Memorial Day events scheduled in New Iberia

Memorial Day events are scheduled today in New Iberia to commemorate men and women who died in service.

The Iberia Veteran’s Association Memorial Day event will be held at 6 p.m. at Bouligny Plaza.

The organization plans to present a traditional program that includes an invocation, advancement of the colors, Pledge of Allegiance, National Anthem, featured guest speakers, patriotic music, laying of a wreath in memory of those who have died, ringing of the bell, a three-volley salute, playing of Taps, benediction and retiring of the colors.

Also today from 4-5:30 p.m. at the Sliman Theater, the Iberia African American Historical Society will present an educational talk on the history of the black veterans of Iberia Parish from the Civil War to the end of the Vietnam War. The talk is co-sponsored by local veterans groups and a local Boy Scout troop, who recently helped clean black veterans’ graves and place flags on them Sunday at four cemeteries “On The Hill” in New Iberia.

The purpose of the talk is to correct omissions of fact found in Jim Crow-era books  that list only white veterans of World War I and World War II, and to remind residents that former slaves from New Iberia-area plantations fought in the Civil War as members of the United States Colored Infantry and Union Navy.  In addition, according to a statement from IAAHS, all-black regiments formed to fight in the Spanish American War included soldiers from Iberia Parish.