African American Cemeteries impacted by Spillway Recognized as Historic

Two African American cemeteries which were heavily damaged by construction of the Bonnet Carre spillway near New Orleans in the 1920's are now being recognized as Historic under the NRHP guidelines.  The Times-Picayune ran an article on it's website today about the cemeteries.  It appears the surface markers were destroyed during the course of construction and the graves may have been disturbed as well.  I haven't seen the report from 1991 on which the nomination was based.  You can read the article here.

It's good to see the Corp going back and recognizing historic properties destroyed in the course of Corp projects.  It'd be even better to see them recognized before they're bulldozed!  In all fairness to the Corp - the damage was done nearly 100 years ago during some of the worst flooding in the Mississippi River Valley so there were pressing concerns for flood control and no laws or best practice guidelines in place to protect historic properties. Sphere: Related Content