Wynne says there is rumored to be anywhere from 20 to 300 bodies. The Caucasian (Alexandria, La.) 1874-1875 | Library of Congress History endures in Pineville's stock of intact 19th century homes and 18th century cemeteries. alexandria, louisiana massacre - sinfinconstruction.be Editors of Democratic newspapers repeatedly warned of dire consequences if the Republican party continued winning victories at the polls. It is the story of a violent incident that at the time was referred to as the Lee Street Riot. Louisiana History Museum. Dr. Simpson is a retired professor from Pineville who began researching the incident 25 years ago. And just as theyd been ordered to stay away from Glenmora, Black soldiers were told that Alexandria was also now off-limits.. "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.". All rights reserved. He was hit in the left hip but . ", "Alexandria and its people have changed drastically over 80 years," said Wynne. On March 1941 it was activated at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana located in central Louisiana outside of the city of Alexandria. (60 of the 90 men who responded were military police officers who had been stationed at nearby training camps). 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. So, we've got a relatively small window for burial time .. if this cemetery was used.". The town makes most of its annual revenue by doling out speeding tickets, under the regime of Police Chief James Speedy Gonzales. Founded in 1926, this zoo is one of Alexandria's prime tourist attractions. 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? Just days before the academic year was supposed to end and summer break was to start, teachers and students at Robb Elementary were attacked in their own school. "Getting them out of here. Some historians believe there was a cover-up by the United States military and researchers are hunting for a possible mass grave. City Erects Marker Recognizing Lee Street Riot of 1942 If there is a site here, it's primarily in the cleared area. Today819 Lee St. is just a vacant lot in downtown Alexandria, but back in 1942it was the site the former Ritz Theater, where the trouble began. Of those men, 29 were taken to the local prison, and 27 of them were summarily executed. It was far easier for White soldiers to enjoy Liberty Weekends than it was for Black soldiers. "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. Website: http://www.lboissoneault.com/, 2023 Smithsonian Magazine The Opelousas massacre also set the stage for future acts of violence and intimidation. 5716 Skye St, Alexandria, LA 71303. But their error pales in comparison to the governments. On the first night, only one small group of armed African-Americans assembled to deal with the report theyd heard about Bentley. "Others say a massacre occurred in a matter that reportedly lasted between 2 and 6 hours. (KALB) - The Alexandria Police Department is investigating four homicides that occurred in Jan. 2021. They used to go to the movies, go to dinner with the soldiers that came into town, says Linda Rhodes. Lee Street Riot of 1942 Historical Marker - hmdb.org The vigilante groups were so widespread that they often included nearly every white man in the region. For nearly two hours, 90 White officers were called to respond, and according to witnesses, including a handful of local police and state troopers, some of those 90 men attempted to quell the unrest by shooting indiscriminately at Black soldiers and civilians- men, women, and teenage children. Avery Hamilton told a crowd gathered for the monumentsdedication ceremony last week, in the small community about 120 miles southeast of Shreveport, Louisiana. Southerners were known as gracious hosts, after all. In erecting the marker, Wynne said the citizens of Alexandria are committing to becoming better people and telling"our children and our children's children of this tragedy., "It has been a long road to get to this point," said Wynne. "And I was convinced that that was not the case.". 27th May 2023 Events in Alexandria, Louisiana Something happened that night. 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. Henry Clay Warmoth, a Republican, won the race for state governor, but the votes African-Americans cast for those elections cost them. Today, it exists only on a website Lavergnes company, Kinetix, built for the organization that had commissioned the mural. "The . 