The center
starts its Acadian story where most stories do, at the beginning.&nbsp; In this instance the beginning takes us far
from Louisiana to Nova Scotia, Canada as the French and Indian War was
concluding in the mid-18th century (1755-1764).&nbsp; The British did not trust and had no need for
the French Acadians located there.&nbsp; Thus,
they forcibly removed them from their homes and transported them to Louisiana,
which the French had ceded to the Spanish as a result of their defeat by the British.&nbsp; The center then follows the Acadian’s struggles
as they adapted to their new lives in a wholly new environment.

Operated by
the National Park Service, the center offers ranger-led discussions every day
at 2:45 except Sundays, when the center is closed.&nbsp; It also shows a 35-minute documentary film
entitled The Cajun Way: Echoes of Acadia every hour on the hour beginning at
9:00 AM.&nbsp; During the spring and autumn months
the center also makes available, for a small fee, a tour of the Bayou
Vermillion aboard the good ship Cocodrie.&nbsp;


The center
has a museum store that sells local crafts, music and books (to include
cookbooks).&nbsp; It also welcomes educational
field trips and scout groups and offers a junior ranger program for its younger
visitors.&nbsp; Finally, there are two other
Acadian Cultural Centers in Louisiana located at Eunice and Thibodaux.

Building that houses the Acadian Cultural Center.

Display of a typical Acadian room within a typical Acadian home.

The National Parks webpage devoted to the center.

Website

Another parks site devoted to the center with additional info.

More Info

Video that describes the Junior Ranger Program.

Located within the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park in Lafayette, the Acadian Cultural Center tells the complex tale of the origins, forced migration, settlement and evolving cultural traits of the Acadians or Cajun people.  The cultural center tells this story through the use of ranger-led talks, films, historical artifacts, interpretive displays, tours and special events.  It delves into the Acadian’s music, oral history, dance, food, farming and building techniques, clothing, craft making and language.  Admission to the center is free.

Lafayette Acadian Cultural Center

Featuring living museums and cultural centers, as well as historical markers and statues, this tour will take the reader through downtown Lafayette. Beginning at the Lafayette Acadian Cultural center and ending at the Lafayette Science Museum this driving tour is just under 6 miles long.

Established in 1990, Vermillionville Historic Village is a living history museum that preserves, interprets and promotes the Acadian, Native American and Creole folklife of southern Louisiana between 1765-1890. The village, which covers twenty-three acres, has nineteen attractions, seven of which are restored original homes. Local artisans work in these homes and demonstrate how handcrafts were made during the period. The village also offers exhibits exploring the various cultures of the region and various educational programming including summer camps. 

Vermillionville Historic Village

The art museum was made possible by the donation of land from Maurice Heymann in 1964. The following year, university leaders began a campaign to raise funds to allow for the construction of the first art museum in the region, as well as the acquisition of a collection. The museum opened in 1968 in a building designed upon the Hermitage plantation in Darrow Louisiana. Thanks to a gift of three million dollars from Paul and Lulu Hilliard, and an additional eight million in donations from alumni and area residents, the university constructed a second building that offers a striking juxtaposition to the original building. With its modern styling and expansive galleries, the new facility holds over eleven thousand square feet of gallery space.

One of the highlights of both the university and the city, this art museum opened in 1968 and expanded to a new facility in 2004. The museum's collections include the work of hundreds fo regional artists and folk art in addition to that Jacqueline Heymann Cohn Japanese Print Collection and the largest collection of works by modernist Henry Botkin. 

Hilliard University Art Museum 

On September 15, 1953, a groundbreaking civil suit was about to be born. Three young women by the names of Clara Dell Constantine, Shirley Taylor, and Martha Jane Conway, and a young man by the name of Charles Vincent applied to go to college at the all-white&nbsp; Southwestern Louisiana Institute (that later came to be named University of Lousiana Lafayette). They were from lower-middle-class families and in order for them to be able to afford to go to college they needed to attend a school that was close enough to live at home and not have to pay the additional expenses of housing and that is necessary for college students who live on campus or away from home. Unfortunately, there were no Black colleges close enough for this to be possible, so they applied to SLI. They were denied based on their race and petitioned to the State School Board, but there was no change in the status.

