Ground-penetrating radar in hunt for dead in racial massacre
Source: Associated Press
Janet Mcconnaughey, Associated Press
Updated 6:07 pm, Thursday, May 17, 2018
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Researchers searching for a possible mass grave from a racial massacre in 1887 said they picked up signals Thursday of disturbed earth at a south Louisiana site, but they cautioned they don't know yet what ground-penetrating radar detected.
The signals were detected Thursday, the first day of a survey of a vacant lot in the community of Thibodaux, where locals believe white mobs dumped the bodies of African-Americans killed during a Reconstruction era rampage. The mobs were out to break a monthlong strike by sugar plantation field hands, many of them ex-slaves, in the era following the American civil war.
The experts were cautious as radar probed for underground disturbances warranting further investigation.
. . .
Events in 1887 began with striking sugar workers demanding a raise. According to DeSantis, they also wanted cash payment, instead of the chits they received for use only in a plantation company store. As tensions soared, a judge declared martial law in Thibodaux. When violence finally erupted on Nov. 23, 1887, white mobs went door-to-door for more than two hours shooting unarmed blacks, according to DeSantis.
Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/education/article/Searching-for-mass-grave-of-victims-in-1887-12921629.php
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