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A dose of justice and honor was delivered in Thibodaux last Tuesday, 130 years after the fact.
Thibodaux Mayor Tommy Eschete and the Thibodaux City Council officially condemned the Thibodaux Massacre, a 1887 shooting spree where white vigilantes killed an estimated 30 to 60 black people during a strike by sugar cane workers. The council’s proclamation declares Nov. 23 as a day of commemoration of the massacre and encourages a moment of silence at noon on that day.
Thibodaux residents and descendants of the known victims of the massacre packed the council’s meeting room to hear Eschete read the proclamation. Tuesday’s announcement was the first acknowledgement of the massacre by any local or state government. Many details of the atrocity, lost in local generational memory by families both black and white, were brought to light by Times Senior Staff Writer John DeSantis’s 2016 book “The Thibodaux Massacre: Racial Violence and the 1887 Sugar Cane Labor Strike.”
On hand to accept the proclomation was Sylvester Jackson, a Thibodaux resident and great-grandson of Jack Conrad, a United States Army veteran who was wounded in and lost his son, Grant, to the massacre. Conrad’s personal recollections of the rout provided new information via firsthand accounts of the massacre’s vicious nature. Jackson thanked Eschete and the council for remembering the victims of that day, something he stressed would continue in the wider community.
“I know we cannot bring these fallen heroes back, but we must, and do, recognize their heroic bravery on rebelling against unjust wages,” Jackson said.
In the proclamation, Eschete describes that day’s violence as extrajudicial and extralegal and contrary to the laws of Louisiana, noting the regulators who committed the shooting spree were never held accountable. He said the incident has contributed to racial misunderstanding and mistrust still existing in the present, which he hopes the condemnation and discussion about the massacre will help alleviate.
“We furthermore support and encourage reconciliation and dialogue between all family histories touched by the violence all that day and continued efforts to explore this history in order to facilitate justice and reconciliation,” Eschete said.
Thibodaux City Council Member Constance Johnson thanked descendants of the victims and DeSantis for their contributions to both the book and to society in general. She said she was proud to represent the district where victims are believed to be buried.
“As the representative of that district, I look forward to going forth and to learning more and to just be a part of this historic moment,” Johnson said. “Finally, the stories that I heard starting in my teenage years from Mr. Gerald Peltier, and to know that we are now here in 2017, and because of a book that Mr. John DeSantis wrote and all the components we are now becoming more aware of, this history is now being told.”
The proclamation names the eight confirmed deaths from the massacre: Willis Wilson, Felix Pierre, Archie Jones, Frank Patterson, Grant Conrad, Marcelin Welden, Riley Anderson and Mahala Washington. Many more victims remain unidentified, however. DeSantis said some of the reconciliation Eschete called for is being accomplished in the next step of research and dialogue regarding the massacre: excavating what is believed to be a mass grave of the dead in Thibodaux. DeSantis said both black and white families, researchers and donors have teamed up to assist in the Louisiana 1887 Memorial Committee’s goal of searching the site, a lot located at the American Legion Hall on Gerald Peltier Drive, for remains and sending them for examination with the ultimate goal of giving them a proper burial. DeSantis said a team from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette has put together a budget for the project, saying research of the gravesite would cost $25,000.
The 1887 Committee is fundraising to pay for the ULL project, which DeSantis said has been a slow effort so far. He said the memorial committee is focusing on private donations and grants to pay for the project. The committee has received local support in a variety of forms, from a $5,000 donation from tugboat magnate Benny Cenac to a Nicholls State University mass communications class crafting the public relations strategy for the committee’s fundraising. Times Publisher Brian Rushing provided a highly-discounted hosting rate for the committee’s website, LA1887.org. DeSantis said the committee has refrained from asking local governments for money, thinking debate surrounding spending the money could only foster further division, far from the project’s intended purposes.
“The beauty of healing in this project is for people on all sides to come together on this. What are we seeking to do? We’re seeking to locate and bury the dead. And I don’t think that’s something anybody would deny,” DeSantis said.
Those wishing to get involved in the burial project can access the website, call 985-401-1887 or email DeSantis at desantis.john@gmail.com.
DeSantis said the push to receive an official proclamation from Thibodaux was an arduous one. He noted some council members did not recognize the importance of the issue, saying they were taught the massacre occurred in self-defense to ensure the safety of the city. However, the author said last week’s acknowledgement provides gives families with history in the massacre a better ability to cope with those events as well as gives researchers a clear reckoning from the city of just what was lost, and in the name of what, on that day in 1887.
“Because of this proclamation, whether it’s a college student writing a thesis next year or a historian looking into this 50 years from now, there is now history that occurred because 130 years after this occurred this atrocity was recognized and condemned,” DeSantis said. “We condemn atrocities in our society; that’s what we do. And that hasn’t happened until now.”
