alexandria, louisiana massacre

Colfax, founded in 1869 as the seat of Grant Parish, began life at the site of one of Louisiana's largest cotton plantations. The Caucasian. In her later years, Compton handed the annualmemorial wreath-laying traditionto the Buffalo Soldiers Motorcycle Club after she was unable to continue. Copyright 2020 WVUE. While there is scant evidence of premeditation or planning, his initial reporting on deaths was later corroborated, at least in part, by White officers themselves. All we did, basically, in some ways, was take pictures of the ground - X-ray the ground - no intrusive, no digging or anything like that. When the Bureau of Freedmen (a governmental organization created to provide emancipated African-Americans with legal, health and educational assistance and help them settle abandoned lands) sent Lieutenant Jesse Lee to investigate, he called it a quiet reign of terror so far as the freed people were concerned. Influential Republican Beverly Wilson, an African-American blacksmith in Opelousas, believed black citizens were in a worse condition now than in slavery. Another observer was led outside the town of Opelousas and shown the half-buried bodies of more than a dozen African-Americans. The police never patrolled out there; they couldnt. Crittle was 16 years- old in 1942. This year, the city of Alexandria, Louisiana installed a historical marker commemorating a confrontation between African American soldiers and white military police during World War II. Lynching became routinized in Louisiana, a systematic way by which whites sought to assert white supremacy in response to African-American resistance, said historian Michael Pfeifer, the author of The Roots of Rough Justice: Origins of American Lynching, by email. Lee Street Riot: Experts look at rumored mass grave site at Holly Oak Cemetery in Pineville. The Alexandria, Louisiana, Lee Street Riot (January 10, 1942). That was an inescapable reality. Erected on June 14, 1951, the sign's bold white letters announced that a civil disturbance claimed the lives of "three white men and 150 negroes." The Read More Read More "Getting them out of here. In 2003, in preparation for the city museums Heart of Spain exhibit, three local artists painted a mural on the side of a vacant building on Lee, directly across the street from the since-demolished Ritz Theater; the mural had honored prominent African Americans in Central Louisianas history, including David Iles and Louis Berry. Property values skyrocketed as a result. Camp Claiborne had been scrubbed from the map. Some people took refuge at St. James Catholic Church,Jackson recalled Compton told him. Bombardment of Alexandria - Wikipedia They paved miles and miles of new roads, installed underground sewerage systems, and laid gas and electricity lines. In the 1990s,William M. Simpson, former Louisiana College history professor, interviewed scores of peopleincluding former policemen, former state troopers and civilians and included their stories in his articleA Tale Untold? The Alexandria Massacre of 11 June 1882 and the British - JSTOR Back on January 10, 1942, a riot occurred on Lee . When I was a high school student, more than 50 years after the camps closure, kids would drive out to Claiborne to drink beer and smoke pot. Speakers at . See a spelling or grammar error in our story? And in St. Landry, one of the largest and most populous parishes in the state, thousands of white men were eager to take up arms to defend their political power. Lamar writes about the people, the politics, and the magic of Louisiana. Lee Street Massacre - YouTube "We've been doing this for over 10 years," said Freeman. Notably, it was generally acknowledged, even- implicitly- by the government, that the soldier had not been responsible for provoking the violence). Freeman said he is grateful to the City of Alexandria for erecting the marker but the Buffalo Soldiers will still continue their work. "We must also acknowledge the good work of the Buffalo Soldiers, some of who are here present today,who have annually conducted ceremonies on Lee Street remembering this event," said Wynne. To uncover the truth, four nationally known researchers, including Dr. Douglas Bristol and Dr. David Holt from the University of Mississippi, brought a penetrating radar device to the cemetery Tuesday. One Democratic newspaper editor estimated that more than 3,000 men belonged to the Knights of the White Camellia of St. Landry Parishan area that included only 13,776 white people in total, including women and children. Golden Shield. In September 1868, Southern white Democrats hunted down around 200 African-Americans in an effort to suppress voter . "But everybody, everysoldier, that died that night, is important," he said. Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. Albert H. Leonard, a Shreveport Times editor, power broker, and prominent White Leaguer, began calling on his fellow paramilitaries that summer of 1874 to murder Republican political leaders and instill fear . Simpson spent several years interviewing witnesses and researching the event, widely believed to be the most significant race riot during WWII, and when he published his findings in 1994 in an essay titled A Tale Untold? A century before it hosted the Louisiana Maneuvers, 69% of the population of Rapides Parish were enslaved African Americans. 9. But on April 13, 1873, a small army of white ex-Confederate soldiers, enraged after attempts by freedmen to assert their new rights . That's when Bristol told Wynne that USM had ground penetrating radar and introduced him to Dr. David Holt,a professor of geography at USM. "And then I'm going to let the holidays pass," he said. Wynne has taken photos of all the potential sites Holt marked. Texas school shooting: What we know about the victims - New York Post Lee Street Riot: Experts look at rumored mass grave site at - KALB | READ MORE, Lorraine Boissoneault is a contributing writer to SmithsonianMag.com covering history and archaeology. ", William M. Simpson, former Louisiana College professor and author of "A Tale Untold? PINEVILLE, La. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) We believe and many, many people around the United States believe there was a massive cover-up. Colfax Memorial Organization Dedicates Memorial on 150th Anniversary of Colfax Massacre. But there was another factor, and the federal government didnt make it much of a secret: Locals, they believed, wouldnt complain about the inconvenience. There were 22 homicides in Alexandria in 2020, or 14.5 per 100,000 people -- more than double the 6.5 per 100,000 national murder rate. Rhodes remembers stories from her grandmother about Saturday nights on Lee St. in Alexandria. Mystery of the 364th - Jaye Purple Wolf Not only were Blacks forced to take an entirely different bus line, they were housed in remote corners of the camps, making it more difficult to leave. And he also knows when there is something unusual like what we would call a mass grave - like when bodies are extremely close together to the point of overlapping.". Browse 254 alexandria louisiana photos and images available, or search for albany georgia or jonesboro arkansas to find more great photos and pictures. We had The Knights of the White Camellia, The Ku-Klux Klan, and an Italian organization called The Innocents, who nightly paraded the streets of New Orleans and the roads in the country parishes, producing terror among the Republicans.. Some three whites and about 150 African-American fatalities occurred in the riot. D.S. He also assisted in the research for the markers text. (KALB) - The Alexandria Police Department is investigating four homicides that occurred in Jan. 2021. Holt said they have been successful at finding old slave cemeteries in which there was a systematic burial of bodies closetogether. "There's no guarantee. The Louisiana Democrat. "I don't know how I got to safety after the riot," a black trainee at Camp Claiborne recalled. Lee Street would never again be the same kind of bustling commercial corridor it had been. Source: Photo by Wikimedia Commons user Billy Hathorn used under CC BY-SA 3.0. Alexandria | Louisiana Travel While the federal government prepared young men to fight across both the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, for many Black soldiers, hell began as soon as they wandered off-base. The Colfax Massacre has been known as the "Colfax Race Riot" or the "Easter Sunday Massacre.". Original content. The violent crime rate in Alexandria, Louisiana, of 968 incidents per 100,000 people is among the highest in the United States. "I believe my basic thesis has been accepted conclusively by others. The White League's Violent Insurrection in Louisiana Was Almost a Dr. Bristol is a history professor at the University of Southern Mississippi and says it appears the violence started when a black soldier stepped in front of a car driven by a white woman. On the first night, only one small group of armed African-Americans assembled to deal with the report theyd heard about Bentley. Lorraine Boissoneault The victims of the Texas school shooting in Uvalde - Los Angeles Times Cenla Historian Michael Wynne tells KALB he and many others believe a number of African American soldiers were killed that night and buried in a mass grave thats now home to Holly Oak Cemetery. "And our city hasn't always been so enlightened.". allegedly fired his gun at a Black soldier leaving the Ritz Theater, attempting to arrest the man for disorderly conduct. The bodies were removed, and taken to the site of an old mine, where the executioners did their best to hide the identities of the corpses. With the help of tens of thousands of black citizens who finally had the right to vote, Republicans handily won local and state elections that spring. Lee Street was the center of Alexandrias black community in 1942. Simpson estimates that between 10 to 15 Black soldiers were killed, a number that is supported by the accounts of several notable witnesses. If any spots of interest are found, officials will then go through the process