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Alexander Dimitry redefined public education [1]
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Date: 2025-07-04
Alexander Dimitry was a man of firsts.
He was Louisiana’s first state superintendent of education, the first person of color to attend Georgetown University, and the first person of color to serve as U.S. ambassador to Costa Rica and Nicaragua.
In addition, Dimitry was an author, journalist, lawyer, orator and publicist. He spoke 13 languages, including English, Greek, French, Italian and Spanish.
Born in New Orleans in 1805, “Dimitry was very smart from a young age,” Kiddle Encyclopedia states. “By the time he was 10, he was learning from private teachers.” At 15, he went to Georgetown, graduating in 1826. He received a master’s degree in 1832 and an honorary law degree in 1859.
From 1828 to 1830, Dimitry was a faculty member at the College of Baton Rouge. He co-owned the New Orleans Bee and was the French paper’s first English section editor.
Dimitry served as the state education superintendent from 1847 to 1851. President James Buchanan appointed him ambassador to Costa Rica and Nicaragua in 1859. During the Civil War, he was the Confederate postmaster general and Postal Service chief of finance.
After the war, Dimitry lived in Brooklyn, N.Y., returning to New Orleans in 1868. He began teaching Latin in 1869 at Christian Brothers College in Pass Christian, Miss. He also wrote articles for newspapers and lectured throughout the South.
Dimitry died at home on Jan. 30, 1883.
“Alexander Dimitry was undoubtedly one of the leading scholars produced by the State of Louisiana,” the genealogy website, WikiTree states. “His main significance for Louisiana was that … he gave prestige and direction to those ideas which were to constitute the foundation for a worthwhile system of public schools. Because of the pioneering work which he did, many of the developments of later years were made possible.”
For more tales from New Orleans history, visit the Back in the Day archives.
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