New Orleans, Orleans Parish story
A Non-Segregated Rest
Most of the city's early cemeteries were divided by race and religion, but Lafayette Cemetery Number One told a different story. Built in 1883 and designed by architect Benjamin B…
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Most of the city's early cemeteries were divided by race and religion, but Lafayette Cemetery Number One told a different story. Built in 1883 and designed by architect Benjamin Buisson, this municipal site was established as non-denominational and, crucially, non-segregated. In a city often fractured by social divides, this became a place where people from over twenty-five different countries could rest side by side.
While the cemetery is currently closed to the general public for repairs, its history remains a quiet, powerful statement on equality. It serves as a reminder that even in the finality of death, New Orleans sought spaces where the barriers of the living could finally be broken down.
Updated June 2026