Lafayette civil rights icon, community activist Fred Prejean dies at 75

Fred Prejean, a Lafayette civil rights icon and community activist, died at 75, sources close to the family said. 

Prejean, who was the president of Move the Mindset, was at the center of an effort to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Alfred Mouton from downtown Lafayette. 

Back in the 1950s, Prejean said residents came to this building to pay utility bills, including his mother. 

"I was around 10 years old or so," he said at the time. "And I can remember asking my mother, 'Who is this man?' referring to the statue. My mother's reply was always, 'He was a bad man. Let's go home.' And that is as much as I could get out of her."

The statue was removed on July 17. 

Prejean has been involved in activism his entire life, always seeking to better the communities he lived in, said Greg Davis, a longtime friend of Prejsan's and the former Cajundome director.

"He has been a tremendous asset to our community, he's going to be missed very much," Davis said. "He serves as a great example, for the generations that are coming up behind us as to the importance of being active in your community so that you can make sure that good decisions are being made that's going to be for the uplift of the entire community."

Marja Broussard, the former president of the Lafayette chapter of the NAACP, praised Prejean's commitment to bettering his community, including his efforts to have the Mouton statue removed and encouraging voter participation.

"Mr. Fredrick Prejean was a giant in Louisiana history," she said in a text. "Mr. Prejean was a compassionate intellectual who loved his community and fought for justice."

Funeral and memorial services have not yet been announced. 

Over the years, the impacts Prejean made in Lafayette have rippled throughout the Acadiana area. Prejean was recognized in 2020 for his community service and activism when he was awarded the Lafayette Civic Cup. 

More:2020 Lafayette Civic Cup recipient Fred Prejean has long history of helping people help themselves

Gary McGoffin, who sits on the Civic Cup board, first met Prejean when Prejean started working to develop a business plan to help restore the Holy Rosary Institute, the former institute that was a center for Black education during and beyond the Jim Crow era. It was founded in 1913 and closed in 1993. 

"He was a steady, respectful, focused, passionate man who stayed the course and lived the life without recognition, without thought of that, it was just to do the right thing," McGoffin said. "He was a champion of his community (the Black community) and very much set on the larger community being a better place and doing the right thing."

An activist since childhood, Prejean learned to be an active community member and leader at a young age by watching his mother and her service to their community. Witnessing the March on Washington in 1963 as a senior in high school helped shape Prejean into the person, activist and community leader that he became.  

"That experience became my north star," he said in 2020. 

His work and community involvement always revolved around the betterment of individuals so they can work together to organize and create a greater whole. 

"I wanted to help people learn to provide for themselves," he said. 

While at Southern University and A&M College, Prejean protested with other students for better conditions on the campus of the historically Black school in Baton Rouge. 

Prejean worked for the Federation of Southern Cooperatives after graduating from Southern University in 1974. Three credit unions that provided low-interest loans to members were established with Prejean's guidance. 

Southern Consumers Cooperative in Lafayette was Prejean's next economic development journey. While at this cooperative, he helped establish five businesses to solely benefit Black Acadiana residents.

Prejean had a heavy hand in Lafayette's city planning. From 1999 to 2007, he was a member and Chairperson of the Lafayette Planning and Zoning Commission. Neighborhood organizations such as McComb-Veazey and Freetown-Port Rico were established during Prejean's time and remain active to this day, helping to foster community relations and improve the quality of neighborhoods.

His more recent philanthropy work included being a member of the Greater Southwest Louisiana Black Chamber of Commerce, the Holy Rosary Institute Restoration Committee, board member for Festival International de Louisiane and a member of the Lafayette Chapter of the NAACP. 

As future generations look to honor Prejean, they should dedicate themselves the way he did and others like him in the civil rights era did for the betterment of their communities, Davis said.

"If they are going to honor him, Fred would want them to take the mantle, and to go to work and to put forth the effort and to reach out to each other and build coalitions, determine what the problems are and do the work to fix the problems," he said. 

"That's what Fred would want and that would be, I think, the best way to honor Fred and many others like him that walked in his shoes."

Contact Ashley White at adwhite@theadvertiser.com or on Twitter @AshleyyDi. Reporters Victoria Dodge and Andrew Capps contributed to this report.