J.S. Clark High School

The school's name honors Joseph Samuel Clark, born in Bienville Parish in 1871, who led Southern University and A&M College from 1914 to 1938 and co-founded the National Urban League. In 1931 he turned down President Hoover's offer of the ambassadorship to Liberia to stay at Southern. The Opelousas school began as the St. Landry Training School and took his name in 1953, then merged with Opelousas High School in 1969 and 1970. Coach Claude Paxton, who won five state track titles here, built its hurdlers into champions.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Le Vieux Village and the Venus House — steps away
  A heritage park in Opelousas built around the Venus House of about 1791, the home of a free Creole woman of color, Marie Francois Venus, with an old schoolhouse, Methodist church and the visitor center's zydeco music exhibit.
• Prairie Acadian Cultural Center — 21 mi
  A National Park Service center in Eunice on the Cajun prairie, with exhibits on the Acadians who settled the prairies, a Courir de Mardi Gras display, free music and cooking demonstrations, and the shuttered Liberty Theatre nearby.
• Vermilionville — 22 mi
  A living-history village of about 23 acres on Bayou Vermilion in Lafayette, opened in 1990 to interpret the Native peoples, Acadians, Creoles and people of African descent of the Attakapas region.
• Atchafalaya Welcome Center — 25 mi
  A state welcome center inside the Atchafalaya Basin, the nation's largest river swamp, with exhibits on Basin history and life, a film, a crawfishing boat and French-speaking staff.

More markers nearby

• Rodney Milburn — steps away
• Opelousas Firsts and Famous / Hall of Fame — steps away
• The Opelousas Post Militia of 1779 — steps away
• La Chapelle House — steps away