WALLACE, La. — Residents of a historic Black community in Louisiana who’ve spent years fighting against a massive grain export facility set to be built on the grounds where their enslaved ancestors once lived appear to have finally halted the project.
“I’m still obviously in disbelief — I can’t believe this is happening, but I’m ecstatic and all praise to the ancestors,” said Joy Banner, a Wallace resident and one of the most vocal opponents of the project. She and her sister, Jo, founded The Descendants Project to preserve the community’s heritage.
Earlier this year, the Banner sisters’ nonprofit purchased a plantation which had been the site of one of the largest slave rebellions in American History, the 1811 German Coast Uprising. They plan to transform it into an educational space. “We don’t know exactly what that means,” LaBorde said. “We still have an active permit application so, if it is Greenfield’s intention to no longer pursue the project, then we would ask they formally submit a withdrawal to us so that we can conclude the review.”
The Army Corps had found the project could affect historic properties in Wallace, including the Evergreen, Oak Alley and Whitney plantations. There also remained the possibility that the area contained burial sites for the ancestral Black community. But the evening became a celebration for others. Angelica Mitchell, 53, held back tears as she took in the company’s announcement. Mitchell is still recovering from treatment for a rare form of cancer which had attacked her pancreas, but she chose to attend the public hearing despite her health struggles. The facility would have been built within a few hundred feet of her home.