A conversation last Memorial Day was the start of an effort that has resulted in a flagpole flying the American flag and a POW/MIA flag over the hundreds of veterans buried in the St. Matthews Benevolent Society Cemetery in New Iberia.

The conversation that kicked the effort off was held during a talk on the history of the black veterans of Iberia Parish from the Civil War to the end of the Vietnam War during the 2019 Memorial Day commemoration. Part of the event was an effort to mark the graves of African-American veterans in the four cemeteries near the Rose Hill portion of the city.

“We wanted to mark the graves of the veterans with flags, but regulations call for the flags to be removed after three days,” said Phebe Hayes, head of the Iberia African-American Historical Society, which sponsored the event. “So some of the veterans came up with the idea of erecting the flagpole instead.”

When Hayes took veterans through the St. Matthews Cemetery, they were shocked.

“They were asking me, ‘Is this a military cemetery?’ because almost every grave had a military marker of some sort” she said. “I told them no, it’s just that this many people of color served our country.”

Part of the presentation Hayes had prepared on the black veterans showed that there were far more of them than the books of the time indicated.

“You have to remember this was the time of Jim Crow,” she explained. “According to the books in the library, all of the veterans from this area in World War II were white. Here; in the cemetery, is the physical evidence to correct the record.”

The flagpole installation was a combined effort between the Iberia Veterans Association, local veterans’ groups (VFW Post 1982, VFW Post 12065, American Legion 335, American Legion 533), former District 96 Rep. Terry Landry and current District 96 Rep. Marcus Bryant, The Iberia African American Historical Society, the St. Matthew Benevolent Society Board of Directors, and community volunteers.

Hayes said there are more than 300 African American veterans interred in the four historically black cemeteries on Fulton Street.

“I did not know how many women of color served in the military from here,” she said. “The Vital family in Loreauville, for example, had three daughters serve in World War II.”

Besides the U.S. flag, the flagpole also flies the POW-MIA flag in honor of those veterans held as prisoners of war or are listed as missing in action. The Iberia Parish veterans groups generously donated both flags in honor of African American veterans of the parish who served from the Civil War to the present.