Career
Though he was light skinned enough to pass as white, Lanusse embraced his black ancestry, and devoted his life to the republican ideals of liberty and equality for African-Americans living in the United States. In he edited and contributed to Les Cenelles, a collection of 85 poems written in French by 18 Afro-Creole poets of Louisiana. Though 1830 state laws existed that prohibited speech or writing that would incite slave revolts, these poems represented the first literary effort to establish the principals of freedom for all blacks, equality, and liberty.
When a permanent building was constructed for this school in, Lanusse became its principal, and served in that capacity until his death in 1867.
While principal, he established a curriculum that included grammar, logic, rhetoric, mathematics, French, English, science, and personal hygiene. In 1861, Lanusse became an officer in the Confederate Louisiana Native Guards, a position which he held until that group disbanded in April, 1862.
Shortly after the fall of New Orleans in May, 1862, Lanusse refused to follow Union General Benjamin Butler"s order to fly the American flag over the Institute Catholique. He later regretted this refusal, and became an ardent supporter of the abolitionist cause.
