Community Atlas

Lions

The community of Lions was located in St. John the Baptist Parish. In the 1970s, Marathon built what would become the nation’s second largest refinery. Located between Lions, a community founded by former slaves, and Garyville, a racially mixed community upstream, the refinery operations and accidents created a noxious environment. Residents from Lions were entirely displaced. All that is left of the community are two cemeteries that are completely surrounded by the Marathon Refinery. Families must get permission from Marathon to access grave sites and dig plots for deceased family members (The Lens 2023).