Shreveport, Louisiana
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Shreveport is an American city in the state of Louisiana, founded in 1836 by the Shreve Town Company. It is the third most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, respectively.
Shreveport has long been cited as the birthplace of The Residents and The Cryptic Corporation, whose members are said to have met each other at the local C.E. Byrd High School, and at college at Louisiana Tech in nearby Ruston.
History
Foundation and growth
Shreveport was founded in 1836 by the Shreve Town Company, a corporation established to develop a town at the juncture of the newly navigable Red River and the Texas Trail, an overland route into the newly independent Republic of Texas.
Shreveport grew throughout the 20th century and, after the discovery of oil in Louisiana, became a national center for the oil industry, at one time boasting Standard Oil of Louisiana as a locally based company. The Louisiana branch was later absorbed by Standard Oil of New Jersey.
Beginning in 1930, United Gas Corporation, the nation's busiest pipeline operator and massive integrated oil company, was headquartered in Shreveport. Pennzoil performed a hostile takeover in 1968, and forced a merger.
Culture
Mardi Gras celebrations in Shreveport date back to the mid 19th century, when krewes and parades were organized along the lines of those held in New Orleans. Mardi Gras in Shreveport did not survive the cancellations caused by World War I. Attempts to revive it in the 1920s were unsuccessful, and the last Carnival celebrations in Shreveport for decades were held in 1927. Mardi Gras in Shreveport was revived beginning in 1984 with the organization of the Krewe of Apollo; today, Mardi Gras is again an important part of the cultural life of the Shreveport-Bossier metropolitan area.
Shreveport was home to the Louisiana Hayride radio program, broadcast weekly from the Shreveport Municipal Memorial Auditorium. During its heyday from 1948 to 1960, this program stimulated the careers of some legendary figures in American music, including Hank Williams and Elvis Presley, who made his broadcasting debut on the program in the mid-1950s.
Education
Caddo Public Schools is a school district based in Shreveport, which serves all of Caddo Parish. Its founding superintendent was Clifton Ellis Byrd, a Virginia native, who assumed the chief administrative position in 1907 and continued until his death in 1926. C.E. Byrd High School, established in 1925, bears his name.
Racial segregation
African American veterans of World War II were among activists in Shreveport through the 1960s who worked in the civil rights movement to correct injustices under Jim Crow and disenfranchisement of blacks. While activism gradually increased, 1963 was a particularly violent year in Shreveport because of white resistance. The Shreveport home of Dr. C.O. Simpkins was bombed in retaliation for his work with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
In September 1963 George W. D'Artois, Public Service Commissioner, refused a permit for a march to the Little Union Baptist Church in Shreveport, where mourners gathered to honor and commemorate four black girls killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing on September 15 in Birmingham, Alabama. D'Artois and other officers entered the church on horseback and took out the pastor, Dr. Harry Blake (president of the Shreveport chapter of the NAACP}, beating him severely. Shreveport City Council formally apologized for this incident more than sixty years later, on March 1st 2022.[1]
Also in 1963, headlines across the country reported that African American musician Sam Cooke was arrested in Shreveport after his band tried to register at a "whites-only" Holiday Inn, where they planned to stay before performing in the city. Public facilities in Louisiana were still segregated. In the months following, Cooke recorded the civil rights era song, "A Change Is Gonna Come".
In 1964, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act to end segregation of public facilities.
Economic decline and crime rate
In the 1980s, the oil and gas industry suffered a large economic downturn. This affected all of the regional economy, and many companies cut back jobs or went out of business, including a large retail shopping mall (South Park Mall) which closed in the late 1990s. Its major facilities were adapted for use by Summer Grove Baptist Church. Shreveport suffered severely from this recession, and many residents left the area.
After the loss of jobs in the oil industry, the close of Shreveport Operations (a General Motors vehicle factory) in August 2012, and other economic problems, Shreveport has continued to struggle with a declining population, poverty, drugs and violent crime. It has one of the highest crime rates in America compared to all communities of all sizes - one's chance of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime is 1 in 15. Within Louisiana, more than 93% of communities had a lower crime rate than Shreveport.
In the late 1980s, authorities started to track local Los Angeles-based gangs that distributed cocaine out of low-income neighborhoods. Shreveport was the first city in Louisiana to have Crips and Blood gangs. In 1993, Shreveport hit a peak in murders, with 86 killings. Most of the killings were drug- or gang-related homicides. In 2017, Shreveport was placed 18th on 24/7 Wall St.'s list of "America's 25 Murder Capitals." Shreveport's crime rate was 71% higher than the Louisiana average. The crime rate was also 149% higher than the national average.
See also
External links and references
- ↑ "City Of Shreveport Apologizes For Police Actions Taken In 1963", Red River Radio, March 1st 2022
