Victor Lacroix

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.

"Mais je dirai toujours mulâtres, noirs, blancs, Victor Lacroix est mort, Jeff Davis est vivant."

'But for mulattos, blacks and whites, this fact I must tell, Victor Lacroix is dead. Jeff Davis lives still.' - excerpt from a poem published after the massacre.

Lacroix married Sarah Brown, a white woman, in a religious ceremony in 1862 at St. Alphonse Church. Civil law prohibited such a marriage until 2 years after his death. She and her two young children were provided for by her father-in-law.

His father Francois Lacroix was a wealthy property owner and served as president of the Couvent School (Institut Catholique) for African American orphans established in the will of Marie Couvent.

The courts heard a case seeking inheritance for his daughters from his father's estate. Brown gave testimony that she did not realize her husband was African American until after they were wed. Ultimately, a filing deadline was missed and her case was denied.