Latest news with #ParishCivilRightsHeritageTrail
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Redlining in Cedar Grove
The Caddo Parish Civil Rights Heritage Trail project is expanding its scope with a new series designed to help historic villages, towns, neighborhoods, and/or cities in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, investigate three different versions of their communities: the past, the present, and the future. Team members include Dr. Gary Joiner, Mik Barnes, Jaclyn Tripp, Dr. Laura Meiki, Dr. Jolivette Anderson-Douong, Dr. Amy Rosner, Dr. Rolonda Teal, and Brenton Metzler. The team is now focusing on the history of the Cedar Grove neighborhood. In the first article in the series on Cedar Grove, Dr. Gary Joiner (Professor of History at LSU Shreveport) showed us how a social movement in 1911 Shreveport drastically changed Cedar Grove. In the second article of the series, we learned how Shreveport became a hub for automobile production in the early days of the horseless carriage. The third article of the series examined how manufacturing changed in Cedar Grove after automobile production ended. For the fourth article in our series on Cedar Grove, Dr. Gary Joiner took readers back to 1905-1910, when Cedar Grove sprung up in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, as a small oil boom town. The fifth article on Cedar Grove explored how Cedar Grove was settled after the Louisiana Purchase, how streets became bisected in Cedar Grove, and described the topography of the little community that later became a Shreveport community. We will learned about how glass coffins were once fashionable in the United States in the sixth article in the series, and we learned about a glass coffin factory that once operated in Cedar Grove. In the seventh article in the series, Dr. Gary Joiner discusses how redlining harmed Cedar Grove. SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – Is it possible to point to a single factor that doomed Cedar Grove from recovering its vibrancy from the first third of the twentieth century? The answer is unequivocally yes. The US Government created the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) as part of the New Deal programs in the 1930s. The intent appeared noble: to rescue clients and banks from bankruptcy and catastrophic failure. In practice, however, they assured strong banks would mitigate potential losses by protecting their best accounts. Any property with a mortgage in a 'good' neighborhood was safe. Any street with such housing was deemed acceptable for long-term loans. Any properties not meeting the highest standards became increasingly suspect. Any streets where people lived who were not White Anglo-Saxon Protestant were suspect and affected adjoining 'good' properties. The reasons given for rating neighborhoods are overtly bigoted from today's lens. The HOLC surveyed 239 cities nationwide to determine the viability of granting or continuing mortgages. Only two cities in Louisiana was surveyed–New Orleans and Shreveport. The HOLC came to Shreveport in 1940 and left chaos in its wake. The survey team, by practice, none of whom were from our region, created 25 neighborhoods. Twenty-three were in Shreveport, and two were in Bossier City. They used the 1930 Decennial Census to identify streets. They also used local street maps or Sanborn Fire Insurance Mao Company's index pages. They used the local Globe Map Company street map of Shreveport. The surveyors, called valuators, artificially ranked neighborhoods by letter grade, A-D. Class A was the best, and Class D was 'hazardous' and uninsurable. They created artificial boundaries that suited their purposes. They also did not cover all areas within cities. They flagged industrial areas (appropriately) as non-residential but penalized adjoining residential neighborhoods as undesirable. When they canvassed Cedar Grove, they ended the survey at 79th Street. The canvassers deemed Cedar Grove below the street to be primarily rural. The industrial northwestern area of Cedar Grove was hatched, indicating the proper extremities. The remainder from Hollywood Avenue/Pierremint/Southfield, south to 71st Street, was coded Yellow C-7, except for the area south of 65th Street, midway between Fairfield Avenue and Thornhill Avenue, west to the previous town boundary and south to 71st Street. This portion was coded Red D-9. This extended south to 80th Street and east to Linwood Avenue. C-7Population 90% white, 10% negro – composed of middle class salaried workers, mechanics and quite a few tradesmen who maintain their business in this section. It is the best section of