A Visit to the Whitney Plantation

These are the last of the photos to share from my trip in March to New Orleans. One of our stops included a visit to the Whitney Plantation Museum located in Wallace, Louisiana.
Just a little under an hour away from where we were staying.

This museum is a nonprofit dedicated to educating the public about the full history and harmful legacies of slavery as it existed in the United States. The site is a historical sugar, indigo and rice plantation that operated from 1752 all the way up to 1975.

Plantations are troublesome places for learning but the Whitney is one of a handful of museums striving to lead the way in a more reparative form of education.

It strives to tell the stories of those who were enslaved by centering their voices first and foremost. You will hear and read their documented accounts of their lives and the day to day.

When you first show up, you are reminded that you are standing on sacred ground. People are buried there and so you are asked to observe the trails and stay on the designated walk paths.

You are also invited to reflect. Learn, listen, be silent.

You are also given your visitor card and on this card is the name and likeness of a child who was enslaved. You will later find the sculptures of these children all together in the Chapel that exists on the grounds. It is the last stop on the tour and a place where you are invited to sit and just be with them. It was while we sat that a red cardinal came tapping at the glass of a Chapel window just to the right of us. The little cardinal stayed there for the longest time.

And while unfiltered historical education is the fundamental purpose of the Whitney, to walk away with a sense of despair and hopelessness is to have missed a very central point.

I lingered on these children long after my last photo there. After holding them in my hand for much of the tour, I found that it hurt to now have to walk away from them.

Understanding and a more informed better position from which you can better fight for the values and people you hold dear is hopefully your takeaway when you do indeed find yourself walking out of the Chapel and looking upon their faces one last time.

In the final analysis, forever and always, we are all just trying to walk each other home at night. 2026.