&nbsp;

Not accepting no for an answer, the students then enlisted the legal help of Attorney Thurgood Marshall and other members of his NAACP team of lawyers including A.P. Tureau, Robert L. Carter, and U Simpson Tate.&nbsp; All of these men played various roles to file a civil suit against SLI on January 4, 1954, on behalf of the students. &nbsp;The suit became known as Constantine Vs. SLI.&nbsp; It asserted that SLI was violating their 14th amendment rights for denying them entry to the state college because they were African American, as well as the Ku Klux Klan Act which permitted any citizen to pursue a suit to exact reparation for denial of their rights.&nbsp; The premise was that while Louisiana had established state schools on the behalf of whites, it had provided many for Blacks throughout the state. The nearest colleges were too far for the 4 students to attend and remain to live at home, so SLI was their only option, and that option was being denied. This suit would call into question the constitutionality of the ruling of Plessy Vs Ferguson that supported state laws for racially separating all public resources.

&nbsp;

Ultimately the students won their class action suit in Supreme Court because the judges confirmed that the Louisiana law did indeed violate their 14th amendment rights. The state of Louisiana didn’t fight the decision, so there were no appeals and the ruling was accepted. There were multiple reasons for their lack of appeal. This included another court decision that called upon the states that participated in segregating schools to provide equal standards for schools no matter the color of the students. This would have cost a great deal of money, and it was a much cheaper option to simply integrate the schools that already existed.&nbsp; It was also predicted that yet another court case, that would become to be known as Brown Vs The Board of Education, would integrate colleges eventually as well.&nbsp; Constantine VS SLI was a success for the plaintiffs, their attorneys, and future Black college students of Louisiana as well. It was the first state college to become integrated. It also happened without a lot of the racial violence that occurred at other schools, which was a surprise to all involved. &nbsp;The Black students that attended SLI following the ruling did so without a lot of violence but there was still individual intimidation tactics used and they weren't exactly welcomed on campus by their fellow students.&nbsp; That&nbsp;caused subsequent enrollment of Black students to be much lower in number.

&nbsp;

Today, this momentous and ground-breaking event was celebrated in a couple ways. First, a plaque titled the “Pillars of Progress” was placed on Rex St Near E St. Mary Blvd that tells the story of Constantine VS SLI. There are also separate pillars in the vicinity named in honor of the student’s efforts titled “faith”, “courage”, “justice”, and “knowledge”. All those who pass can now learn about those who went before them to pave the way. Secondly, 50 years after winning their suit, SLI (now ULL) awarded the “four that could” honorary bachelor’s degrees on the 50th anniversary of the desegregation of SLI.

After trying to enroll at Southwestern Louisiana Institute (now University of Louisiana Lafayette) in Lafayette, LA on September 15, 1953; Shirley Taylor, Clara Dell Constantine, Martha Jane Conway, and Charles Vincent Singleton were denied entry to the all-white school. Their efforts did not stop there, and they enlisted the legal assistance of attorney Thurgood Marshall and his team of lawyers with the NAACP. What started out simply as 3 young, Black women and one Black young man attempting to enroll in a college that allowed them to stay at home while attending school, ended in a class action complaint. The class action complaint these young people and their legal representation put forth, ultimately was a victory and desegregated the very first state college in Louisiana. The marker to commemorate these young pioneers, their courage and determination can be found on Rex St near E St. Mary Blvd in Lafayette. 