Cedar Grove, formerly a separate municipality. Predominant type of building is single family, with a small commercial area along 70th street and Fairfield street. Area is about 60% built up. Age of properties 1 to 25 years only fairly well maintained. No shifting of population. D-9Population 60% white 40% negro. This section is the Southern part of Cedar Grove. About 20% built up. Population consists mostly of wage earners of lower to middle class, some salaried workers, laborers and mechanics. White population resides West of Railroad. Single family buildings predominate. Age of properties 1 to 20 years with white property fairly well maintained and negro property poorly maintained. Section is at the extreme end of the city limits, somewhat inaccessible. Cedar Grove has been an integrated, working/middle-class neighborhood from its inception. The harm done by the HOLC in 1940 still rings true throughout the decades. Redlining harmed its residents by preventing them from obtaining mortgages and/or low-interest mortgages. According to the 2020 Decennial Census, Cedar Grove's population is healthy but older: Total population 4161 White 371 White % 8.92 All persons Black 3630 All Person Black % 87.24 Asian 14 Hispanic 120 18+ Population 3210 Housing Units 2260 Occupied 1757 Unoccupied 503 59th Street to Hollywood Ave/Pierremont/Southfield East. Digital composite map Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Company plates from 1935. Plates 233 and 234 in Volume Two, Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Company 1935 maps of Shreveport, Louisiana. Sanborn Map Collection in the Library of Congress. Red lines are neighborhood boundaries. Gray polygons are building layer objects from the City of Shreveport GIS —georeferencing, research, and Cartography by Gary D. Joiner, Ph.D. 71st Street West to 73rd Street West. Digital composite map Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Company plates from 1935. Plates 241 and 242 in Volume Two, Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Company 1935 maps of Shreveport, Louisiana. Sanborn Map Collection in the Library of Congress. Red lines are neighborhood boundaries. Gray polygons are building layer objects from the City of Shreveport GIS —georeferencing, research, and Cartography by Gary D. Joiner, Ph.D. 73rd Street East to 76th Street East. Digital composite map Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Company plates from 1935. Plates 240, 242, and 244 in Volume Two, Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Company 1935 maps of Shreveport, Louisiana. Sanborn Map Collection in the Library of Congress. Red lines are neighborhood boundaries. Gray polygons are building layer objects from the City of Shreveport GIS —georeferencing, research, and Cartography by Gary D. Joiner, Ph.D. 78th Street West to 80th Street West. Digital composite map Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Company plates from 1935. Plates 242 and 244 in Volume Two, Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Company 1935 maps of Shreveport, Louisiana. Sanborn Map Collection in the Library of Congress. Red lines are neighborhood boundaries. Gray polygons are building layer objects from the City of Shreveport GIS —georeferencing, research, and Cartography by Gary D. Joiner, Ph.D. Sources: Library of Congress, Introduction to the [Sanborn Map] Collection. 'Fighters; Louisiana Campaign Gains Heat From Charges, but Effect on Primaries Is Doubtful. Home Rule Chief Issue,' New York Times, December 8, 1935, Section E, Page 11. See Richard L. Engstrom, 'Home Rule in Louisiana—Could This Be the Promised Land?' Louisiana History, Vol. 17, No. 4, 1976, pp. 431-455. 'Cedar Grove Pastor Asks Probe of Riot,' Shreveport Journal, January 7, 1936, Page 11. For an extensive investigation of housing discrimination by the Federal Government during the 1930s and since, see Gary D. Joiner, 'Redlining in Shreveport,' or Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
05-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Cedar Grove had a glass coffin factory
