SOIL MEMORIAL CEREMONY

Today local organizations and community advocates gathered to remember the lives of african americans who were lynched during the late 1800s and early 1900s...news 1's kenny darr has this story.

Stand-up: move the mindset...along with other local organizations...gathered today for a memorial ceremony to honor african americans who were lynched during the reconstruction era.nat: in the soil, there is the sweat of those who were enslaved.

In the soil is the blood of those who were lynched.

Vo: fred prejean says over forty-four hundred black people were lynched during that period...including five in lafayette.

Thats where soil was collected today... from the site of the lynchings.sot: a little over 500 of those were lynched here in louisiana and five individuals were lynched here in lafayette parish.

Sot: for the most part, no one was ever prosecuted for the lynchings.

Vo: he says...move the mindset...also hopes to educate the community on a part of history that schools often omit.

Sot: to try to educate our community as to the kind of lifestyle black people had to live because of slavery, because of segragation and now even mass incarceration.vo: he says i's time to change the stories about black people in america that have been told for far too long.sot: ther's been so many false narratives about the history of black people and ther's been such an absence of actual history that is taught.

W're trying to change that.tag : there were two jars of soil collected today...one of which will be sent to the equal justice initiative museum in montgomery alabama and the other will remain in lafayette...reporting in carencro...kenny darr...news fifteen 3