Dr. Noman C. Francis, former Xavier University of Louisiana president, named 2025 Humanist of the Year
The Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities and Lt. Governor of Louisiana Billy Nungesser are proud to announce that Dr. Noman C. Francis, Xavier University of Louisiana president from 1968 to 2015, has been named 2025 Humanist of the Year.
In addition to the Humanist of the Year award, the LEH has recognized eight other Bright Lights Awards recipients, recognizing those who have made significant contributions to the understanding of Louisiana’s history and culture in the humanities field.
Celebrating its 40th anniversary, the Bright Lights Awards—formerly called the Humanities Awards and given by the LEH, Louisiana’s National Endowment for the Humanities affiliate—offer a collective opportunity to celebrate all the humanities have to offer and honor documentary filmmakers and photographers, literacy and language advocates, historians and authors, culture advocates, and more.
The awardees will be highlighted in the summer issue of 64 Parishes magazine, published by the LEH, and they will be recognized during the organization’s annual Bright Lights Awards Dinner on Wednesday, April 23, 2025, at the Capitol Park Museum in Baton Rouge. Full ticket and program details are available here.
ABOUT THIS YEAR’S AWARDEES
Humanist of the Year: Dr. Norman C. Francis
The 2024 LEH Humanist of the Year is Dr. Norman C. Francis. A native of Lafayette, Louisiana, Dr. Francis was the first black student at Loyola University New Orleans and the first black president of Xavier University of Louisiana, serving from 1968 to 2015. Dr. Francis’s work as a civil leader, academic, educator and Louisiana culture bearer has had a profound impact on Louisianans and non-Louisianans alike.
Francis has served on the Educational Testing Service, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, the Southern Education Foundation and the American Association of Higher Education. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, having received 35 honorary degrees, including a Doctorate of Humanities, and a member of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. Francis served as chairman of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, charged with the rebuilding of Louisiana after hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
In 2006, Francis was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George W. Bush.
Dr. Francis retired in 2015 after being honored as the nation’s longest-serving college president.
Champion of Culture: Festivals Acadiens et Créoles 
Recipients of the LEH Champion of Culture award have made a lasting mark on Louisiana’s cultural landscape and provided opportunities for more Louisianans to access and engage with cultural experiences. This year’s Champion of Culture awardee is Festivals Acadiens et Créoles. Held in Lafayette, it is the world’s largest Cajun and Creole festival.
Co-founded and directed by folklorist, poet, and ethnomusicologist Barry Ancelet, Festivals Acadiens et Créoles merged existing festivals together to champion the creativity and cultural contributions of Cajun and Creole customs. The festival celebrated its 50th year in 2024 and generates over $11 million for Lafayette Parish.
Since 2008, the festival has given back over $100,000 in community initiatives. From the foundations of each festival in the 1970s, to the official creation of the co-op in 2008, to the celebrations of the festivals in present day, Festivals Acadiens et Créoles sees over 125,000 each year, coming from across the country and even the globe.
Chair’s Award for Institutional Support: Willie Landry Mount
The LEH’s Chair’s Award for Institutional Support recognizes organizations and individuals for significant financial or programmatic support of the LEH’s mission and programs. This year’s awardee, Willie Landry Mount, a Lake Charles native, was the first female mayor of Lake Charles and served on the Louisiana State Senate.
Mount served on the Senate Committees on Coastal Restoration and Flood Control, Revenue and Fiscal Affairs, Senate Committee on Education, and Senate Committee on Health and Welfare. Mount served on the Board of Directors of the LEH from 2013 to 2024, serving as Chair of the Board in the 2020-21 fiscal year, leading the LEH through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mount has supported LEH’s advocacy efforts at the state and national levels, attending numerous advocacy events in support of LEH and offering strategic guidance at the state level as part of the legislative task force. Mount’s pivotal support of LEH initiatives has been integral to LEH’s ongoing commitment to building a lifelong love of learning, literacy and leadership for Louisianans of all backgrounds.
Documentary Photographer of the Year: Pableaux Johnson 
The Documentary Photographer of the Year award honors photographers whose work captures Louisiana’s history, culture or people. Pableaux Johnson, a native of New Iberia, is a New Orleans-based photographer and food writer.
Johnson has been capturing all facets of New Orleans culture since 2001 and is known for his documentation of outdoor performance traditions. Johnson has published several books, solo exhibitions, and documentaries. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Bitter Southerner, Southern Living, Bon Appetit, and many others.
Humanities Book of the Year: “The Carceral City: Slavery and the Making of Mass Incarceration in New Orleans, 1803-1930” by John Bardes (published by University of North Carolina Press)
The Humanities Book of the Year award honors a book that best exemplifies scholarship on Louisiana topics or by Louisiana writers. In “The Carceral City: Slavery and the Making of Mass Incarceration in New Orleans, 1803-1930,” Dr. John Bardes, a professor at Louisiana State University, outlines the relationship between slavery and prison development. Bardes examines 127 years of the city that has had the highest incarceration rates in the country.
Humanities Documentary Film of the Year: “Ancestral Artistry: The Influence of Africans and Creoles of Color on Louisiana Architecture” produced by the Louisiana Architecture Foundation 
The Humanities Documentary Film of the Year award honors a documentary film that best exemplifies scholarship on Louisiana topics or by Louisiana documentary filmmakers. The Louisiana Architecture Foundation’s “Ancestral Artistry: The Influence of Africans and Creoles of Color on Louisiana Architecture” explores the rich cultural legacy of early Africans and Creoles of Culture through Louisiana’s architecture. The film examines Louisiana’s roots across the globe throughout time, showcasing modern-day master craftspeople preserving the legacy of their ancestors.
Lifetime Contributions to the Humanities: Jim Davis
The Lifetime Contributions to the Humanities awards recognize those who have supported and been involved in public appreciation of issues central to the humanities. Jim Davis is the Executive Director of the Louisiana Center for the Book and the Louisiana Book Festival at the State Library of Louisiana. Under Davis’s direction, the Louisiana Book Festival has become one of the nation’s foremost book festivals, amassing over 20,000 visitors each year, advancing a love of literature and strengthening communities in each of Louisiana’s 64 parishes.
Best in Digital Humanities: “A Closer Walk: New Orleans Music History, Block by Block”
Awarded biannually in odd-numbered years, the Best in Digital Humanities award recognizes publicly accessible digital humanities projects produced in the previous two calendar years (2023 and 2024) including websites, virtual exhibitions, podcasts and other born-digital initiatives that bring new insights to and/or significantly improve the public’s understanding of the state, its history and/or its culture.
“A Closer Walk: New Orleans Music History, Block by Block,” digitally hosted by WWOZ, showcases a digital guide of important locations in the musical history of New Orleans. Boasting curated tours and an interactive map of the city, “A Closer Walk” can be filtered by time period, neighborhood, or music genre to follow the city’s musical journey.
Light Up for Literacy: Lt. Michael Brooks
Presented in partnership with the State Library of Louisiana’s Center for the Book, the Light Up for Literacy award recognizes those who have made significant and lasting contributions to literacy efforts in the state. Lt. Michael Brooks, of the Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Office Hickley M. Waguespack Center, works as a beacon of education and community advocate. His efforts, which include serving as a vibrant storyteller for Prime Time Family Reading sessions at the WAG Center, have led to an outsized impact on youth literacy across the region.