Editor's note: This is the fourth in a series on the six chosen as part of the annual Women Who Mean Business awards by the United Way of Acadiana. For tickets, visit .
Growing up as a little girl in Iberia Parish, Phebe Hayes always heard snippets of an untold history of New Iberia. Black professionals, doctors, dentists and war veterans have been part of the fabric of Louisiana, but systemic and historical efforts to erase their names led Hayes in uncovering a true retelling of history.
Not just a White one.Â
Hayes, a retired professor and dean emerita with the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and founder of the Iberia African American Historical Society, will receive the Trailblazer Award at the Woman Who Mean Business Awards. She is among six who will be honored at the ceremony at 5:30 p.m. May 9 at The Jefferson, 500 Jefferson St.Â
Hayes, a descendant of West African slaves brought to America, began her career 26 years ago as a member of Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders faculty at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. She eventually became dean of the College of General Studies from 1998 to 2013.Â
After retiring, Hayes began looking into her family history in books at the Edith Garland Dupre Library when she discovered a book on Iberia Parish physicians. Remembering the stories she had heard about Black doctors, she was shocked to see their names had been omitted from history.Â
"I discovered that story of African-Americans and their experiences and contributions to this parish has been marginalized or not even included," Hayes said.Â
She researched more than just names and jobs titles but the history surrounding these men and women growing up in the antebellum and post-Civil War south. She has reconstructed stories of local dentist and doctors fighting for Black men to become skilled laborers, their attempts to climb the socioeconomic ladder and the backlash they faced from the White citizenry.Â
Take any individual that Hayes has researched, and she can most likely tell you a play-by-play of their lives and the shifting world around them.Â
The story of Dr. Emma Wakefield inspired Hayes to create the Iberia African American Historical Society to continue her research. Wakefield, born in Iberia Parish, earned a medical degree in New Orleans in 1897. Since then, Hayes has uncovered the history of Iberia Parish's first Black clerk of court, several Black female and male doctors and Black heroes of the Civil War, Spanish American War and World War I and II.Â
"There's history," Hayes said. "I saw evidence of history that was never taught or ever presented to the community. Their service was excluded purposefully."Â
This history is important for getting a true or the truest vision of past, how it impacts the present and what future residents want to see. Since 2017, Hayes has been able to erect five historical plaques around Iberia Parish documenting the history and impact of the African Americans and has helped with the creation of exhibits at the Shadows-on-the-Teche, a former plantation.Â
She most recently received the in Louisiana studies. The IAAHS is partnered with UL's Center for Louisiana Studies, and Hayes works along with organizations including the Bayou Teche Museum in New Iberia and UL Ernest Gaines Center.
Hayes hopes her work inspires young people to continue their education and for themselves to uncover the hidden stories they know exist out there.Â
"I want this community to be better than it was when I was a child and young adult," she said. "I want people to feel comfortable and everyone to feel like this is our community."Â
