In 2023, word spread across central Louisiana that Ken Burns was in Alexandria. The documentary filmmaker known for “The Civil War,” “Baseball” and “Jazz” wasn’t scouting locations or collecting landscape shots. He was searching for a man many locals had never heard of.

“It was reported that he was trying to find out about a man named J.B. Lafargue for a documentary about Black Americans,” said Bill Sumrall, of Alexandria.

Sumrall was right. Burns is working on “Emancipation to Exodus,” a film that explores Black American history during the Great Migration and is set to air on Public Broadcasting in 2027.

But that left one lingering question in Alexandria: Why Lafargue?

The answer is simple. Lafargue lived here. It’s where he married educator Sarah Mayo and founded the Peabody Industri

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