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 . When he was interviewed for the video, he was attending a Memorial Day service held by the Buffalo Soldiers Motorcycle Club to honor the soldiers killed in that incident. This was the clearest opportunity yet to take him down. "And subsequently, other significant, different places where the bodies might have been disposed of," said Simpson. But to actually excavate remains - first, of all, you need court orders to do that for an exhumation.". It lies on the south bank of the Red River in almost the exact geographic center of the state. "The thesis in my article, essentially was that the Army's official report was a distortion of what actually happened," said Simpson. Alexandria "Lexi" Aniyah Rubio . The story of the incident that unfoldedJan. 10, 1942on Lee Street begins during the World War II era. 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. Alexandria, LA (04/10/2023) The Alexandria Police Department (APD) is investigating a traffic collision that occurred last night involving an off-road. Many historians, such as James G. Hollandsworth, George C. Rable, and Gilles Vandal have examined the causes and events of the New Orleans Massacre, but few scholars have attempted to uncover how large-scale political "Dr. Holt is just aincredible expert on ground penetrating radar," said Wynne. "I believe my basic thesis has been accepted conclusively by others. The University of Southern Mississippi The Aquila Digital Community He found the message in early September 1868, illustrated with a coffin, a skull and bones, and a dagger dripping with blood. (There were subsequent reports the soldier had been accused of assaulting a White woman, though those reports seem to be based on pure speculation. According to the Jan. 24, 1942 edition of The Afro American Newspaper, the incident began in The Ritz Movie Theater when a whitemilitary police officer beat aBlacksoldier. The Thibodaux Massacre Left 60 African-Americans Dead and Spelled the End of Unionized Farm Labor in the South for Decades. Alexandria, LA Map & Directions - MapQuest In central Louisiana, residents and guests enjoy a treasured, peaceful lifestyle. It is the principal city of the Alexandria metropolitan area (population 153,922) which encompasses all of Rapides and Grant parishes. 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. The number of soldiersand possibly civilianskilled is unknown. alexandria, louisiana massacre - nodelivery.fun "You had thousands of soldiers in town on liberty weekend," said Simpson. March Massacre At Pepper Lounge Hosted By ALICIA LOPEZ. 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. "I hadn't heard about it before Mrs. Compton turned it over to us," said Clifton Jackson of the Buffalo Motorcycle Club in a 2016 Town Talk article. Alexandria, La. If anything, the vengeance visited upon the Negro population was greater, as blacks were no longer protected by any consideration of their monetary value.. Photo: Flickr. After doing research, Wynne knew they were going to need a ground penetrating radar device to discover whether a mass grave could existat the cemetery. The places we choose to forget often contain stories we would rather not tell. He collected oral histories of people who dispute the militarys account that only three soldiers were seriously injured. ALEXANDRIA, La. With echoes of the bondage Read MoreThe Thibodaux Massacre (November 23, 1887) We may never know the full and complete story of what transpired on Lee Street. The Colfax Riot - The Atlantic However, in recent years, the commemoration has featured a temporary sign with an incorrect date (off by two full years) and the assertion that 200 people had been killed, a number so wildly exaggerated that it undermines the credibility of scholars and journalists who have spent decades working to reveal the historical truth. Golden Shield. The first violent contest over the Grant Parish courthouse took place April 1, 1873. Mystery of the 364th. Historians are searching for a long-buried secret. The Alexandria, Louisiana, Lee Street Riot (January 10, 1942).". Wynne tells KALB he and the researchers will do everything they can to uncover the truth about what he calls the massacre., African American soldiers from Camps Livingston, Clayborn and Beauregard were there on a Saturday night to enjoy themselves. Because he had recently moved to Louisiana,he had not but the conversation spurred his interest in the subject. Alexandria LA Real Estate & Homes For Sale. A memorial to the three white men who died during the Colfax Massacre stands in the town cemetery Thursday, April 13, 2023, in Colfax, La. How two men are helping shed light on Colfax's deadly past | News The most plausible would be maybe 20 to 30 soldiers would be killed that could conceivably, I thought, be concealed, says Dr. Simpson. Streets, buildings, cemeteries, and the land itself are saturated with history and the . They paved miles and miles of new roads, installed underground sewerage systems, and laid gas and electricity lines. 