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Louisiana breaks ground on monument at State Capitol honoring Black veterans

The Advocate - 8/19/2022

Aug. 17—As he turned the dirt on what will be the first monument to Black veterans on State Capitol grounds, Gov. John Bel Edwards remarked Wednesday that he had reached his 50s before learning of the significance and valor of Black troops at the Civil War battle at Port Hudson.

"I don't remember ever learning that lesson" in school, Edwards said. He added that he hopes the monument will help teach students from now on about the service of Black veterans.

Situated in the State Capitol's Louisiana Veterans Memorial Park, the African American Veterans Monument will honor freed and formerly enslaved Louisiana soldiers who fought for the Union during the Civil War as well as soldiers from World War I and II, the Vietnam War, the Iraq War and more recent conflicts.

Louisiana is home to more than 80,000 Black veterans, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. About a third of 1.3 million enlisted soldiers, sailors and airmen are Black.

"Though it has been a long time in coming, the day is finally here when we will pay tribute to the bravery and courage of the African American men and women who have honorably served and protected our state and nation," Edwards said. "As a veteran, I know that when we serve, so do our families. This monument recognizes the sacrifices their loved ones have made as well.

"I look forward to the day when we unveil this monument and encourage everyone to learn about the great contributions of these and all of our American military heroes."

The monument will cost about $350,000, said Mark Cooper, Edwards' chief of staff. Walmart contributed $100,000 and Entergy chipped in another $150,000. The state Department of Veterans Affairs was appropriated another $100,000 in taxpayer dollars for the project.

The monument was designed by Shaleen Jones, who teaches at Xavier University in New Orleans, and should be finished by next summer. No legislator during the 2021 legislative session voted against the monument created in Act 432, which was sponsored by state Sen. Gerald Boudreaux, D-Lafayette.

U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, D-New Orleans, noted that the GI Bill lifted many White men into the middle class by giving veterans and their families access to college educations and homeownership. But Black veterans didn't receive equal benefits or recognition.

"The statue is huge. It's real. It's tangible," Carter said. "We must have more than statues."

Retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré, of Baton Rouge, pointed out that Black people have fought for the United States in every war since the American Revolution. African American volunteers fought at the Battle of New Orleans and about 50 Black soldiers were killed during that last major fight of the War of 1812.

"The people who participated were not free themselves," Honoré said. "Our ancestors fought for the right to freedom and equality, and although many generations of African American soldiers were not able to enjoy the fruits of their labor, their sacrifices helped paved the way for me and others. They will never be forgotten."

Much of the recognition for Black soldiers in the Civil War is directed at the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. After all, Frederick Douglass was vital to its organization; Augustus Saint-Gaudens sculpted a bronze relief to the unit across the street from the Massachusetts State Capitol; and the movie about the unit, "Glory," won multiple Academy awards.

But two months before the 54th made its famous assault in the South Carolina, the 1st and 3rd Louisiana Native Guards, made up of free Black men and former slaves, on May 27, 1863, moved against the fortified entrenchments at Port Hudson, 20 miles north of Baton Rouge and the last Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River.

The Native Guards were the first Black soldiers committed to combat in the Civil War, and their performance gave President Abraham Lincoln confidence to expand recruitment and participation of African American troops. Before the end of the Civil War, about 170,000 Black troops had served, said Joey Strickland, secretary for Louisiana Department of Veterans Affairs.

Among those Union soldiers fighting at Port Hudson was an escaped slave named Gordon, who is better known as "Whipped Pete" for the widely published images taken of his scarred back.

Gordon ran away in March 1863 from the Lyons plantation on the Atchafalaya River near what is now Krotz Springs. Rubbing onions on his body to throw off his pursuer's dogs, Gordon walked barefoot through swamps — now traversed by elevated U.S. 190 — before running into Union troops who ferried him to Baton Rouge.

While getting a medical examination, Yankee doctors were shocked by the sight of his back, though one wrote that he had seen dozens that just like it. The famous photograph was taken in the doctor's tent about where Florida Street now crosses Interstate 110 at the edge of downtown Baton Rouge.

Gordon joined the Black infantry units that went to Port Hudson.

Actor Will Smith will star in the movie "Emancipation," scheduled to be released in 2023, that is based on Gordon's story.

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