Dr. Ian Beamish and his University of Louisiana Lafayette class will present their research to the New Iberia community and Iberian African American Historical Society (IAAHS) members at the Shadows-on-The-Teche Saturday Nov. 4 at 1 p.m.

Over the past two years, Drs. Beamish and Cheylon Woods have been co-teaching the University of Louisiana Lafayette Public History Seminars 451 and 452, in partnership with IAAHS.

HIST 452 is an examination of the role of historical methodology in interpreting history in public frameworks, including museums, historic preservation, archives, and communities.

HIST 451 is the systematic examination of archival administration, museum management, historical editing, oral history, historic site management and preservation.

After talks with IAAHS president Dr. Phebe Hayes in 2022, the instructors made the decision to begin focusing on specific Black Civil War Veterans in Iberia Parish utilizing the IAAHS archives as core material.

As HIST 451 proceeded into a second semester, the students broadened their research to include tracking Black family histories within Iberia Parish, from pre-civil war into the 20th century using information evolving from that first semester’s research. Throughout the class, students made several well-attended interim reports, encouraging attendee participation; stories and additional family histories were shared by the audience. In April 2023 the students finalized their project with a major IAAHS event.

All of this research was unique and specific to the Iberia Parish African American community. During this period IAAHS opened the Center for Research and Learning and launched the public online digital archive Silent No More.