1874-1875. The victims of the Texas school shooting in Uvalde - Los Angeles Times But most stories are consistent with saying it initially began withaBlack soldier and a white military police officeror two MPs at The Ritz Theater, which was located near the corner of Lee and 8th Streets in downtown Alexandria. Lake Buhlow in Pineville features high-speed motorboat racing, and the Alexandria Riverfront Center hosts statewide conventions and galas. Marker acknowledges tragic night in Alexandria's history So it just became this rampage through the Lee St. area, says Dr. Bristol. We're now more of an enlightened people but the light of justice must always be vigilantly maintained.". With the approach of the presidential elections in November, the tension only increased. 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. Touch for map. Property values skyrocketed as a result. 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 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 . As legend has it, someone got the bright (and likely drunken) idea to hijack a tank and drive it into town. The anonymous letter was sent to William M. Simpson, former Louisiana College history professor and author ofA Tale Untold? alexandria, louisiana massacrebissap pour nettoyer l'uterus. Cookie Settings, War, Politics, and Reconstruction: Stormy Days in Louisiana, The Roots of Rough Justice: Origins of American Lynching, Five Places Where You Can Still Find Gold in the United States, Scientists Taught Pet Parrots to Video Call Each Otherand the Birds Loved It, Balto's DNA Provides a New Look at the Intrepid Sled Dog, The Science of California's 'Super Bloom,' Visible From Space, What We're Still Learning About Rosalind Franklins Unheralded Brilliance. Camp Claiborne Louisiana WWII Army Camp - Alexandria Louisiana The Bombardment of Alexandria in Egypt by the British Mediterranean Fleet took place on 11-13 July 1882. . Speakers at . By about 11 o'clock, the fighting was over.". "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. the company that made the rifle used in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, . . But the soldiers, both Black and white, would frequent Alexandria during their off-duty hours. The violent crime rate in Alexandria, Louisiana, of 968 incidents per 100,000 people is among the highest in the United States. He is the founder and publisher of the Bayou Brief and a contributing writer for the Daily Beast. Perhaps not surprisingly, it was also home to more landholders. Crittle was 16 years- old in 1942. The Family of Lexi Rubio, Uvalde Shooting Victim, Pleads for Action Address: 3601 Bayou Rapides Road, Alexandria, LA 71303, United States. About The Caucasian. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1874-1875 March Massacre At Pepper Lounge. "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. The straightforward message represented a menacing threat to Bentley, who was teaching African-American children in Louisiana at the time. Here's a list of the best things to do in Alexandria, Louisiana: Encounter Exotic Animals at the Alexandria Zoological Park Billy Hathorn at en.Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. 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.. All rights reserved. The Colfax Massacre has been known as the "Colfax Race Riot" or the "Easter Sunday Massacre.". While there is now no question whatsoever that black soldiers from Camp Claiborne were among the primary victims of what was quickly dubbed the Lee Street Riot, Col. Ralph Holiday, a commander at the camp, had initially claimed that none of our boys participated in the unfortunate outbreak. It was a part of a pattern of denials, obfuscation, and brazen lies that would be repeated countless times by the militarys brass, one that the pliant and obsequious local paper, the Alexandria Daily Town Talk, was more than willing to report as fact. 2023 www.thetowntalk.com. The Alexandria, Louisiana Lee Street Riot, it generated renewed (albeit temporary) local interest in the subject. The population was 1,659 at the 2000 census. Tyson, a former reporter for The Town Talk, also interviewed Alexandria residents for an article published in 2000. And then, according to this witness, once that happened, he says, quote, 'All hell broke loose.'". The Alexandria, Louisiana, Lee Street Riot (January 10, 1942) By WILLIAM M. SIMPSON' January 1942 brought Alexandrians, as it did most persons across the United States, bleak prospects for a happy new year. Murders of Czar Nicholas II of Russia and His Family - ThoughtCo D.S. "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. 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 . 