The Caddo Parish Civil Rights Heritage Trail project is expanding its scope with a new series designed to help historic villages, towns, neighborhoods, and/or cities in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, investigate three different versions of their communities: the past, the present, and the future. Team members include Dr. Gary Joiner, Mik Barnes, Jaclyn Tripp, Dr. Laura Meiki, Dr. Jolivette Anderson-Douong, Dr. Amy Rosner, Dr. Rolonda Teal, and Brenton Metzler. The team is now focusing on the history of the Cedar Grove neighborhood. In the first article in the series on Cedar Grove, Dr. Gary Joiner (Professor of History at LSU Shreveport) showed us how a social movement in 1911 Shreveport drastically changed Cedar Grove. In the second article of the series, we learned how Shreveport became a hub for automobile production in the early days of the horseless carriage. The third article of the series examined how manufacturing changed in Cedar Grove after automobile production ended. For the fourth article in our series on Cedar Grove, Dr. Gary Joiner took readers back to 1905-1910, when Cedar Grove sprung up in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, as a small oil boom town. The fifth article on Cedar Grove explored how Cedar Grove was settled after the Louisiana Purchase, how streets became bisected in Cedar Grove, and described the topography of the little community that later became a Shreveport community. In this, the sixth article in the series, we will learn about how glass coffins were once fashionable in the United States and learn about a glass coffin factory that once operated in Cedar Grove. SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – 'What will be of interest to the entire world is the Glass Coffin factory now nearing completion and which will soon be in active operation in Cedar Grove,' wrote a reporter for The Shreveport Journal, Oct. 26, 1921, pp. 51. Yes, that's right. Cedar Grove once had a glass coffin factory. But what is a glass coffin, exactly? The industrialization of casket machinery transformed the business of death in the United States by the 1920s, when multiple companies began producing caskets with glass windows. Glass windows were originally added to caskets so that family and friends could look into the coffin to see the body of the deceased. But that's not the only reason why glass casket windows became popular. 'The window also would alert onlookers that the occupant had been accidentally buried alive if breath condensation appeared on the inside of the glass,' wrote Troy Smythe in an article called Failure to launch: The American glass casket industry, published by the Corning Museum of glass. By the early 1920s, The National Glass Coffin Company in Cedar Grove, Louisiana (now Shreveport) was determined to provide yet another service for glass coffin customers. 'A circular letter received from the Nationa Glass Casket Co., Denver, Colorado, states that they are going to build a factory at Shreveport, La. for the purpose of manufacturing glass caskets. Their reason for locating at Shreveport is 'because that section offers and unlimited supply of natural gas and glass sand, and water rates for the transportation of the product,' wrote The National Glass Budget, a weekly review of the American glass industry, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, on May 10, 1919. 'The coffins and caskets to be manufactured, it is believed, will revolutionize the coffin industry in this country. The glass coffins are hermetically sealed and are moisture proof as well as vermin proof and persons buried in these receptacles may be unearthed thousands of years hence in the same identical condition as when interred,' explained The Shreveport Journal. During the 1920s, glass caskets were a fashionable trend in the United States. On Apr. 24, 1969, on the Egypt Plantation in Cruger, Mississippi, farm workers were using a backhoe near the old bank of the Yazoo River when they hit something 2-4′ deep in the ground. Suddenly liquid began pouring from the object, and when the farm workers began investigating the situation they suddenly saw woman's body inside. She was wearing a red velvet dress, a long cape, silk boots, and she looked like she was in her early 30s. 'The Lady in Red,' as she was later called, had red hair and pale skin. After the farm workers called the local sheriff, an investigation proved the strange liquid to be alcohol and determined that the woman had been buried long ago. The coffin was later determined to be a Fisk Airtight Coffin, which was made by the Fisk company in Rhode Island. Their caskets were used to preserve the bodies of the deceased as they were shipped home to their families far away. Who was the Lady in Red? Her identity is still a mystery, but it is suspected that her body was buried long before the Civil War–which proves that caskets with glass windows were being used in the South long before a glass casket company opened in Shreveport during the 1920s. The idea of covering the dead in a liquid that preserves their bodies is nothing new. An ancient Roman method covered the bodies of the deceased in liquid gypsum that acted almost like