Victor Lacroix ( died 1866 ) was an African American from a prominent Creole peoples New Orleans family who served in the Union Army during the American Civil War and died in the New Orleans massacre of 1866 when police and firemen , including veterans of the Confederate Army , attacked a Republican Party gathering at the Mechanics Institute in New Orleans , Louisiana . Fifty people died . Poems of tribute were published in the New Orleans Tribune including one with a stanza noting Lacroix . After his death a seance was held and the medium reported that Lacroix sought a continued push for civil rights
New Orleans massacre of 1866
New Orleans massacre of 1866
Victor Lacroix