of digging up the site. Rumors spread, and soon many Republicans were convinced Bentley had been killed, though he managed to escape with his life. "Aside from the civilians and soldiers enjoying that night, were dozens of military police from the local camps, both Black and white, with the white MPs being the only ones fully armed to handle any trouble caused by the soldiers on Lee," he said. Lee Street 1942 incident mass grave: Radar search of cemetery launched The bloodshed continued for two weeks, with African-American families killed in their homes, shot in public, and chased down by vigilante groups. The summer of 1868 was a tumultuous one. 150 Years Ago, the Colfax Massacre Was the Largest Single Attack on When they did start reporting the next week, they could only give the information that the Army gave them.". She is also the author of The Last Voyageurs: Retracing La Salle's Journey Across America. Before launching the Bayou Brief, he published CenLamar, a popular blog that initially covered the drama of City Hall in his hometown of Alexandria. Black sugar cane workers, determined to unionize for a living wage, chose to combine their minimal power during the crucial harvest season. Okla., massacre that were recently exhumed from a mass grave at Oaklawn Cemetery. Heart of Louisiana: Alexandria's Lee St. riot - KSLA 21 lives lost: Uvalde victims were a cross-section of a small, mostly Latino town in South Texas. Louisiana Haunted Houses - Your Guide to Halloween in Louisiana "You had thousands of soldiers in town on liberty weekend," said Simpson. The Thibodaux Massacre Left 60 African-Americans Dead and Spelled the End of Unionized Farm Labor in the South for Decades. Three white men also died during the . St. Back on January 10, 1942, a riot occurred on Lee Street in Alexandria. And according to ananonymous letter, their bodies were buried in a mass grave at Holly Oak Cemetery in Pineville. Colfax Massacre | Red River Historian 2017-2021 Bayou Brief. Today, Lee Street is a pastiche of empty lots and neglected buildings, with very few prospects for revitalization. All rights reserved. In 1940, 8,000 construction workers began moving into Central Louisiana, building the entire place in less than a year. He knows what human remains look like. We are trying to find the mass grave of these black soldiers. The Louisiana History Museum is not just dedicated to Alexandria but to all of Louisiana's history. Headlines - KLAX-TV As one scholar noted, Blacks lived so far away from the main facilities it seemed to have no physical connection at all with the camp itself. Copyright 2020 KALB. He has appeared as a guest on CNN, MSNBC, and the BBC, and he's been the subject of profiles in The Washington Post, The Advocate, and Huffington Post. Weeks after the massacre, a Franklin, Louisiana, newspaper victoriously declared, "The negroes in St. Landry are, for the first time since the war, polite and well disposed, and work well." 8 New Orleans Republican, "The St. Landry Massacre," October 12, 1868, reprinting editorials from The Franklin Banner, October 10, 1868. Durand, the other editor of the St. Landry Progress, was murdered in the early days of the massacre and his body displayed outside the Opelousas drug store. No one stayed long. The majority of the Black soldiers who were present were from Michigan and Indiana, a detail that the Town Talk emphasized several times in a brazen attempt to assign blame to outside agitators and to deflect the citys own culpability. The Alexandria, Louisiana, Lee Street Riot (January 10, 1942). The entrance to the Forgotten City is marked by a road sign at the intersection of Louisiana Highways 165 and 112, sixteen miles south of Alexandria. Opelousas, Louisiana - Equal Justice Initiative Reports They forced him to sign a retraction of the article, and then Dickson savagely beat Bentley, sending the children who were sitting for lessons scattering in terror. Address: 3601 Bayou Rapides Road, Alexandria, LA 71303, United States. Published: Feb. 1, 2021 at 4:36 PM PST. The first violent contest over the Grant Parish courthouse took place April 1, 1873. But this was still the Deep South during the Jim Crow Era. Then, after his article was published in 1994in "Louisiana History,"a publication of the Louisiana Historical Association, he received an anonymousletter about a mass grave. It is the principal city of the Alexandria metropolitan area (population 153,922) which encompasses all of Rapides and Grant parishes. Register or Buy Tickets, Price information. But on April 13, 1873, a small army of white ex-Confederate soldiers, enraged after attempts by freedmen to assert their new rights . The untold story of the slaying of a Southern town's ex-slaves and a white lawyer's historic battle to bring the perpretators to justice Following the Civil War, Colfax, Louisiana, was a town, like many, where African Americans and whites mingled uneasily. It was where Solomon Northup spent ten of his twelve years in captivity. Simpson relates what he had been told by those he interviewed. "Once I started research, the official records from the Army indicated that yes, there was a riot but there were no soldiers killed," said Simpson. As we all adjust to the world reshaped by a global pandemic, we cannot afford to lose our storytellers and muckrakers; their jobs now are both more in need than any time in the past half-century and yet also more endangered by a rattled economy than ever before. 