a plaster. Archaeologists have found that Roman burials in liquid gypsum date back at least 1700s years. Those who grew up watching Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, an animated film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures, pictured the post-apple Snow White asleep in a glass coffin, waiting for her prince to show up and kiss her back to life. It's a rather Grimm story. More than 80 years after the release of the 1937 film, the image of Snow White in a glass coffin is a little bit creepy when you think about it. But now that you know a little about the history of America's glass coffin industry in the 1920s, are you really surprised that such a coffin would appear in a cartoon movie released in 1937? The National Glass Coffin Company was based in Denver, Colorado, and a patent for one of the class coffins was filed on Nov. 7, 1916. And though we can't be certain that this is the exact model that was produced by the same company's Shreveport factory, we can easily make assumptions. The patent application stated that the coffin was comprised of a base and a cover, with the base made of glass reinforced with metallic elements. The Shreveport Journal, Oct. 26, 1921, pp. 51. The National Glass Budget, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, May 10, 1919. Glass Worker, Volume 41, No. 1, Oct. 1, 1921, pp. 11. The Caucasian, Shreveport, Louisiana, July 8, 1909, pp. 4. United States Patent Office Official Gazette, Department of The Interior, May 1, 1917, pp. 96. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
23-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Shreveport's 'factory movement' of 1911 completely transformed Cedar Grove
The Caddo Parish Civil Rights Heritage Trail project is expanding its scope with a new series designed to help historic villages, towns, neighborhoods, and/or cities in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, investigate three different versions of their communities: the past, the present, and the future. Team members include Dr. Gary Joiner, Mik Barnes, Jaclyn Tripp, Dr. Laura Meiki, Dr. Jolivette Anderson-Douong, Dr. Amy Rosner, Dr. Rolonda Teal, and Brenton Metzler. The team is now focusing on the history of the Cedar Grove neighborhood. In this, the first article in the series on Cedar Grove, Dr. Gary Joiner (Professor of History at LSU Shreveport) shows us how a social movement in 1911 Shreveport drastically changed Cedar Grove. SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – Did you know that Cedar Grove was once a hotspot of industry in the American South? The first hint of modern industrialization occurred in Cedar Grove in 1859 when Louisiana reserved 280 acres of land in Section 25 for the Vicksburg, Shreveport, and Texas Railroad as part of a grand attempt to create a transcontinental railroad. Much of the railroad bed across northern Louisiana was cleared and prepared, but the tracks for the transcontinental railroad in this region were not laid before the Civil War. Both sides of the future railroad tracks remained farms and forested areas for the remainder of the nineteenth century, but things began to change after the formerly enslaved were emancipation. After the Civil War, Black farmers and farm workers lived in the area that would one day become Cedar Grove. This rural community was integrated long before political and social conventions swept America. The first house of worship in Cedar Grove, Little Hope Baptist Church, was built in 1894 on an acre of land donated by Maria Wright. Wright was a Black landowner and a charter member of the congregation. The people of Cedar Grove came together in 1904 and formed the village as a legal entity. Within less than a decade, Cedar Grove underwent a brilliant factory movement that successfully attracted workers and factories to the area. This article focuses on Cedar Grove's urbanization, which caused the village to grow so rapidly that it became a positive example of social and economic change in the American South. However, the article also acknowledges that when Cedar Grove transitioned from a village to a neighborhood in Shreveport, the former community lost some of its historic identity. The origin of the name 'Cedar Grove' is a mystery. Historian Eric Brock conjectured that it might have been the name of the Pickens family plantation or perhaps from the Caddo Indian word, Wahahula, meaning 'watering place,' or even early settlers who mistook the abundant pine trees for cedar trees. However, regardless of how Cedar Grove got its name, in January 1911, The Shreveport Journal published an article about a master plan for Cedar Grove that had been planned by an Indiana man. 