A New Orleans Saints helmet with their logo. (Winslow Townson/AP Images for Panini) / Illustration of a slavemaster branding a slave. (Twitter / Gwen Berry)
One thing about New Orleans natives is they don’t play about their football team. Win, lose or draw, the people of the Crescent City typically ride or die for the New Orleans Saints and can often be heard screaming “Who Dat” on any given day.
It’s why the Saints’ fleur-de-lis logo, which means lily flower in English, can be seen so prevalently throughout the city. But many don’t know the Saints logo has a dark history that stretches far beyond football.
The fleur-de-lis was the royal crest of France’s Royal Family, which included the House of Bourbon before it became an iconic cultural symbol in Louisiana. Once the symbol made its way to the states, it was used in a much more troublesome way.
In a 2015 interview, slave historian Dr. Ibrahima Seck told USA Today the fleur-de-lis was used to brand runaway slaves as a punishment upon capture. The practice began in 1724 when Louisiana enacted “Code Noir,” which means “Black Code.”
“Code noir, those words are French and mean black code,” Seck said, adding fugitive slaves “would be taken before a court and the sentence would be being branded on one shoulder and with the fleur-de-lis, and then they would crop their ears.”
Seck added that enslaved people were branded a second time on their second offense and had their hamstrings cut on the third. Knowing the history, Seck said he finds the symbol despairing.
“As an African, I find it painful, and I think people whose ancestors were enslaved here may feel it even harder than I do as an African,” Seck said.
Terence Fitzmorris, a history professor at Tulane University, echoed Seck. “It was a brutal way of scarring someone and also identifying someone as a particular troublemaker,” Fitzmorris said.
Kamilah Moore, the chair of the historic California Reparations Task Force, reiterated the fact about the Saints logo in a recent interview.
“What happened on the American plantation was a crime against humanity,” Moore said. “So, in that podcast episode, it kind of shared the torture that our ancestors were forced to suffer through. Like, for instance, the New Orleans Saints logo … they would brand slaves with that sign.”
There have been calls for the Saints to change their logo based on the revelation of its history. Tom Hopkins, a staff writer for The Recorder, called for its removal in 2019.
“There is one logo in sports that somehow eludes any criticism despite having a history deeply rooted in racism,” Hopkins wrote in an op-ed. “The New Orleans Saints logo, the fleur-de-lis, is a symbol of slavery around the world and should be removed from their uniforms.”
In 2019, Cheryl Woods told The Louisiana Weekly learning about the fluer-de-lis’ history changed the way she supported the Saints.
“After learning about that symbol, I don’t watch the Saints as much as I used to,” Woods said. “I’m glad the Saints are winning and am happy for the players, but I don’t buy Saints merchandise anymore or anything with a fleur-de-lis on it.”
“I mean, while we changing shitt up, what about the @Saints symbol the ‘Fleur-de-lis.’ Slave owners branded slaves with this symbol as punishment for running away,” Olympic sprinter and activist Gwen Berry tweeted in 2020.
However, Fitzmorris and Seck told USA Today the meaning of the fleur-de-lis has changed over time to represent unity. Fitzmorris questioned how far the nation should go in its efforts to correct the wrongs of the past.
“The fleur-de-lis was the symbol of a monarchy. The United States of America was a slave-holding republic, not just the South. Where do you stop? Do you get rid of all symbols?” Fitzmorris said.
ORIGINAL PHOTOS:
A New Orleans Saints helmet with their logo sits on an equipment trunk during an NFL football game against the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium, Sunday, Sept. 26, 2021 in Foxborough, Mass. (Winslow Townson/AP Images for Panini)
Illustration of a slavemaster branding a slave. (Twitter / Gwen Berry)