Pillars of Progress Historical Marker

Born in 1757 to a noble family with deep roots in the French military, the aristocrat Marquis de Lafayette is best known for his role in the American Revolution and the French Revolution.&nbsp;After his father was killed in America fighting the British in the Seven Years War, Lafayette joined the French army and soon expanded his family's fortune through marriage. He first saw action in the American Revolution during the Battle of Brandywine where he distinguished himself by managing&nbsp;an orderly&nbsp;retreat despite sustaining a serious wound and being outnumbered by the British.&nbsp; Lafayette's greatest contribution to the rebel cause came in 1780 when he convinced King Louis XVI to dedicate more resources to supporting the American rebels. The following year, Lafayette's expanded force coordinated their movements with George Washington's army and surrounded &nbsp;Lord Cornwallis and his men at Yorktown.&nbsp;

This statue honors the French aristocrat who became a hero for the rebels fighting Great Britain in the American Revolution. The statue was dedicated in 1987 and celebrates the French military leader who is best known for blocking British forces under Lord Cornwallis from being able to retreat during the Siege of Yorktown. Lafayette later became an influential leader of the French Revolution and was one of the architects of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen. The city was named Vermilionville in 1821 and changed its name to Lafayette in 1884. 

Marquis de La Fayette Sculpture

The Cathedral Museum, located inside the Cathedral Center, features memorabilia of the early bishops of the diocese and pastors of the Cathedral, historical documents, liturgical vestments, and vessels of the pre-Vatican II era.&nbsp; The museum also commemorates the persons and events that contributed to the history of St. John Cathedral Parish which spans 185 years.&nbsp; Included in the exhibit are the official diocesan and papal documents which established both the parish in 1821 and the diocese in 1918.&nbsp; In addition to photographs and books of priests who have served in the parish are memorabilia of notable persons who are buried in the church or its cemetery.

This historic cathedral, completed in 1916, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is the third church built on the site donated by Jean Mouton in 1821, when Lafayette was the town of Vermilionville. Nearby St. John Cemetery is the oldest in the city of Lafayette. The high water table in South Louisiana makes aboveground burial a necessity in most places in the region. 

Cathedral of Saint John the Evangelist

The Gravesite of Alfred Mouton--St. John's Cemetery One of Acadiana’s most celebrated Civil War generals,
Jean Jacques Alexandre Mouton, is interred at Lafayette’s St. John’s Cemetery.
Mouton rose to the rank of Brigadier General in the Confederate States Army
during the Civil War, and served the rebellion in several battles including
Shiloh (1862), and the Lafourche Campaign (1863), and the Red River Campaign
(1864). 

Mouton
graduated from United States Military Academy in 1850, and then resigned his
commission after his graduation.&nbsp; Alfred
then started with “New Orleans, Opelousas and Great Western Railroad” in the
civil engineering field. Before the Civil War and his engineering career, Mouton led the 
Lafayette Parish Police Jury--the parish council form of government 
unique to Louisiana. As did many wealthier Planters of his era, he 
oftentimes formed up slave patrol companies to guard against slaves' 
movement and potential slave rebellions.&nbsp; With his own slave-labored 
sugar
plantation joined to his father’s, he had a definitive interest in 
keeping his labor force captive, and used violence for that goal. Alfred Mouton and his father, combined, were the largest slaveholders in the entire state. At the outbreak of Civil
War, Mouton organized a company of men from the local population of the
Lafayette Parish.&nbsp; The company had mostly
farmers from the area, but Mouton was captain of the company upon its
organization.&nbsp; The company organized into
the 18th Louisiana Infantry Regiment, and Mouton was elected
colonel.&nbsp; He made a reputation for
himself as a strict disciplinarian and an efficient drillmaster.

Mouton became interim commander of West Louisiana for the Confederacy, performing as best he could with the limited men and supplies that he had to fight off Federal
attempts to move into the state from Arkansas from the North, and from New Orleans to the east.&nbsp;
Alfred’s leadership and his Louisiana brigade helped the Confederates
undermine Union attempts to access the resource-rich Bayou Teche region.

