After an LSU professor realized the Student Health Center was built atop a cemetery for enslaved plantation workers, he found himself a year later standing on the SHC’s grounds reading the names of the people enslaved on the plantation in 1837.
Geography professor Andrew Sluyter came to the realization of the cemetery’s existence after going through the university’s archives. He read the names before a crowd on Thursday as part of the Libations Ceremony Program, an event hosted by members of the Diversity Committee in the School of Social Work.
Libations were done by Thomas Durant Jr., a past director of LSU’s African and African American Studies. He thanked the ancestors for the hardships they endured and the sacrifices they made, the crowd echoing “àṣẹ,” which is an African word similar to the word “amen.”
“We honor our ancestors who were interred on this very site,” Durant said. “We honor them because they are deceased and thus we are the voices for them.”
Sluyter believes the ceremony allowed the community to reconnect with the enslaved people buried on the SHC’s grounds.
“A lot of us have worked on this campus for many years, but never thought much about the people who worked on this campus hundreds of years before that, many of them enslaved,” Sluyter said.
Zach Tompkins, a university archivist, attended the ceremony and said Sluyter completed the majority of his research in the Hill Memorial Library using historical records, particularly the Reveille archives.
Tompkins believes the faculty’s research provides an exploration of ideas and brings light to the voices and stories that would otherwise go unnoticed.
“To see an event like this where people come together from on and off campus in the community–it’s an inspiring thing and a uniquely LSU moment,” Tompkins said.
Cassandra Chaney, the chair of the Diversity Committee in the SSW, was the leading force in planning the event.
“It meant so much to have everyone present,” Chaney said. “It really did. And, I know the ancestors are just so happy to see people of different races and of different ages come together for this moment. This is the beautiful thing to do, but it’s also the right thing to do.”
One of her favorite parts of the event was when Sluyter read 32 of the names of the enslaved people who worked on the plantation, potentially the same people buried on the grounds. The names ranged from ages three to 55. Chaney said she always tells her students that they’re more than just names and ages.
Graduate student DeShara Doub also helped plan the event. While she believes every element of the ceremony was necessary, the reading of the names was very personal to her.
“I think a lot of times, we could just think, ‘okay, oh, it’s just a space, right?’ but putting a name to a space is something,” Doub said. “I had to kind of gain my composure back.”
Doub agrees with one point a speaker made about placing a placard or cross in honor of the enslaved people buried on the grounds. It’s absolutely necessary for people passing through the space to know how significant its history is, she said.
Tito Sompa leads Mbongi Village as they perform music for the Libations Ceremony on Wednesday, May 12, 2022.