'George B. Wheelock of Anderson, Indiana, Represeting a Strong Firm, announces that at least four manufacturing plants will be established and car line extended on lot sale plan,' wrote a Shreveport Journal reporter on Jan. 18, 1911. 'The Indianians have purchased a large tract of land situated just south of the city along the line of the Kansas City Southern railroad… The name of the tract just purchased is Cedar Grove addition. It will be laid off in lots of 50 by 150 feet, with 60-foot streets and 20-foot alleys. Forty acres will be reserved for factory sites, for donation by the promoters. The plan is to place the lots on sale at $200 each, payable $20 down and $10 per month until paid fair. The citizens will be asked to buy the lots as real estate investments.' In the article, Wheelock also said the plan was to locate industries on the lot sale plan, which his team had followed most successfully in Muskogee, Oklahoma, Anderson, Indiana, and other places. 'If we sell these lots in Cedar Grove addition to the people at their actual worth without any industries being located thereon, and then we establish the factories, we will be putting the industries here virtually as gifts to the citizens,' said Wheelock in the article on pp. 3. George B. Wheelock was a highly praised businessman from Anderson, Indiana. He was manufacturing 'horseless carriages' in Indiana as early as 1907, and he served successfully on a committee of 13 men who completely transformed Anderson, Indiana in the early 1900s. 'We don't care to give one person credit over another in our great movement, but we can't resist the temptation of suggesting three rousing cheers for Goerge B. Wheelock… the literal hub about which this lot movement has radiated,' wrote a reporter for The Anderson Herald in a story that published on Apr. 17, 1908. 'It has been called the Watkins plan and Mr. Watkins suggested it. But the one man above all others, Mr. Watkins included, who made it go, was our own fellow townsmen and spendid citizen, George B. Wheelock… He has been a veritable dynamo that, operating in the center, has been felt to the very point of the circumference, and to him first, let us doff our hats.' An article about how Anderson, Indiana attracted factories to their town, printed in The Indianpolis Star on Dec. 27, 1908, stated 'But in order to obtain the results they had in mind they did not shift the work or responsibility to one organization or one class of men, but formed themselves into one great committee, the duty of which was to get results… Literally every many, woman, and child in the city is entitled to great credit for the success of the movement, for each responded to every call and took advantage of every opportunity to help.' By January of 1911, Wheelock was in Shreveport trying to begin what he called the 'factory movement.' His movement would teach the people of Shreveport how to work together in a way that included all citizens regardless of class. Mrs. George B. Wheelock of Anderson, Indiana, came to Shreveport, too, in late September 1911. Many Shreveport socialites considered her a guest of honor. 'A splendid start was made at last night's mass meeting in behalf of the factory-securing movement which has been launched in Shreveport. The proposition is a big one, but it was put to the people of Shreveport in such a way as to show that there is absolutely no chance for anybody to lose a dollar and in such a manner as to convince the most skeptical that the whole proposition can be carried through to successful completion,' we read in The Shreveport Journal from Jan. 27, 1911. The plan was to establish a new industrial subdivision with at least four factories and a workforce of at least a thousand people. A complex of glass manufacturers came to Cedar Grove in the coming years. There are four reasons the manufacturing of glass was ideal for Cedar Grove. First, there was flat land. Immediate access to vast sources of natural gas for furnaces attracted glass manufacturers, too, as did ready access to a railroad trunk line and an unlimited supply of high-grade sand from the Red River. Cedar Grove glass factories made large-pane plate glass windows, canning jars, soda bottles, bell-shaped utility pole insulators, and skinny kerosine lamp chimneys. Belgian immigrants who came to Cedar Grove to work contributed much of their expertise. Among these firms were the Shreveport Window Glass Company, a subsidiary of the National Window Glass Company, the National Glass Company, and Southern States Bottling. Wheelock explained to local papers in 1911 that at least 