1 day on Zillow. LAWSON REALTY, LLC. Only weeks earlier the Japanese attack upon Pearl Harbor had It was a loss, though, and whatever grand plans there may have once been for the area have not yet materialized. The story of the Lee Street Riot had been passed down orally through the years since 1942. Holt and his team foundareas at Holly Oak Cemetery that they deemed to beworthy of further research. In September 1868, a dispute over a column published in an Opelousas, Louisiana partisan newspaper provoked one of the bloodiest incidents of racial violence in the . Perhaps not surprisingly, it was also home to more landholders. He never heard of the Lee Street Riot until Compton told him about it. On March 1941 it was activated at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana located in central Louisiana outside of the city of Alexandria. "The Army continued to insist that withall of the fighting that went on, there were no fatalities," said Simpson. The Opelousas massacre also set the stage for future acts of violence and intimidation. Opinion | Colfax, La., faces a long-overdue reckoning with historical The Caucasian of Alexandria, Louisiana, was founded in April 1874, one year after the infamous Colfax Massacre (or Colfax Riot) in neighboring Grant Parish, a political conflict that resulted in the death of as many as 150 African Americans.Bearing the motto "Truth Crushed to Earth Will Rise Again," the Caucasian reported on the prosecution of the massacre's white participants . Displeased with the way Bentley had portrayed the Democrats, Democrats John Williams, James R. Dickson (who later became a local judge), and constable Sebastian May visited Bentleys schoolhouse to make good on the anonymous threats of the earlier September note. "Thanksgiving and Christmas. And others who were wounded hid under houses where they died. Basketball legend Rivers, longtime Globetrotter, dies at 73, Public Inspection File - [email protected] - (318) 483-4211. As a small number of African-Americans prepared to rescue Bentley, word spread around the parish that a black rebellion was imminent. The Day Freedom Died: The Colfax Massacre, the Supreme Court, and the Everyone should be reminded that in 1942 the famed Louisiana Maneuvers was happening all around central Louisiana, Wynne told those at the briefing. The Colfax Riot - The Atlantic By the end of the two weeks, estimates of the number killed were around 250 people, the vast majority of them African-American. An anonymous letter about a violent incident nearly 80years ago in Alexandriais the impetus for a renewed effort to discover what happened during and after an incidentonLee Street in 1942. "They fought back with - whatever - bricks, rocks, bottles. They were met by an armed group of white men, mounted on horses, outside Opelousas. "And the theory behind this is, those larger areas area place where several people could have been buried at once. This begs the question - was it a riot or a . Heart of Louisiana: Alexandrias Lee St. riot, Skull fragment found in Lake Pontchartrain identified as prehistoric indigenous remains, Jazz Fest day 2 features Ed Sheeran, The Revivalists, How family support keeps Vaucresson Sausage at Jazz Fest, Alfred Banks prepares to take the Congo Square stage with glblwrmng, Bayou Wear official outfits of Jazz Fest 2023. So, they could be looking for small targets at that point andit could become problematic. Down Home Louisiana. The quick and easy way to find all the exciting Halloween attractions in the Louisiana area for 2023! Alexandria was burned to the ground by the Union, and emancipation upturned the regions economy, which had been largely dependent on slave labor and the slave trade. In 1940, Alexandria had a population of more than 27,000 people, and although nearly half were African American, there were only 17 Black registered voters in the entire city. About The Caucasian. