Walk the streets where jazz was born, learn about America’s first black governor and hear how one man’s refusal to move from his seat on a train led to the eventual triumph of the Civil Rights movement. It all happened here in Louisiana.
For over two centuries, the Cane River area near Natchitoches has been home to a distinct cultural group: Afro-Creoles. This group descended from the French planter Claude Thomas Pierre Metoyer and his African wife, Marie-Thérèse Coin-Coin. The Afro-Creole community continues to preserve and share their unique heritage.
Melrose Plantation, formerly known as Yucca Plantation, was the original seat of the Afro-Creole Metoyer family and includes the “African House,” a rare example of African-influenced architecture in the USA. It was later home to the famed African American folk artist Clementine Hunter, whose exquisite paintings documented the Cane River’s cultural identity.
Nearby St. Augustine Church, the nation’s first Catholic church, was built over 200 years ago by free people of color and stands as a testament to the central role of the Creole community at the time.
Cane River Creole National Historical Park is home to 63 historic structures, including Oakland Plantation and Magnolia Plantation, as well as an extensive collection of family archives, tools, equipment and furniture that chronicle the history of the complex intersections of French and African cultures in the creation of a unique ‘Creole’ society.
Contact: BWorldCommunication, Louisiana Office of Tourism Representative in France, Yohann Robert, Email: yohann@bworldcom.com
