Monroe Dispatch - No Struggle, No Progress

October 28, 1934 – August 1, 2021 Abe Edward Pierce III was an educator and politician in Monroe, LA, who served as the city's first African-American mayor. Mr. Pierce held the position for one term from 1996 to 2000, when he was unseated by the Republican candidate, Melvin Rambin. A graduate of the former Monroe Colored High School prior to desegregation and the historically black Southern University in Baton Rouge, LA, Mr. Pierce was a classroom teacher who taught biology, chemistry, and physics for ten years at Richwood High School in Monroe, LA, where he was briefly the principal before he was elevated into school administration, as supervisor of secondary education and then as an assistant superintendent. His wife, Dorothy Richard-Pierce, a native of Opelousas, was also a teacher. Pierce said that teaching had been the most personally satisfying of all his jobs with the Ouachita Parish School Board. Aside from his education roles, Pierce also operated a small business called Pierce's Dairy Delight with his friend, the legendary Coach Mackie Freeze. Before his mayoral tenure, Mr. Pierce served as a member of the Ouachita Parish Police Jury, the parish governing body, for twenty-six years. He was the first African-American to serve on the police jury and the first to be named president of the police jury. Mr. Pierce had been the president of the youth council of the Monroe branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and was active in the Civil Rights Movement. In the 1996 nonpartisan blanket primary for mayor of Monroe, Pierce led a field of six candidates with 5,584 votes (35.5 percent). Republican John Bryant trailed with 4,212 votes (26.8 percent). Trailing in third place was Democrat Gene Tarver, who polled 3,812 votes (24.2 percent); 17-year incumbent Robert E. "Bob" Powell finished in fourth place with 1,565 votes (10 percent). In the runoff with Bryant, Pierce prevailed by 385 votes, 9,874 (51 percent) to 9,489 (49 percent). After forty years, Mr. Pierce left the employment of the school board on June 30, 1996, the day before he took the oath of office as mayor. Mr. Pierce resided in Monroe until his death at the age of 86. Left to cherish fond memories are wife Dorothy Pierce, one son - Abe E. Pierce lV, one daughter - Dr. Ava Pierce, grandchildren, and a host of family and friends. Funeral services are scheduled for Friday, August 6, 2021 at 11:00 AM at the Monroe Civic Center.