Mouton vacated his West Point officer's commission at the outbreak of the
Civil War and led the 18th Louisiana Infantry as colonel into battle
at Shiloh, where he was wounded.&nbsp; After recovering, Mouton’s team was the lead unit in
the Confederate massacre at the Battle of Mansfield, but while leading his crew
against the Union position, Mouton was shot and killed on April 18, 1864.
General Richard
Taylor lamented Alfred Mouton’s death: “Above all the death of the gallant
Mouton affected me…modest, unselfish, and patriotic.&nbsp; He showed best in action always leading his
men.”&nbsp; These words were used as the
inscription on the Mouton grave marker where his body was moved in 1874 to St. John’s Cemetery in Lafayette, LA.Acadians--or "cajuns" as they are popularly known, are descendants of the original French Canadians who settled the area around present-day Lafayette in 1758 and 1760. Called la Grand Derangement (great expulsion), nearly 11,500 French Canadians were expelled from their Canadian settlements as a result of the changing fortunes during the Seven Years' War (or French &amp; Indian War). After trips across the Atlantic Ocean to France, in 1758 and again two years later, the Acadians were transported to Louisiana colony by several Spanish ships.Once settled in Louisiana colony near present-day towns of Lafayette and New Iberia, among many others, the Acadians continued their distinctive French practices and culture, even as Louisiana changed hands from French control to Spanish, and finally the United States purchased the territory in 1803. Yet French culture among the "cajuns" continued.St. John's Cemetery in Lafayette (once called "Vermilionville) serves as the final resting place for some 250,000 people of French Canadian descent. It was plotted in 1821, and continues as an operating cemetery.

This story is about the grave marker of one of Louisiana's most celebrated Confederate generals--Alfred Mouton.

Jean Jacques Alexandre Mouton Gravesite Marker

The building
that served as Lafayette’s first city hall has existed in its current location
since 1898 and has undergone several renovations and has housed various
organizations over the years.&nbsp; The city
used the building until a new city hall was built at the corner of Jefferson
and Lee streets in 1939 utilizing Depression era Works Progress Administration funds.&nbsp; The city offices were moved once again in
1980 to the former Sears Department Store.

The building’s
architect, George Knapp, also designed the city’s Masonic Temple and Old Post
Office.&nbsp; He also designed numerous homes
in Lafayette and New Iberia and served as the city’s building inspector.&nbsp; The building features a unique semi-circular
balcony on the second floor as well as large windows, a recessed entrance and the impression from an 1889 coin on its exterior...see if you can locate it.&nbsp; It underwent renovations in both 1981 and
1989. &nbsp;&nbsp;

The Old City
Hall building, after it was no longer the city hall, then housed a local women’s
organization, the Lafayette Municipal Library, the city’s planning commission,
the Municipal Government Employee’s Civil Service Board, a civil defense radio
station and offices for the Boy Scouts of America.&nbsp; Most recently it served as the home to the
Council for the Development of French in Louisiana and the Alliance Francaise
de Lafayette.&nbsp; It is not known who
currently occupies the building, if anyone.&nbsp;
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

Built in 1898, Lafayette’s first city hall originally served as the Bank of Lafayette until 1906 when the city purchased the building for $4,500.  The 2.5 story building was designed by local architect, George Knapp, and is a wonderful example of the Rococo style.  The building served as the seat for the city’s government and city council for 33 years until a new city hall was built in 1939.  The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975, the first building in Lafayette to earn that honor.

Lafayette's Old City Hall

Originally built around 1800, the Alexandre Mouton House is an historic home in Lafayette, Louisiana. It is now a museum dedicated towards preserving the history of southern Louisiana. It was built by Alexandre's father, Jean Mouton, who was one of the first settlers in the area. Alexandre began living there around 1825 and remained there until 1836. Alexandre served as the governor of Louisiana from 1843-1846. Successive owners lived in the house until 1954, when a women's group called the Les Vint-Quatre purchased the house for the purpose of opening it up as a museum. The home was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.

