Genealogical report on slaves buried at Cancer Alley site is postponed

A sign outside Rise St. James President Sharon Lavigne's house indicates her opposition to a $9.4 billion manufacturing complex proposed by Formosa Plastics and her preferred name for "Cancer Alley": "Death Row." (Photo provided by Sharon Lavigne)

A Louisiana environmental group is postponing its plans to release a genealogical report into the newly discovered identities of slaves buried at the site of a proposed Formosa Plastics complex in St. James Parish. The delay follows “last-minute communications” from the company’s lawyers.

Louisiana Bucket Brigade founding director Anne Rolfes said her organization has decided to reschedule the press conference after it received “last-minute communications” via email from Formosa’s lawyers. Rolfes didn’t share the details of the note but said the company is concerned about the group’s discovery and the media attention surrounding it.

“We’re just going to take a moment to look at a few things, and we’ll probably release it next week,” Rolfes said in a brief phone interview. “We’ve just got to be careful. They’re a big company worth billions of dollars, so we’ve got to be careful.”

The Bucket Brigade still plans to share findings from its research with the public, but it is taking some time to review and respond to Formosa’s concerns, she said.

Rolfes first disseminated a press release last week announcing the discovery of new genealogical findings and planned a news conference Tuesday to unveil them. The group said it has discovered the identities of five enslaved individuals buried at the site, ranging in age from 9 to 32 at the time of their death.

The Louisiana State Historic Preservation Office first discovered their remains in 2017 in unmarked graves on the site of the former Winchester/Buena Vista plantation, a site soon to be under construction at the time for a Formosa Plastics industrial complex that would be one of the largest plastic manufacturing plants in the world.

The Bucket Brigade has long engaged in legal fights over industrial pollution in the so-called Cancer Alley petrochemical corridor between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, including the Formosa proposal.

Formosa did not immediately respond to the Illuminator’s request for comment Monday afternoon.

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