St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, Tomb of Dieu Nous Protege Society, New Orleans, Orleans Parish, LA

2003 Charles E. Peterson Prize, Entry

Significance: The aftermath of death can be very expensive, therefore to cut costs, people banded together in "Benevolent Associations" that help to support widows, pay medical bills, and provide burial insurance, ensuring internment in a consecrated cemetery. Its members were buried in multi-vaulted society tombs, like that of Dieu Nous Protege Society. The Dieu Nous Protege Society Tomb is a twenty-vault tomb located in Saint Louis Cemetery #1, identified as number 115 in cemetery records. Organized on October 26, 1844, The Dieu Nous Protege Society was one of the few African American benevolent associations that contained people of African origin. The tomb was rebuilt on June 1, 1912. In 1913-14 it was repaired by Victor Huber who once related that the treasurer paid him in nickels and dimes.

Survey number: HABS LA-1309-G

National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 75000855

tombs and sepulchral monuments louisiana cemetery louis cemetery tomb protege society protege society new orleans parish orleans parish st louis saint louis mississippi river african americans fraternal organizations e cizek pilar cruz leon geoxavier historic american buildings survey race relations library of congress national register of historic places

1933 - 1970

Library of Congress

http://www.loc.gov/

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