Jesuit Bend, Louisiana

Jesuit Bend is an unincorporated community in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, United States, on the West Bank of the Mississippi River.

Jesuit Bend
Unincorporated community
Jesuit Bend
Location of Jesuit Bend in Louisiana
Coordinates: 29°44′54″N 90°01′33″W
CountryUnited States
StateLouisiana
ParishPlaquemines
Elevation
3 ft (0.9 m)
Time zoneUTC-6 (CST)
 • Summer (DST)UTC-5 (CDT)
Area code(s)504

History

Members of the Society of Jesus settled at this location in the early part of the 18th century, a bend in the Mississippi River, hence the name "Jesuit Bend".[1] The Jesuit settlers brought with them from Asia the satsuma, a loosely skinned seedless tangerine. Satsumas have been farmed at this locale ever since.[1]

At one point, Jesuit Bend had a station on the New Orleans, Fort Jackson & Grand Isle Railroad line.[2] It also is the location of the Jesuit Bend Wetland Mitigation Bank, an effort to return open water to a fully functioning freshwater marsh, to help reverse the longstanding problem of wetlands erosion in the Mississippi River Delta.

Jesuit Bend Incident

In 1955, Rev. Gerald Lewis, an African-American Catholic priest, was stopped by parishioners from celebrating Mass in Jesuit Bend because of his color.[3] The chapel was thereupon placed under interdict by the Archbishop of New Orleans, Joseph Francis Rummel.[4] This lasted for two years before a priest, reportedly via subterfuge (promising to never again send a Black priest), obtained signatures from a number parishioners promising to accept whatever priest was sent to them. Abp Rummel approved the reopening of the chapel before eventually discovering the ruse, but wished to save face and not renege on the order. Fortunately for him, the chapel was destroyed by a hurricane soon after. He refused to allow it to be rebuilt.

References
  1. Satsumas WWNO-FM Radio story of October 3, 2009, accessed September 14, 2014.
  2. Louisiana in Three Volumes, Alcée Fortier, ed., Century Historical Association, 1914, Vol. 1, page 586.
  3. Conciliaria Archived 2014-08-26 at the Wayback Machine, March 27, 2012 (Accessed August 13, 2014).
  4. rs. "Catholics and Jim Crow, Review Essay". jsr.fsu.edu. Retrieved 2016-12-13.



This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.