Alexandre Mouton House

General Alfred Mouton was a general in the confederate army and the grandson of the founder of Lafayette, Louisiana. His family was very wealthy and owned many slaves during that time and were supporters of the Confederate side of the civil war. There is a statue of him in the middle of Lafayette, LA open for the public to see which stands as a remembrance of the lost causes history, or a white way of remembering the Civil War. The statue was put up in 1922 and there have been several attempts to remove the statue in 1980 and in more recent times in 2016. There are several activist groups that do not want this part of history still standing within their town representing what Lafayette shows themselves as. These groups include: Move the Mindset, Blue Acadiana Democratic Women of Acadiana, Indivisible Acadiana and the NAACP of Lafayette Chapter No. 6060. They find that the statue brings back too many memories of what the civil war was truly about. There are people within the town that strive to keep the integrity of the statue alive and that think it should still be standing tall. The statue was put up by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1922 who also won a court case over the statue in 1980. The UDC is a hereditary association of Southern women established in 1894 in Nashville, Tennessee. The stated purposes of the organization includes the commemoration of Confederate soldiers and the funding of the erection of memorials to these men. In recent years, there has been a great effort to remove the statue. Many people would like it moved in front of the Mouton residence, which is a historic landmark in Lafayette, others want it destroyed completely to try to rid of the lost cause memory. These statues that still stand have been a point of controversies all over the United States. In recent years a New Orleans mayor was able to pull all of the "generic" confederate statues down in the dead of night with no disturbances. He accounts these things in his book and talks about the problems he is facing, how he faced them, and what to be done with the lost cause memory that is so heavy within the south. In 2016 there was a protest that brought hundreds of supporters in the movement to take it down and hundreds of supporters to keep it up. There was a court appeal to attempt the removal, but the Daughters of Confederacy had a court case won in 1980 that allowed the statue to still stand in the middle of Lafayette. This act had shown how strong the ties to the lost cause are in the south and they had made their case to keep it up. The 1980 court case was ordered a permanent injection that prohibits moving the statue unless the city needs to do road work or sells the property. It is unclear why the city agreed to the permanent injunction and the court record provides no answer. The lost cause memory, is trying to forget what the Civil War was about, is still very strong in the south and it can be difficult to combat. Lafayette can benefit by removing the statue or they could be hurt by not being a very progressive city as it might want to seem. Lafayette could be a flag city of removal and lead the way on stopping lost cause history. This cite has been attempted to be removed and nothing was able to be done, but this statue still stands very tall within the center of Lafayette, LA and should be handled soon. It is a center of controversy should be dealt with in some fashion. The statue is a sign to many different people within the city and there are still people trying to protect it and there are people actively trying to take it down.

Dedicated in 1922 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, this statue commemorates Confederate General Alfred Mouton who perished during the Civil war. There have been several major protest to have the statue removed, one in 1980 and the other recently in 2016. Mouton was a influential member in the community, but he was known for owning slaves and contributing to several acts of violence against African Americans. People within the city and surrounding area still see it has history and tradition, but this is a false hope leaning on the Lost Cause. There have been several attempts to have it removed and various prestigious people in Lafayette coming out about it being moved or taken down. 

Statue of General Alfred Mouton

The Lafayette Science Museum is dedicated towards providing fun and educational science programming for people of all ages. Its origins go back to 1969 when a women's group called the Les Deux Douzaines started a community volunteer project that provided science education to schools in the area. The popularity of what the group was doing resulted in the museum moving into a temporary site in Gerard Park. In 1992, some operations moved into a former department store and the rest followed suit in 2002. The museum contains permanent exhibits that explore space travel, geology, meteorites and aquatic life. The museum also houses a library and archives. 

History of Lafayette Louisiana Driving Tour

Lafayette Acadian Cultural Center

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Additional Information