I have a true story to tell, but no one would listen. Local and national news media wouldn't listen. The State of Louisiana and the United States government refused to listen.
No mention was made by historians about the injutice at Rosewood in Florida and the true story about the Spanish slave ship, "Amistad" that was featured in Steven Spielberg's film about the revolt of African slaves in 1839.
My story begins on April 29, 1927 when the levee was dynamited at Caernarven, Louisiana, 13 miles below New Orleans, flooding thousands of residents of two Louisiana parishes out of their homes. To get permission from the U.S. government to carry out the dynamiting, the mayor of New Orleans and 50 leading businessmen promised to pay crevasse victims for all losses. In order to save New Orleans from flooding my forebears became not only victims, but their homes and property at "Cheniere Ronquillo", were expropriated by the Orleans Levee Board because of the lands oil and mineral wealth.
Members of the Louisiana legislature,judicial and executive branches have conspired to cover up a fraud and extortion of economic and political significance over a period of 70 years perpetrated by their predecessors.
The United States Justice Department's attention should be brought to bear on former and current legislation passed by the Louisiana legislature concerning illegally expropriated land in Plaquemine Parish House Bill No. 1767 - Act 245 passed by the 1985 regular session of the legislature and Senate Bill 1460 passed in the 1997 session of the legislature. Remember it was alleged that state and federal funds were used in this illegal expropriation of land not used for flood control, but only used to enrich the pockets of corrupt politicans in Baton Rouge because of the lands mineral wealth.
An article that appeared in the New Orleans Times Picayune on June 24, 1997 states that Louisian Senate Bill 1460, approved by the legislaure, does not require full paymenton interest the landowners or their heirs or due.
Now a Republican governor (former Governor Foster) is sitting in judgement much like Pontius Pilate, who by the way was Governor of Judea.
The Louisiana Department of Natural Resources should be ordered by a court of law to reveal the names of the original owners of illegally expropriated land. The Freedom of Information act was never used in this case. Why?
(It should be noted that we loss our class action law suit against the State of Louisiana involving expropriated land of the Cheniere Ronquillo Spanish Settlement that was once property of our forebears. No mention was made by our corporate and political news media about the Louisiana State Supreme Court ruling against our suit. Only the chief justice of the court voted in our favor. There once was a great culture that lived here and this was not mentioned by the academic community or historians. )
Birth, marriage, death and land records that were presumed for decades to be altered or destroyed in the Parish of Plaquemne under the f ormer reign of a poliltical dynasty were never investigated.
Millions of dollars (500 million in escrow) that the state received in 1990 and was allegedly used to finance local, state and natinal elections was never investigated by the F.B.I.
Local and national news media should take an active interest in this case because this injustice makes a mockery of our United States Constitution and Bill of Rights.
There is a Veterans memorial in the Pointe a la Hache Courthouse that honors veterans from Plaquemine parish. The country, state and parish theky fought and died for denied them and their heirs their constitutional birth rights to land and property.
The New Orleans and Baton Rouge newspapers won't tell you the rest of the story. Why did the Korean Veterans Associationpay a visit to the Pointe a la Hache court house in 1989?
This is submitted in memory of our forebears who endured hardships, adversity, injustice and violations of their civil and constitutional rights, namely the confiscationof their land and property and the nullification of their last will and testament by the State of Louisiana and the United States government. Foreigh lobbies have more rights then U.S. citizens.
The U.S. Justice Department should investigate the corrupt levee boards in Louisiana in regards to the failure of the levees during Hurricane Katrina.
There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.
In order to understand my story, I recommend the following books to interested readers:
Rising Tide by John M Barry and Leander Perez - Boss of the Delta by Glen Jeansonne LSU Press.
