the ever ready hotel cafe and taxi line.

This place hosted celebrities and musicians, but more importantly, it inspired a marginalized community to grow.

Here is this week's safe haven.

It's hard to believe if I were to travel just seven years ago, this little guide could potentially save my life .

I'm Cara Sincere and this is safe.

Haven Louisiana's Green Book.

Whenever I drive down Government Street near downtown Baton Rouge, I always wonder what all these abandoned stores used to be.

I've lived my whole life here, and I never learned about the history of this neighborhood.

Apparently, a lot of black owned businesses were in this area.

There were beauty parlors, taverns, restaurants, theaters and in every edition of the Green Book, there was the ever ready built in 1938.

It was the first hotel for African-Americans in Baton Rouge.

I'm meeting John Forbes at her home.

Her uncle owned the ever ready take place behind.

OK, how are you?

My name is Joan Forbes.

Please come in.

So I would go visit Everydays Cafe and camp saying when I was little and I was a little three and five year old sitting on the bar.

So I got to see everybody come in and leave, and they basically taught me the business.

You know, I saw everything.

The whole block was like little Harlem.

You could call it go home because it was all black.

Everybody was for it.

You can go nowhere in Baton Rouge was like a little country town.

Everybody knew everybody.

Trust me, they knew everybody.

In the 1930s, Jones family moved to Baton Rouge from Saint Francisville, which was a KKK stronghold gripped by racial violence.

They worked as butlers, maids and gospel singers, and despite tremendous challenges, they eventually opened their own businesses, especially her uncle Joseph.

Everybody should know how the Henderson family cared about Baton Rouge and its community, and Uncle Joseph did so much to help others to become business owners, and he helped the community as a whole find and giving peoples to stay.

Sometimes he wouldn't even charge them if they could not afford.

He would just let them stay until they got back on their feet.

Uncle Joseph always wanted to expand his businesses.

Really was like a minimal if you think about it, you know, with the photography studio, they even had a little dress shop in there and then you had the cab stand and really, he had women, cab drivers.

Yeah, there were women, cab drivers, the ever ready was popular for black musicians playing around town and at clubs on the chitlin circuit.

And everyone loved the food and the kitchen smells so good because everything was homey.

And when you would walk in the door, you just had that aroma of good food.

You could get a plate of red beans and rice for 15 singer Betty Davis and all of them like when they were coming to town.

They really liked soul food.

They would stop by and get some ribs and mustard greens and calm, are you?

And so they enjoyed that.

If they didn't stop by, they would order their food and Uncle Joe was up in.

All of them would deliver it to the hotel where they were staying.

Equal rights for African-Americans were a double edged sword for thriving businesses like the ever ready.

What happened with that area and with that integration came in and it cut into their businesses and people became more outspoken.

I mean, the Whites couldn't believe basically that blacks had that kind of money, and they resented it in a way, and it would rather see the buildings destroyed then to see them remain.

And that's what happened.

They're being torn down.

It's like they were never here in the first place.

Do you think the people in Baton Rouge know how influential, really this family was in this city?

No, they had no idea.

The ever ready closed in 1965, and today only the building's foundation is left, although the neighborhood is being revitalized.

There's no sign of it's black history.

And Joan is hoping to change that.

I've been telling them about it for years that they need to put markers and everything where all these businesses were not only the Hendersons, but you had the Bernards and you had several other families.

So there is so much importance here in Baton Rouge that the black community owned.

Everybody needs to know about it.

Everybody, I don't care what color you are, wherever you came from.

Rainbow colors, what they need to know.

All this existed.

ExxonMobil Baton Rouge is proud to support Safe Haven, Louisiana's Green Book for more than 100 years, ExxonMobil has made a commitment to workforce diversity and the belief that reflecting on historic race relations is key to shaping a better future.

This is the last Green Book episode will be airing on the state we're in.

I hope you guys enjoyed it.

I had a blast making it.

But if you want to see more episodes, we have four more coming soon.

So if you like to watch all of them, make sure you head to our YouTube page.

That is the link right there on your screen.

Dale Brown believed and achieved, and because of him, the history of LSU basketball is storied.

The Hall of Fame coach delivered glory and championships to LSU and made the Tigers a national brand.

After years of heated debate, LSU Board of Supervisors finally voted to rename their basketball court in Dail's honor.

The vote passed twelve to three in 1972.

Dale Brown and his family headed to LSU to begin a new chapter.

