National park battlefield irises may mark razed Black homes

By JANET McCONNAUGHEY
Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Nearly 60 years ago, a historic Black community founded as a home for people emancipated after the Civil War was demolished for a national park commemorating both the Battle of New Orleans and Civil War casualties. Now park rangers and iris enthusiasts believe they may have found a botanical reminder — Louisiana irises and African lilies that the village’s residents may have planted. The 30-home community called Fazendeville was founded around 1870 by a Black man who had been born free. The National Park Service expropriated it in the mid-1960s because it was between the 1815 battleground and a national cemetery where thousands of Union soldiers and sailors were buried. The flowers were first noticed last spring.