Were You There? A Biography of Emma Wakefield-Paillet
By Phebe Hayes and Margaret Simon
Coming April 2025
About the Book
Were You There? travels through the life of Emma Wakefield-Paillet as she breaks away from the oppression of the post-Civil War southern life to successfully become the first African American woman to receive a medical degree in the state of Louisiana. As she grows up in New Iberia, Louisiana, her father rises in the political opportunities of Reconstruction. Unfortunately, Emma’s family is met with tragedy after tragedy. She faces each challenge with courage and perseverance. Her story is compelling. Written in both nonfiction prose, supported by the research of Phebe Hayes, and poems in Emma’s voice by Margaret Simon, this biography presents a history that is often left in the shadows.
“Were you there when we finally broke the chains? when our hollow cries were heard?” This biography will take you there.
Designed for middle grades readers and above.
About the Authors
Phebe A. Hayes is a descendant of African families formerly enslaved on nineteenth-century local plantations. Several of her male ancestors were veterans of the Union Army and Navy. She is passionate about humanizing her people by providing evidence of their experiences and contributions to Iberia Parish and surrounding communities, from slavery to the end of Jim Crow segregation. Phebe is a professor (Department of Communicative Disorders) and dean emerita (College of General Studies) at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette after twenty-seven years of service. After retirement, she founded he Iberia African American Historical Society (IAAHS), located in New Iberia, Louisiana. Through IAAHS, she also organized the Iberia African American Historical Society Center for Research & Learning, an archive of primary documents, civil records, and pictures related to the true and inclusive history of the community.
Margaret Simon lives on the Bayou Teche in New Iberia, Louisiana. Margaret has been an elementary school teacher for thirty-six years. She's the author of Bayou Song: Creative Explorations of the South Louisiana Landscape. Margaret has contributed to children's anthologies including The Poetry of US by National Geographic and Rhyme & Rhythm: Poems for Student Athletes. Margaret writes a blog regularly at http://reflectionsontheteche.com.
Praise for Were You There?
“Young imaginations shall become awakened with creative storytelling employed by Dr. Phebe Hayes’s narrative and Ms. Margaret Simon’s poetry. Readers can journey with and learn from the details of Dr. Emma Wakefield-Paillet’s fully described life from childhood through adulthood by writing their personal narratives and insightful poetry. Teachers, too, may delight in the many ways that they can engage young minds to imagine themselves in both their present and their futures. This book opens the floodgate of solid history combined with literature’s poetic spark: the keys to stimulating young minds.”—Eva Semien Baham, PhD, Assistant Professor of History, Dillard University
“This new biography of Emma Wakefield-Paillet defies classification. Its prose offers the reader history, its poetry an exploration of characters’ feelings. Its suggested audience is middle school students, but adults will also find it informative and entertaining. It even includes a study guide for students, lesson suggestions for teachers, and poetry definitions for anyone who wants to know. Such riches will attract readers of many interests and backgrounds, and they are not likely to be disappointed.”—Ann B. Dobie
“In Were You there? A Biography of Emma Wakefield-Paillet, Dr. Phebe Hayes and Margaret Simon offer in a brief book many answers to the mystery of the life of this first Black American woman Doctor (graduate of Straight University, the early Dillard University) to practice medicine in New Orleans, indeed in the state. In no way a typical history, Hayes and Simon provide details outside of journal and newspaper quotes of that time with historical items that might represent what, say a train or a medical bag, was used, but also verse, well-crafted historic poems as well as contemporary verse, including a Jericho-Brown inspired Duplex poem, all of which serve to capture the angst, anger, other emotions, and insert profound quandaries Wakefield experienced, an unusual and touching take on a great life, the human history poetry gives to all our days. There’s also fine Lagniappe (Creole for something extra), such as the helpful timeline, historical background, a glossary on poetic forms used, plus an educational guide, and all enhance and add to the interesting information covered. Each page fulfills its promise and tastes like more.”—Mona Lisa Saloy, Louisiana Poet Laureate 2021-2023, Louisiana Folklife Commissioner, Conrad N. Hilton Endowed Professor of English, Dillard University
“This iconic, unique and heroic woman, family and history has been recused from the depth of the unknown. Kudos to Phebe Hayes and Margaret Simon for providing us with a masterful, excellent and a fantastic story of triumph, tragedy, and achievement. Enriched with significant poetry and historical poems, it allows the reader to engage with the narrative and become more involved in the historical events. In addition, it instructs and guides you through how to get involved with your own story and history. May we all become familiar and embrace Were You There? This will ensure Dr. Emma Wakefield-Paillet will not be lost to future generations.”—Charles Vincent, Founder/Director of Mwalimu Institute, Former Professor of History, Southern University and A & M College
© 2025 Phebe Hayes and Margaret Simon
978-1-959569-19-0 | Paperback | 144 pp. | 6" x 9" | April 2025