Louisiana Church Unveils Historic Marker

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 1, 2025

Louisiana Church Unveils Historic Marker Honoring 128 Years of Black Catholic Legacy

The effort to secure the marker was led by Augusta Rideau, who helped establish the Immaculate Conception Alumni Foundation for the preservation of the church and its historic grounds and structures. Two years ago, along with a small group of parishioners, began advocating for a historical marker, convinced that Lebeau’s story needed to be protected.They had been watching the shifts, depopulation, aging buildings, the slow fading of rural institutions and felt a responsibility to act.

Rideau’s connection to the parish began long before she helped organize committees or volunteered at “Lebeau Church” as it is often referred. She married in the church in 1975. Her three children were baptized here, made their First Communion here, and were confirmed here. Her four grandchildren followed the same path. Augusta’s life, every major milestone, is rooted in this parish.

“Our ancestors left us a beautiful place, and we needed to find a way to preserve it,” she said.

Immaculate Conception is not simply a place of worship. It is the place where generations of Black families in Petite Prairie, Rideau Settlement, Morrow, Rosa, and the surrounding countryside were baptized, educated, married, buried, and spiritually shaped. It is a parish born because Black families insisted on it. After years of petitioning the Archdiocese of New Orleans for a priest, the Josephite Fathers assigned Fr. Pierre Oscar Lebeau, whose arrival in 1897 was greeted, as he recorded, “in good old Creole fashion,” with parishioners saying in Louisiana Creole French, “Nous content vous vini,” which means “We are glad because you are here.”

From this single assignment, the Josephites went on to build more than forty Black Catholic parishes across the South. Yet Lebeau, the tiny village named for that first priest, remained the spiritual heart of the Josephite mission in the region. The historical marker recognizes a story that spans more than a century: a school founded in 1900 and staffed by the Sisters of the Holy Family and later the Sisters of the Holy Spirit; a high school opened in 1939 for Black children who had no other secondary school in northern St. Landry Parish; a community deeply involved in civic struggles, including violent reprisals against Black men attempting to register to vote in the 1950s; and a parish that survived fires, tornadoes, economic decline, migration, and the closing of its school in 1979 but continued to anchor rural Black life.

“Lebeau Church holds a special place in my heart. It’s where my parents met as teenagers at the church fair known as the ‘bazar.’ It’s where I made my First Communion like so many of my cousins, aunts, and uncles. My father was an altar boy at the church, and he went to school there along with so many other of our relatives. I even attended Head Start there in the 80s,” said jewel bush, a writer and communications strategist, who serves on the Immaculate Conception Alumni Foundation. “And my great grandparents, Frank Bill Rideau and Mamie Jones, were married there more than a century ago in December 1922.”  

Rideau’s words carry the sense of responsibility felt by many in rural communities fighting historical erasure, “We are saving our legacy.” With the clarity of someone who has traveled and returned home with new eyes, she added: “When you travel around the world and you visit all the other places, why can’t they visit Lebeau?”

The unveiling invites parishioners, alumni, descendants, and the broader public to return home to honor their roots.

WHAT: Historic marker unveiling and celebration: The ceremony begins with Mass, followed by the blessing of the marker, a program featuring community voices, zydeco music by Lebeau native son Step Rideau, and a community meal.

WHEN: 10 a.m. Saturday, December 6, 2025

WHERE: The historic Immaculate Conception Church, 103 Lebeau Church Road, Washington, LA 70589

Immaculate Conception Church and School Highlights:

• Founded in 1897, Immaculate Conception Catholic Church at Bayou Petite Prairie (present-day Lebeau) is the first Josephite mission in Louisiana and the Josephites’ entry point into the Deep South.
• Historically, Louisiana has been a central hub for Black Catholicism in the U.S. including a long heritage of Black Catholics dating to the 18th century, during both the colonial French and Spanish eras. 
• From Lebeau, a rural Black Catholic community, Josephite priests went on to serve Black parishes and mission stations across Louisiana, East Texas, and eventually Los Angeles, a national network that today includes nearly two dozen parishes and schools in those regions alone.
• Fr. Charles “Chuck” Andrus is the parish’s first native Josephite priest.
• The parish school, operating since 1900, was staffed by the Sisters of the Holy Family and later rebuilt in 1927.
• The grounds of Immaculate Conception Church remain a cultural center through the annual Lebeau Zydeco Festival.
• The Dec. 6 event marks the first historical marker ever placed in northern St. Landry Parish.

About the Immaculate Conception Church and School:

Immaculate Conception Parish was established in 1897 by the Society of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart, the Josephites.The order sent Fr. Pierre Oscar Lebeau to Petite Prairie to start the first Josephite parish in the State of Louisiana. Out of this parish, the Josephites began their mission to Blacks in their separate church parishes throughout the South. Having a priest for the large number of Black Catholics already living in the area meant funerals, weddings, baptisms and Sunday Mass. The school started in 1900, adding the high school in 1939. The closest high school that Black people could attend at the time was 30 miles away. Grammy Award-Winner and Zydeco Legend, Sidney “Rockin Sidney” Simien, graduated in the 1950s. Petite Prairie was renamed Lebeau to honor the priest that was buried next to the church after his death in 1915. Immaculate Conception Parish has served as an anchor for the community providing both spiritual and educational needs and was always open to all.

About the Immaculate Conception Alumni Foundation:

Immaculate Conception Alumni Foundation is a nonprofit organization formed by alumni of Immaculate Conception Catholic Church and/or School who saw a need to preserve and foster the legacy of our parents and foreparents. We have also identified the need to preserve and restore the historical buildings, mission church, and grounds that are a part of Immaculate Conception, Lebeau, Louisiana. The foundation was instrumental in getting a Louisiana Historical Land Marker for Immaculate Conception Church and School. This is the first historical land marker on the