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1874-1875 Reconstruction shortly gave way to an era of resentment and retribution, stunting growth and ensuring wealth remained concentrated in the hands of a small handful of White families. "Our city in recent years has often been considered by many around the state as one of the most enlightened cities of our state," said Wynne. Get the latest History stories in your inbox? IN THIS UNPRECEDENTED TIME, YOUR SUPPORT IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER, James Carvilles Stirring Tribute to Louisiana Gov. The 5th Army Headquarters at Camp Beauregard refused to allow the press to interview any of the soldiers or MPs who were involved, said Simpson. The signalis then returned andstudied to see how it has been altered. The Alexandria police department was the first to arrive. For several hours, the experts took photos using the device, flagging any spots of interest for future reference. Alexandria is the ninth-largest city in the state of Louisiana and is the parish seat of Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. On June 14, 2017, a gunman walked onto a baseball field at Eugene Simpson Park in Alexandria, Virginia, opening fire on politicians and wounding House GOP Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana and four . Two days after their daughter, Alexandria "Lexi" Aniyah Rubio, was shot and killed in Uvalde, Texas, Kimberly Rubio and her husband are urging elected officials to pass . After that incident that had happened on Lee St. they didnt see any of their soldier friends anymore, says Rhodes. C.E. In the 55 years between Reconstruction and the Second World War, time may have moved, but in Central Louisiana, almost everything else remained still. Camp Claiborne, like many things in Louisiana, is buried above ground. Privacy Statement Alexandria, La. Depending on whom you ask, before it was effectively abandoned in 1946, it had either been Louisianas third or fourth-most populated city, though it wasnt ever a real city. As legend has it, someone got the bright (and likely drunken) idea to hijack a tank and drive it into town. Hopefully, the full truth of what actually happened on that never-to-be-forgotten night will come out one day, he said. Marker is on Lee Street north of 9th Street, on the right when traveling north. The Terrifying Story of the Congressional Baseball Shooting "Local Black citizens, the local chapter of the NAACP, and others, they were convinced from the get-go that more happened than what the Army was saying," he said. The soldiers were all unarmed; the military police and state troopers, however, had an arsenal at their disposal. The central part of the state was the site of Louisiana maneuvers, the largest ever training exercise for the U.S. military. It features over 500 exotic animals belonging to diverse species. Williams filed a report alleging the riot had been premeditated and that there were vastly more fatalities than the zero the military had claimed. This is where the violence began. Legal Advocate. About The Caucasian (Alexandria, La.) . This was the clearest opportunity yet to take him down. Hell begins after you leave camp in the South to travel, a Black veteran told Elbert J. Harris in 1948. ", "Alexandria and its people have changed drastically over 80 years," said Wynne. Today he lives in New Orleans and is currently writing a book about the life of reputed New Orleans Mafia boss Carlos Marcello. THE INVESTIGATORS: Man who confessed to streamed killing on - WAFB "I only know one thing and that is, whenever anybody says, 'Remember Pearl Harbor,' I will say, 'I will remember Lee Street.'". With the approach of the presidential elections in November, the tension only increased. Secret Democratic organizations were formed, and all armed. What happened that night? March Massacre At Pepper Lounge, 160 Fox Fire Ln, Alexandria, November I didnt set into this to make the army look bad, says Dr. Bill Simpson. The Caucasian of Alexandria, Louisiana, was founded in April 1874, one year after the infamous Colfax Massacre (or Colfax Riot) in neighboring Grant Parish, a political conflict that resulted in the death of as many as 150 African Americans.Bearing the motto "Truth Crushed to Earth Will Rise Again," the Caucasian reported on the prosecution . It did happen. Were looking at these signals here, says Dr. David Holt. "Getting them out and putting them on the freight trains," he said. Despite the scores of contradictory eyewitness accounts and widespread rumors that morticians and funeral parlors with government contracts had been called to work throughout the late night and early morning, the Town Talk reported the official line: Zero deaths, 28 injured, including a White state trooper who suffered a badly injured hand in wielding a flashlight over the head of a negro.. Camp Claiborne Louisiana WWII Army Camp - Alexandria Louisiana Photograph of Alexandria police by Win McNamee/Getty Images. For 78 years now, this incident has been mostly covered up or talked about in hush tones. History endures in Pineville's stock of intact 19th century homes and 18th century cemeteries. In January, Woods wrote to Louisiana Economic Development (LED), the state agency responsible for historical markers, telling them of his family connection to the massacre and urging the sign's . "We'll still go there every Memorial Day and have a memorial for those soldiers," he said. After Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation freed those enslaved in Confederate-occupied territory in 1863, the US Army conducted a ten-day raid up the Red River to Alexandria, where the Confederate governor of Louisiana, Thomas Moore, owned a large plantation.

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