Friend,

When members of the so-called Greatest Generation 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.”

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In solidarity,

Your friends at the Southern Poverty Law Center