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National park battlefield irises may mark razed Black homes

A crinum lily, originally from Africa, blooms on Saturday, April 2, 2022, in the Chalmette, La., unit of the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve. Nearly 60 years ago, a historic Black community founded as a home for newly freed slaves was demolished to expand a national park commemorating the Battle of New Orleans and Civil War casualties. Now park rangers and iris enthusiasts believe they may have found a botanical reminder _ Louisiana iris and African lilies that the village's residents may have planted. (AP Photo/Janet McConnaughey) Nathan Rocky of WLAE-TV, left, and Woody Keim, a great great grandson of the founder of a tiny community created around 1870 for recently freed Black people after the Civil War, look out over purple Louisiana iris on Saturday, April 2, 2022 in the Chalmette, La., unit of the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve. Nearly 60 years ago, the historic Black community called Fazendeville was demolished to expand a national park commemorating the Battle of New Orleans and Civil War casualties. Now park rangers and iris enthusiasts believe they may have found a botanical reminder _ Louisiana iris and African lilies that the village's residents may have planted. (AP Photo/Janet McConnaughey) Purple Louisiana iris and pink and white African crinum lilies bloom on Saturday, April 2, 2022, in the Chalmette, La., unit of the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve. Nearly 60 years ago, a historic Black community founded as a home for newly freed slaves was demolished to expand a national park commemorating the Battle of New Orleans and Civil War casualties. Now park rangers and iris enthusiasts believe they may have found a botanical reminder _ Louisiana iris and African lilies that the village's residents may have planted. (AP Photo/Janet McConnaughey) A poster commemorating a tiny community created to house people emancipated after the Civil War hangs on Saturday, April 2, 2022, in the visitors center of a national park commemorating the Battle of New Orleans, which was fought in 1815. Fazendeville was torn down in 1965 to join two parts of a national park that included both the battlefield and a cemetery where 7,500 Union dead were buried. Louisiana iris and African lilies now bloom where the community once stood. (AP Photo/Janet McConnaughey) A purple Louisiana iris blooms on Saturday, April 2, 2022 at a section of the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve in Chalmette, La. Nearly 60 years ago, a historic Black community founded as a home for newly freed slaves was demolished to expand a national park commemorating the Battle of New Orleans and Civil War casualties. Now park rangers and iris enthusiasts believe they may have found a botanical reminder _ Louisiana iris and African lilies that the village's residents may have planted. (AP Photo/Janet McConnaughey) A marker honoring a tiny community founded around 1870 as a place to live for people recently emancipated from slavery stands on Saturday, April 2, 2022, near the road around the fielid where the Battle of New Orleans was fought in 1815. Fazendeville was expropriated in the 1960s to join two sections of a national park. Louisiana iris and African crinum lilies now bloom where the community once stood. (AP Photo/Janet McConnaughey) Paul Christiansen, a board member of the Louisiana Iris Conservation Initiative, photographs purple Louisiana iris on Saturday, April 2, 2022 at a section of the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve in Chalmette, La. Nearly 60 years ago, a historic Black community founded as a home for newly freed slaves was demolished to expand a national park commemorating the Battle of New Orleans and Civil War casualties. Now park rangers and iris enthusiasts believe they may have found a botanical reminder _ Louisiana iris and African lilies that the village's residents may have planted. (AP Photo/Janet McConnaughey) Gary Salathe, who first noticed Louisiana iris growing on the site where the Battle of New Orleans was fought in 1815 and where a community for recently freed slaves was established around 1870, stands outside the visitors center at a national park including both the battlefield and a Civil War cemetery on Saturday, April 2, 2022. Fazandeville was torn down in 1965 because it stood between the park's two sections. Louisiana iris and African lilies now bloom where the community once stood. (AP Photo/Janet McConnaughey) CORRECTS BUILDING IN BACKGROUND This March 29, 2021, photo, provided by Paul Christiansen, shows white crinum lilies, which originally came from Africa, and purple Louisiana iris on the location of the Battle of New Orleans and of the small historic Black neighborhood of Fazendeville, founded around 1870 and torn down in the mid-1960s to join two parts of a national park in Chalmette, La. The Malus-Beauregard House is in the background. (Paul Christiansen via AP) (Paul Christiansen via AP) CORRECTS BUILDING IN BACKGROUND - This March 29, 2021, photo provided by Paul Christiansen shows Louisiana iris on the location of the Battle of New Orleans and of the small historic Black neighborhood of Fazendeville, founded about 1870 for recently emancipated Blacks and torn down in the mid-1960s to expand a national park in Chalmette, La. The Malus-Beauregard House is in the background. (Paul Christiansen via AP) (Paul Christiansen via AP) This March 25, 1963, photo, taken by the Louisiana Air National Guard for the National Park Service, shows a monument to the Battle of New Orleans, left foreground, and the tiny but historic Black community of Fazendeville, La., along the straight street above it. Fazendeville, a Chalmette community, was expropriated in the mid 1960s and demolished to become part of what was then called Chalmette National Park. It had stood between the park's two original sections - the battleground and a national cemetery (among trees in upper right) started as a burial place for Union Soldiers who died in the Civil War. (Louisiana Air National Guard via AP) This January 1962 photo provided by the National Park Service shows the historic Black community of Fazendeville in Chalmette, La. Within years, the agency expropriated and demolished the community, which stood between two parts of a national park - the land were the Battle of New Orleans was fought and a national cemetery where Union soldiers were buried during the Civil War. Louisiana iris and African lilies now flower where Fazendeville once stood. (National Park Service via AP)