African-American slave cemeteries plowed over for spillway to be restored near New Orleans

The Bonnet Carre Spillway is a drainage structure in St. Charles Parish that protects New Orleans and surrounding areas when the waters of the Mississippi threaten to flood. When it was constructed near the year 1929, two cemeteries that had been dedicated to the burial of African-American slaves and their descendants were plowed over. The Kenner and Kugler cemeteries, which were active from the late 1800s until about 1929, are believed to contain up to 300 burials. Now both sites are slated to be reinstated as sacred places, as the Army Corps of Engineers makes plans to commemorate the cemeteries with memorials.

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