Tulane medical students explain story behind viral Whitney Plantation photos: ‘We were called there’ – By Matt Sledge (NOLA.com) / Dec 21 2019
Driving home this summer after touring Whitney Plantation in Edgard, Tulane University medical student Russell Ledet had a conversation with his daughter about the ghastly conditions their ancestors endured under slavery.
Then, at one point, the 8-year-old told her father: “Dad, being a black doctor in America is a big deal. You gotta think about how far we have come.”
Tulane medical students Sydney Labat, left, and Russell Ledet, photographed in the Times-Picayune | New Orleans Advocate studio in New Orleans, La. Friday, Dec. 20, 2019.
STAFF PHOTO BY DAVID GRUNFELD
Those words sparked an idea. And that idea has turned into a social media sensation.
Ledet decided to return to the plantation, on the remote west bank of St. John the Baptist Parish, with 14 other black medical students earlier this month.
They posed for pictures.
In one, they stand tall — wearing white lab coats — in front of a cabin where enslaved people once lived. In another, they are draped around the same porch, still and proud.
All are descended from enslaved people, except for one native of Nigeria.
Continue to article: https://www.nola.com/news/education/article_e2c300cc-2382-11ea-ba93-4392f29c507b.html
