alexandria, louisiana massacre

Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. The Thibodaux Massacre took place in Thibodaux, Louisiana on November 23, 1887. Find an obituary, get service details, leave condolence messages or send flowers or gifts in memory of a loved one. Wynne, who spoke about the incident at the briefing,said the markerwillhonor an undetermined number ofBlack soldiers who were killed or injured on Jan. 10, 1942 while on liberty weekend. So, we've got a relatively small window for burial time .. if this cemetery was used.". STAFF PHOTO BY LESLIE . Everyone should be reminded that in 1942 the famed Louisiana Maneuvers was happening all around central Louisiana, Wynne told those at the briefing. "We've been doing this for over 10 years," said Freeman. By 5 June, six more warships had entered Alexandria harbour . The Louisiana Democrat. "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. It is believed many of the black soldiers targeted in the Lee St. violence were stationed at Camp Claiborne. Compton told Jacksonthat the state police were on rooftops and allegedly shot down on people. Back on January 10, 1942, a riot occurred on Lee . Three of them critically.". Bentley, an 18-year-old who also worked as one of the editors of the Republican paper The St. Landry Progress, was one of the few white Republicans in the Louisiana parish of St. Landry. Camp Claiborne was situated in Rapides Parish about 18 miles south of Alexandria, off the intersection of US Highway 165 and present day La Highway 112, just north of the town of Forest Hill. For those familiar with my previous reporting about Louisiana College, I should note that Bill Simpson worked at LC before its credibility as an academic institution was effectively destroyed in the aftermath of a hostile takeover by a fringe group of disreputable, corrupt, and anti-intellectual bigots. And the empty lot was the site of the Ritz Theater. It is the principal city of the Alexandria metropolitan area (population 153,922) which encompasses all of Rapides and Grant parishes. ", William M. Simpson, former Louisiana College professor and author of "A Tale Untold? If anything, the vengeance visited upon the Negro population was greater, as blacks were no longer protected by any consideration of their monetary value.. It was a tradition she later passed on to the Buffalo Soldiers Motorcycle Club as she got older and couldn't do it anymore. "Businesses that included an Army YMCA-USO, six cafes and two grills, a drugstore with a soda shop, four pubs and bars, four grocery stores and a fruit store, three liquor stores, a bus station, a coffee shop, a boxing arena and a movie theater called The Ritz.". Williams filed a report alleging the riot had been premeditated and that there were vastly more fatalities than the zero the military had claimed. We need contributions from you, our readers, to ensure the Bayou Brief can continue its work. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. The violent crime rate in Alexandria, Louisiana, of 968 incidents per 100,000 people is among the highest in the United States. By the 14th of February, the 550-bed hospital had close to 900 patients. The Buffalo Soldiers Motorcycle Club held a memorial service in 2018 for those who died in the 1942 Lee Street Riots in Alexandria. We're now more of an enlightened people but the light of justice must always be vigilantly maintained.". "The . "Due to a preponderance of various interviews and testimony from many parties, including an extremely detailed letter from somebody who was there that night, many researchers believe that Holly Oak Cemetery is where African-American soldiers may have been buried in a mass grave," Wynne said. 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. About The Caucasian (Alexandria, La.) Perhaps a shot was fired. "And yet the testimony from the community - people who had been eyewitnesses and such - told an entirely different story - that there were a number of soldiers who were killed.". Colfax Memorial Organization Dedicates Memorial on 150th Anniversary of Colfax Massacre. The Caucasian. It was an ugly time. Its rumored they could be in Pinevilles Holly Oak Cemetery. 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. The central part of the state was the site of Louisiana maneuvers, the largest ever training exercise for the U.S. military. The team also went to Potters Field in Pineville to look at potential gravesites there. 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. Holt said they have been successful at finding old slave cemeteries in which there was a systematic burial of bodies closetogether. 