Cousins for Justice has developed from many years of familial connections and personal research. In June 2023, the Famille Duplantier network held a family reunion at Magnolia Mound Plantation that gathered about 300 Duplantiers from across the United States. The  Duplantier reunion is hosted every 10 years at Magnolia Mound Plantation (recently renamed Magnolia Mound Museum), and several family members have attended multiple reunions since 1990. Since the most recent reunion, there has been active debate among some who attended. Discussions about plantation sites such as their appropriate use as venues for reunions, weddings, etc. Critics propose that any events on plantation spaces should be limited and considered with great sensitivity and historical reflection. Duplantier descendants have a range of opinions about this that reflect the complexity of descending from forcibly enslaved persons and plantation enslavers. 

After the 2023 reunion, painful and honest discussions revealed that many cousins felt uncomfortable attending the reunion without proper acknowledgement of those once enslaved at the plantation. Sisters Lou and Maggie Duplantier helped prompt discussion by bringing to the reunion a handmade memorial naming and honoring ~300 persons once enslaved on the site. Accompanying it was an educational display based on Lou’s graduate thesis that highlighted revolutionary acts and familial relationships of the enslaved community connected to the Duplantier family. 

In many ways, the display at the reunion was a trigger that brought together values-based family members who are interested in reflecting the full story of American History to include better acknowledgement of Magnolia Mound’s slave history.. Researchers like Leon Duplantier and Amy Hathorn, teachers like Brian Duplantier and Sean Duplantier, and entrepreneurs like Iris Rideau joined Lou to create the group Cousins for Justice. Since the reunion, our intergenerational, diverse group has met bi-monthly to discuss necessary changes to Magnolia Mound. We currently collaborate to further a collective mission:

The mission of the Duplantier Cousins Committee for Justice (Cousins for Justice) is to actively promote justice - "making things right" - through education, research, and community organizing. We work to build holistic programs of reeducation through structural symbols of remembrance. We believe this mission starts with Magnolia Mound Museum + Historic Site and the work to honor the history of Black, African, Creole, and Indigenous ancestors.

If you are interested in learning more or joining our work, please email cousinsforjustice@gmail.com.