Preparations for the Celebration of Iberia Parish African-American Veterans from the Antebellum Era to the Jim Crow Era of Segregation (1863-2019), was a joint effort by several groups realizing the time had come for the neglect of these patriots to end.

Saturday, May 4 several groups gathered to clean and document the graves of scores of black veterans interred in four historically black cemeteries located on Fulton Street between Landry Drive and Corrine Street. Two weeks prior, the work had already begun and for months before, research was conducted. Poebe Hayes, one of the founders of the Iberia Parish African American Historical Society, has been diligently working to bring due recognition to black ancestors from the Teche Area that have never been honored for their accomplishments.

Local residents often refer to the adjoining graveyards collectively as “On the Hill.” The cemeteries included are St. Matthew Benevolent Society Cemetery, Star Pilgrim Baptist Church Cemetery, Mt. Calvary Baptist Church Cemetery and St. Paul Congregational Church Cemetery. Together the four cemeteries form the oldest and largest African American church burial site in New Iberia. Many New Iberia families can point to the graves of their ancestors or relatives who are buried “On the Hill,” but overgrowth and neglect kept many of the graves long forgotten, hidden or almost lost.

New Iberia veterans’ groups Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 12065, VFW Post 1982, and American Legion Post 533 coordinated the cleanup project with the assistance of the cemetery owners and the aid of Boy Scouts. The New Iberia and Lafayette congregations of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was instrumental in that they spearheaded identifying the markers for permanent recording. Besides assisting in the cleanup, the church members will photograph the graves and record GPS coordinates using the Billion Graves App. In addition the Iberia African American Historical Society will compile the collected data and make it available on its website www.iaahsonline.org.

Today at 2 p.m. the veterans’ groups, accompanied by a local Boy Scout troop, will return to the Fulton Street cemeteries to place 2-foot flags on the graves of the veterans. On Memorial Day, the combined groups along with IAAHS will co-sponsor an educational talk on the history of the Black veterans of Iberia Parish from the Civil War to the end of the Vietnam War encompassing the Antebellum to Jim Crow historical eras. The purpose of the talk is to correct omissions of facts not found in Jim Crow-era books (i.e., The WWI Veterans of Iberia Parish, The WWII Veterans of Iberia Parish) that included only white veterans (male and female) and ignored the service and sacrifice of the parish’s black veterans.

In addition, many residents and family members are unaware that former slaves from New Iberia-area plantations fought in the Civil War as members of the United States Colored Infantry and Union Navy. Many are also unaware that all-black regiments formed to fight in the Spanish American War included soldiers from Iberia Parish. The Hill holds the graves of several of those veterans. It is expected that the flags on the graves of the veterans On the Hill will serve as a reminder of the service and sacrifice of the brave men and women who served the nation beginning 156 years ago.

Future plans to further commemorate the service of the black veterans of Iberia Parish include a state historical marker and the installation of a flagpole with a plaque dedicating the flag and pole to the many veterans at rest in the cemeteries. Future efforts also will be made to locate the military headstones of black veterans in other city and parish cemeteries and then photograph and record them using the Billion Graves App.

“This is important,” said Fred Wesley from VFW Post 12065, one of the organizers for the memorial tribute. “This is the first time this has been done in New Iberia and it is an opportunity to uncover history.”

Within only a short time of walking and cleaning the graves on the rainy Saturday, more than 200 orange marker flags had been placed. More would have to be purchased to mark the spots where volunteers would post the colors today in preparation for Monday’s Memorial Day recognition.

“Leslie Landry and I are very, very good friends and I know he had been dealing with gravesites for a very long time,” Wesley said. “He called me up one day and said he talked to Phebe Hayes. They wanted to do something up on The Hill for Memorial Day, so we started communications.”

Ryan Nelson, Bishop of the Ward in Lafayette of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints said, “Our hope is that when people want to find their loved ones, veterans or just folks from this area, they will be able to get on Family Search, a Billion Graves or Find A Grave, and with the Geo-mapping, be directed to the appropriate site.”

Nelson didn’t know how many volunteers were working to clean up the cemetaries but they started with about 50 and people were still trickling in to join the effort.

“Because it is raining, some of the headstones have been able to be washed off to be read. I just uncovered one born in 1870, a veteran of World War I,” Nelson said. “The New Iberia chapter is also here. For us it was a slam dunk project because someone else did all the work to locate these soldiers.”

Just like the soldiers who served, died and are buried in graves around the world, these volunteers pressed on to do the hard job of chopping down trees, removing thick overgrown underbrush and remove vines growing over long forgotten graves — soldiers of color who never received the recognition of appreciation they deserved.