2023 www.thetowntalk.com. C.E. In the wake of Simpsons scholarship, even the Town Talk had been forced to publicly acknowledge its own complicity in manufacturing what now was clearly revealed to be an egregious cover-up. The Bayou Brief is Louisianas only statewide, completely free, member-supported digitally-oriented publication. The Bombardment of Alexandria in Egypt by the British Mediterranean Fleet took place on 11-13 July 1882. . It lies on the south bank of the Red River in almost the exact geographic center of the state. There would be no Republican organization in the parish for the next four years, and no Republican paper until 1876. Erected by . The soldiers were all unarmed; the military police and state troopers, however, had an arsenal at their disposal. There were four major military training camps within fifty miles of Alexandria, and the influx of soldiers stretched the local police force thin. Where are they buried? asks Michael Wynne. Today, most of those soldiers and most of the civilians who witnessed the pandemonium are dead; records are missing or were destroyed. It is the principal city of the Alexandria metropolitan area (population 153,922) which encompasses all of Rapides and Grant parishes. Holly Oak Cemetery was established around 1923 and according to Mike Wynne, local historian, is the most historic Black cemetery in Central Louisiana. We believe and many, many people around the United States believe there was a massive cover-up. He found the message in early September 1868, illustrated with a coffin, a skull and bones, and a dagger dripping with blood. That Saturday night in 1942 was like any other, said Wynne. louisiana - alexandria louisiana stock illustrations. Get the latest History stories in your inbox? He and others came to the region to assist recently emancipated African-Americans find jobs, access education and become politically active. Colfax is part of the Alexandria, Louisiana Metropolitan Statistical Area. The Alexandria, Louisiana, Lee Street Riot (January 10, 1942). Alexandria "Lexi" Aniyah Rubio . 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. An estimated 62-153 Black militia men were murdered while surrendering to a mob of former Confederate soldiers and members of the Ku Klux Klan. PINEVILLE, La. If a dozen more black soldiers were massacred, its unknown where they are buried. He referred to the excavation of bodiesfrom the 1921 Tulsa, Okla., massacre that were recently exhumed from a mass grave at Oaklawn Cemetery. 31 18.408 N, 92 26.774 W. Marker. It was far easier for White soldiers to enjoy Liberty Weekends than it was for Black soldiers. Library of Congress. 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. We remember driving the abandoned roads of the camp and stopping to shoot BB guns into some of the abandoned warehouses during the late 1950s. The monument is a reminder of the power of memory and a sacrifice made by those who came before us and the ongoing struggle for a more just and equitable society, the Rev. 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 . We may never know the full and complete story of what transpired on Lee Street. April 13, 2023 Keisha Swafford 0 Comments. But Democratic papersthe only remaining sources of news in the region, as all Republican presses had been burneddownplayed the horrific violence. But to actually excavate remains - first, of all, you need court orders to do that for an exhumation.". Halloween is just around the corner, and if you're looking for some spooky fun then you've come to the right place. "There's no guarantee. In September 1868, Southern white Democrats hunted down around 200 African-Americans in an effort to suppress voter turnout. Terms of Use Every year on Memorial Day, the Alexandria chapter of the motorcycle club holds a memorial to remember the soldiers who died in the violent incident, saidKelvin Freeman, president of the Alexandria chapter. "And our city hasn't always been so enlightened.". To his enormous credit, Simpson was one of a small number of respected academics who fought, unsuccessfully, to save the school. Of those men, 29 were taken to the local prison, and 27 of them were summarily executed. : "About 7 o'clock, a disorderly Black soldier was arrested by two white MPs - attempted arrest. 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. "Maybe a GoFundMe or something like that. "It's a combination of two factors," he explained. Photograph of Alexandria police by Win McNamee/Getty Images. Louisiana was receiving national attention for the "race war" unfolding there with regular assassinations, massacres, and lynchings. Alexandria is the ninth-largest city in the state of Louisiana and is the parish seat of Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. It was an ugly scene. 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. The number of soldiersand possibly civilianskilled is unknown. 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. The temporary settlement, which had been home to a grand total more than 500,000 people over the course of its seven years, was a military training facility. Down Home Louisiana. "First, the legality. "It took months and months to get this arranged, but this is actually the easy part," said Wynne of getting Holt and his team here. The signalis then returned andstudied to see how it has been altered. Previous photo. Golden Apple. May 26, 2022. By most accounts, between 2,000 and 3,000 people, the overwhelming majority of whom were African American, had been present that night on Lee Street, and almost immediately after the first shot was fired, Black soldiers began protesting. Alexandria LA Real Estate & Homes For Sale. And after the first of the year, on the 79th anniversary of the Lee Street Riot, I'm going to begin anew and see what I can accomplish.". Three whites and an estimated 150 blacks died in the conflict. It features over 500 exotic animals belonging to diverse species. 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 .