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. When they did start reporting the next week, they could only give the information that the Army gave them.". March Massacre At Pepper Lounge, 160 Fox Fire Ln, Alexandria, November So, it led to conflicts anywhere they were positioned in the South, says Dr. Doug Bristol. 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. 9. Colfax Massacre descendants set out to correct historical account By 5 June, six more warships had entered Alexandria harbour . The Civil War altered Rapides Parish forever. Where are they buried? asks Michael Wynne. He didn't witness the incident but heard about it and the aftermath. Your Privacy Rights Headlines - KLAX-TV 150 Years Ago, the Colfax Massacre Was the Largest Single Attack on "Getting them out and putting them on the freight trains," he said. 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. A fracas broke out and a mob gathered. Alexandria is a city in and the parish seat of Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. ALEXANDRIA, La. Simpson estimates that between 10 to 15 Black soldiers were killed, a number that is supported by the accounts of several notable witnesses. Colfax was the scene of the Colfax massacre on Easter, April 13, 1873. May 26, 2022. Those who oversaw the election felt fully convinced that no man on that day could have voted any other than the democratic ticket and not been killed inside of 24 hours thereafter.. The 9News Investigators have learned the man accused of gruesomely killing a woman and streaming the violent encounter on Facebook Live was released from prison just weeks before the attack. Twenty-five years after his article was published, Simpson said he and the community can take satisfaction that the tale of the violent incident that occurred on Lee Street in 1942is no longer a tale untold. how to store unopened contact lenses pacifica high school basketball oxnard pacifica high school basketball oxnard Were looking at these signals here, says Dr. David Holt. Under the Freedom of Information Act, he was able to obtain written material about this incident from the U.S. government. There were few places in the country that would have looked the other way like Alexandria had in the aftermath of the night of Saturday, Jan. 10th, 1942, when a white military police officer incited a riot that allegedly resulted in at least 10 and as many as 15 Black soldiers killed and dozens more injured outside of a movie theater in the middle of downtown, on a street named in honor of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. Back on January 10, 1942, a riot occurred on Lee Street in Alexandria, where hundreds of soldiers may have died. Bombardment of Alexandria - Wikipedia 30 Best Things to Do in Alexandria, LA - Travel Lens Were very excited about it. The Uvalde school shooting victims: What we know | The Texas Tribune . The Alexandria, Louisiana Lee Street Riot," it generated renewed (albeit temporary) local interest in the subject. The story of the Lee Street Riot had been passed down orally through the years since 1942. She has previously written for The Atlantic, Salon, Nautilus and others. He hopes that schools will have field trips to the site and have someone such as one of the members of the Buffalo Soldierstalk to students about about what happened. After delays due to Hurricanes Laura and Delta, Bristol, Holt, Ian Stewart, a USM graduate student, and Hayden Malloch, an Auburn University graduate student, came to Pineville in late October tosurvey 10 spots at the cemetery that Wynneidentified beforethe team's arrival. They sent Ralph Williams, an award-winning correspondent, to Central Louisiana. I simply wanted to find the truth.. Iles and Berry were certain that lives were lost; it was impossible to reach any other conclusion after observing the carnage. The shiny new black marble monument dedicated to the victims of the Colfax Massacre sits next to the railroad tracks on Eighth Street, not far from where the atrocity took place on April 13, 1873. Get the latest History stories in your inbox? The people generally are well satisfied with the result of the St. Landry riot, only they regret that the Carpet-Baggers escaped, wrote Daniel Dennet, editor of the Democratic Franklin Planters Banner. The contradiction between the official report and oral history is what kept Simpson interested. ", William M. Simpson, former Louisiana College professor and author of "A Tale Untold? 