Labor & Economics

During the early 1900s, much of Louisiana’s economy depended on the agricultural industry. Because of the prioritization of farm work in Iberia Parish, entire family units often worked together to cultivate and harvest cash crops like sugarcane and chili peppers to survive. This sometimes made it difficult for African Americans to attend school since agricultural labor provided a more immediate means to wealth.

After the 1929 stock market crash, many families throughout the United States began to feel the damaging effects of the Great Depression. For African American families in Iberia Parish, adjusting to the failing economy meant rationing goods for survival. Many families ate only what they could raise and grow themselves. However, for most Black families, conditions during the Depression were not much different than their lives prior to the stock market crash because they were accustomed to surviving with only minimal resources.

Though agriculture continued to flourish in Iberia Parish, growing industrial, educational, and hospitality needs allowed African Americans to take jobs building railroads, working in refineries and domestic settings, teaching in Black schools, and as professionals. It has been found that throughout segregation, twenty-one African American doctors were associated with Iberia Parish. Eventually, the nation began to see improvements in its economy, allowing African Americans access to more opportunities than before. For Iberia Parish, Hopkins Street (currently Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Parkway), which runs through the heart of New Iberia’s West End, was home to some of the town’s first Black-owned businesses.

As African Americans in Iberia Parish advanced, they desired to have access to economic structures and community resources such as banks, lodging facilities, and restaurants. However, because of segregation, Blacks were rarely allowed access into these spaces. In spite of these systemic challenges, Iberia Parish’s Black community established their own facilities. In 1941, African American community members, including the doctors and leaders who were expelled from Iberia Parish, collaborated to form the parish’s first and only federal credit union at the time, which was located on French Street.

 Listen to the oral histories below to hear witness accounts about the economy for Blacks in Iberia Parish.