But before Baton Rouge came a strategic stop at UCLA, a visit with his hero, John Wooden, widely considered one of the best coaches of all time.

Wooden equipped Dale with a wealth of knowledge during their week.

Together, Wooden's insights would serve as a beacon in Brown's quest to transform LSU.

It wouldn't be easy, but hardship was no stranger to Dale.

He knew it like the back of his hand, and over the course of his life, he would turn that hardship into trying.

Where did your spirit and fight come from?

two days before I was born.

My biological father abandoned my mother, and I was 1935, the height of the depression.

She came off a farm, uneducated eighth grade, couldn't get a job, we had to move into a one room apartment above a bar and a hardware store.

No toilet, no bath or shower, nothing one room.

I never slept in a bed for 21 years.

She had a little bit that pulled out from the wall.

I had a sofa about five foot six.

I can hardly touch her head at night, but it came from her.

She never complained about her situation.

She had to become a maid and babysit for people for $0.50 an hour.

We had to take the demeaning thing of Ward County Welfare getting $42.50 a month.

Well, if I see an injustice, I'm going to stand up for it.

I got it from watching my mother getting beaten up that I was going to stand up for what was right.

It's a philosophy Dale instilled in his players, teaching them how to win in basketball and how to win in life.

It's no coincidence they call him Daddy Dale to this day.

He protects them.

He knows them.

He remembers their birthdays.

I know we're all hundred 60 r, and I try to talk to him on a regular basis.

When I see him out it roof Christmas or somewhere, they're like, Have you talked to Coach Brown?

Have I talked to him?

I can't get him to stop emailing.

He said to me, Is he sending me information every day?

Most people are what you call front runners.

So everybody's for the guy that's winning.

Everybody's for the guy who has all the money.

Everybody is for the guy who's in first place, but the guy who didn't win, who was for that guy.

And that's who Dale is.

He's for, like everybody.

He's for the effort.

He's at the September board meeting, a number of Dail's players spoke out in favor of the naming of Dale Brown caught, explaining that his legacy far outweighed any qualms discussed by the board.

We're talking about not changing rules, changing rules.

That's the same damn thing he did to the NCAA Double-A, making them think about how wrong they were in their actions and treatment for student athletes.

Almost everybody has said based on what they know how great this guy is, and he changed the trajectory of the state of Louisiana and the mindset of all of the stereotypical negativities.

The reason we talked about it for ten years was because some folk didn't want to do it, but this nigger loving Dale Brown, and it's time to get this done.

He deserves it, and we need to borrow.

Meantime, from their home, Dale and his wife Varney, had begun to watch and listen to the meeting on YouTube.

Both of us had tears in our eyes that this man had the courage and the honesty to stand up for what he thought was right.

Doesn't he make a huge impact on people's tremendous, tremendous impact?

He's what people would consider a world beater.

He's a mover and shaker.

He's a change agent.

He's a motivator for the good of humanity and also for the good of LSU basketball and its fans.

The 15 straight national tournaments for SEC titles and two Final Fours with Dale in charge.

I was a kid of 14 years old on the front row of your first game against Memphis State, which the Hustlers won 94 to 81.

A big upset.

And I've loved you ever since and cheered for you ever since and for to watch the meteoric rise of LSU basketball at which you did.

Throughout his journey, Dale fought for justice all the while imparting the lessons of his mother.

If you spend too much time polishing your image, eventually you'll tarnish your character and be an unhappy man.

You do what you know is right and stand up for it.

I haven't been able to do that.

You do it.

Now, January fourth, LSU's game against Kentucky.

That's the tentative date for the court naming ceremonies.

Dale Brown's mother, Agnes Brown, never lived to see what her son would achieve.

She died six months before he came to LSU and everyone.

That is our show for this week.

Remember, you can watch anything, anytime, wherever you are with our LPB app.

You can catch LPB news and public affairs shows, as well as other Louisiana programs you've come to enjoy over the years.

And please like us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

For everyone here at Louisiana Public Broadcasting, I'm Andre Moreau and I'm Kara St. Cyr, until next time.

That's the state we're in.

Entergy is proud to support programing on LPB and greener practices that preserve Louisiana.

The goal of our environmental and sustainability initiatives really is to ensure that our kids and future generations can be left with a cleaner planet.

Additional support provided by the Fred Bea and Ruth B Ziegler Foundation and the Ziegler Art Museum located in Jennings City Hall.

The museum focuses on emerging Louisiana artists and is an historical and cultural center for Southwest Louisiana and the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

With support from viewers like you.