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. Simpson said he interviewed scores of peopleincluding former policemen, former state troopers and civilians. Twitter New Orleans fell to the US Army early, in April 1862. (Berry was introduced to the bar by another well-known legal giant, Camille Gravel, and today, the citys municipal court building is named in honor of both men). But on April 13, 1873, a small army of white ex-Confederate soldiers, enraged after attempts by freedmen to assert their new rights . Sort: Homes for You. This begs the question - was it a riot or a . They were apprehended before they got anywhere, and the army ordered the units swift transfer to a camp in Texas the very next day. He then came across Dr. Douglas Bristol, a professor of history and co-director of the University of Southern MississippiCenter for the Study of the Gulf South, who wrote about the 1942 incident in his book, Integrating the U.S. Military.. Expert researchers and historians spent Tuesday at Holly Oak Cemetery in Pineville, searching for a rumored mass gravesite. Lee Street Riot: Experts look at rumored mass grave site at Holly Oak Cemetery in Pineville. : "About 7 o'clock, a disorderly Black soldier was arrested by two white MPs - attempted arrest. In 1940, 8,000 construction workers began moving into Central Louisiana, building the entire place in less than a year. The bloodshed continued for two weeks, with African-American families killed in their homes, shot in public, and chased down by vigilante groups. 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. He and others came to the region to assist recently emancipated African-Americans find jobs, access education and become politically active. ", "From my understanding, what we're looking for are the areas of the cemetery that have not been 'used'," explained Holt. For a few hours, the team walked through the cemetery with the ground penetrating radar, flaggingareas of interest to uncover answers to the mystery detailed in the letter. Black soldiers were stationed at Camp Claiborne while white soldiers were stationed at Camp Livingston and Camp Beauregard. | The signalis then returned andstudied to see how it has been altered. It was Saturday, January 10, 1942, a little over a month after Pearl . The city had to budget about $100,000 for the . There were restaurants and barbershops and laundromats. Three of them critically.". On September 13, the Republicans held a meeting in the town of Washington, not far from Opelousas, and found streets lined with armed Seymour Knights. Copyright 2020 KALB. They wrote letters and sent appeals to the War Department and Henry Stimson who was the Secretary of War for an independent investigation to be conducted but were largely ignored. The number of soldiersand possibly civilianskilled is unknown. . A significant historical date for this entry is January 10, 1942. There is one bit of folklore that continues to persist: the story of what a small group of Black soldiers had attempted to do once they returned to base. Wynne has taken photos of all the potential sites Holt marked. "He knows what graveyards look like. Among others, Simpson spoke with David Iles, the longtime principal of Peabody High School who had been injured that night, and Louis Berry, a local civil rights pioneer and the first Black attorney admitted to the local bar association. The Alexandria Massacre of 11 June 1882 and the British Occupation of Egypt M. E. Chamberlain In the early aftemoon of Sunday, 11 June 1882, an Arab donkey boy, named El Ajjan, deposited his passenger, an unidentified Maltese,' at the cafe Kawat-el-Gezaz in the wide Rue des Soeurs in the European About The Caucasian (Alexandria, La.) The up and the over with. "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. Compton told Jacksonthat the state police were on rooftops and allegedly shot down on people. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) Only slightly better known is the 1873 Colfax massacre in which an estimated 60 to 150 people were killeda massacre largely following the pattern set by Opelousas. 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. A police office stands watch behind police tape near strewn softballs on a field in Alexandria, Va., Wednesday, June 14, 2017, after a multiple shooting involving House Majority Whip Steve Scalise . $170,000. Back on January 10, 1942, a riot occurred on Lee Street in Alexandria. "And then I'm going to let the holidays pass," he said. "First, the legality. What we know about the victims of the Uvalde school shooting He also assisted in the research for the markers text. But on April 13, 1873, a small army of white ex-Confederate soldiers, enraged after attempts by freedmen to assert their new rights . Tess was a fourth-grade student at Robb Elementary School. The police and the military as well as the military police cornered off an eight block area for hours, says Wynne.
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