'We Are Not Going to Be Bullied': Black Louisiana veterans
fight to keep building that has honored their sacrifices for more than
six decades
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Dwayne Fatherree | Read the full piece here
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Friend,
When members of the so-called Greatest Generation
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returned home from World War II and the Korean War, most were
accepted with open arms.
But not everyone.
"The Black veterans had no place of their own," former
Louisiana state Rep. Terry Landry said. "The veteran buildings
were for the white veterans."
Excluded from white veterans halls in New Iberia, Louisiana, a group
of Black veterans lobbied the parish government in 1957 to build a
structure on land they had purchased and donated to the parish. They
made the donation under a 1958 contract in which the parish agreed to
construct the building and give control of it to a veterans board.
Fast-forward 63 years, and Black veterans are fighting to keep control
of the building where their American Legion and Veterans of Foreign
Wars posts have long operated.
After fighting for years to get a capital outlay project approved and
completed to renovate the Robert B. Green Memorial Building -
named for the first Black New Iberian killed in World War I -
the Black veterans who meet there were recently told to hand over the
keys.
The Robert B. Green Board of Control had long operated the building,
but it is now being replaced by an advisory board that gives control
of the building to the Iberia Parish Government, which has other plans
for the space.
In response, the veterans have filed a petition to dissolve the land
donation, leaving the future of the building up in the air as the
legal battle ensues.
"New Iberia's Black veterans returned home to the same
racist ideology that they left their families and loved ones to fight
against," said Lecia Brooks, chief of staff for the SPLC.
"In response, Black people were forced to create their own
spaces to remember and honor contributions to a country that
diminished their existence. The parish should immediately halt its
seizure of this meeting hall - which is filled with Black
history that New Iberians can be proud of - and return full
control to the Black veterans."
READ MORE
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