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The Lafourche Parish Council will officially recognize the mass murder of striking sugar cane workers and their supporters Tuesday, continuing to lift the veil of silence that has hidden that history for the past 130 years.
Historians estimate that between 30 and 60 black men and women were killed on the streets of Thibodaux and many more wounded during a 2 ½ hour shooting spree carried out by white citizens led by a parish judge and the lieutenant governor of Louisiana at the time, Clay Knobloch.
The violence was sparked by a month-long strike of workers who flocked to Thibodaux after they were evicted from plantation housing in Terrebonne and Lafourche by the Louisiana State Militia.
Councilman Jerry Jones sponsored the proclamation, a copy of which will be presented to Sylvester Jackson of Thibodaux, great grandson of massacre survivor Jack Conrad. Conrad’s account of witnessing deaths and himself being wounded were discovered in the U.S. National Archives jut two years ago.
The Times’ senior staff writer, John DeSantis, wrote The Thibodaux Massacre: Racial Violence and the 1887 Sugar Cane Labor Strike (History Press, Charleston, SC) and performed the research that uncovered the accounts. With the help of Clifton Theriot, archivist of the Ellender Memorial Library at Nicholls State University, the names of eight victims were located in a file there, further aiding a detailed telling of the story and identification of descendants.
“By acknowledging the past, Lafourche Parish is paving a bright future,” DeSantis said. “The Thibodaux Massacre is no longer hidden history, and I believe the spirits of victims and victimizers from this tragic incident that occurred 130 years ago are aided by this act of reconciliation. As many communities in our nation remain divided over their racially-charged histories, Lafourche appears to be taking a giant step in the name of healing, and setting a shining example.”
DeSantis founded a non-profit, the Louisiana 1887 Memorial Committee, which is raising money to have exploration done on land where massacre victims are believed to have been dumped into a mass grave.
The Public Archeology Lab at University of Louisiana Lafayette has committed to that work. Their project is detailed at a website, www.la1887.com.
In September the City of Thibodaux took a similar action. Mayor Tommy Eschete issued a proclamation acknowledging the massacre.
With Tuesday’s proclamation, the entire parish along with the city will observe a moment of silence at Noon on Nov. 23, which this year is also Thanksgiving Day.