5,000 people would move to Shreveport, and it would take less than 18 months to get everything rolling. The funny thing is that people actually bought into the project. They believed Wheelock. And because they believed the Shreveport Factory Movement plan actually worked. A committee of ladies raffled off two lots to help support the 'factory movement' in late Feb. 1911. People began making commitments to buy residential lots and commercial areas. The factories were on their way, and both the lower and upper classes in Shreveport were in support of the movement. As the first few years of the factory movement passed, with workers and employers in Cedar Grove happy with the progress, some detractors, holding to the Southern agrarian way of life, railed against urbanization in Cedar Grove. But a lengthy rebuttal to this way of thinking appeared in the May 28, 1913, issue of the Shreveport Journal. 'The Caddo Oil Refinery is today compactly built, a magnificent plant operating full time, and has money in reserve to declare a dividend on July 1. This plant is a credit to any city, and anyone condemning this proposal does not state facts.' The Shreveport Journal, May 28, 1913 Shreveport newspapers were quick to document the progress. They wrote about the success of Hudson Lumber Company and the slow-growing success of Caddo Window Company. Meanwhile, people in Cedar Grove were working at factories and using their salaries to purchase homes near the factories. One newspaper documented that many factory employees who purchased their own homes had gardens that produced as much food as farmers outside of Cedar Grove who lived on five acres. The movement was growing stronger, and a middle class was beginning to form in Cedar Grove. By June of 1911, The Shreveport Journal reported that Cedar Grove was on the railroad map. 'Trains leave K. C. S. shops 6:15 a.m., arrive Cedar Grove 6:25 a.m. Return, leave Cedar Grove 6:30 p.m. arrive Shreveport 6:40. Fare ten cents each way.' 'The Timpson [Broom] handle factory, while about complete, never has been operated consequently cannot be accused of putting men out of employment,' stated an article in a Shreveport Ad Club publication. 'This plant, within a few weeks from now, will be properly operated, having ample funds behind it for operations, which means the bringing into Cedar Grove, of a large number of men and their families. The Shreveport bottle and glass company, for a long time gave steady employment to a number of men. It did bust up, and a few men got stuck for their last couple of weeks wages, and we have no apologies to make. However, this plant has been taken over by the Ridgeway people of Indiana and will be in full operation shortly, which means the bringing in of from 200 to 400 skilled workmen. This will bring about the addition of a large number of families. The above represents the industries at Cedar Grove at the present time. It is a true statement of facts, and watch for the announcement of additional enterprises going into this addition.' By Feb. 1912, Wagner Glass Works was under construction and Gardner Brass Works was producing carburetors. The Caddo Window Glass Plant was ready for operation. Almost a year later, on Jan. 20, 1914, the following appeared on pp. 1 of the Shreveport Times: 'Full dinner pails and cozy homes, clattering hammer, and loaded car: Solid town of the South. 'What has been done in Cedar Grove proves it is a good thing–what is being done proves it permanence–growth of the factory site is remarkable.'' The newspaper reported that the Caddo Window Glass Company was running full blast, and a 50K steel water tank 110 feet high was on its way to Cedar Grove. The Shreveport Glass and Bottle Works had hired hundreds of people, and the Hudson Box and Manufacturing Company had a sawmill in full operation. Throughout the relatively short period in which Cedar Grove was far ahead of any other town in the region, there were more than 30 factories of different types in Cedar Grove. Cedar Grove had zero unemployment, its own banks, its own entertainment venues, churches, fraternal lodges, and in hindsight Cedar Grove was a thriving, growing, viable town. George B. Wheelock, the retired carriage manufacturer from Indiana who began Shreveport's Factory movement, didn't live to see the success of his dreams for Cedar Grove. He died at his home in Anderson, Indiana, on July 26, 1914. On Jan. 13, 1920, an election made it official when citizens in Cedar Grove voted to change the name of Cedar Grove to 'South Shreveport.' 'As soon as the necessary legal steps can be taken the name of Cedar Grove will be changed to South Shreveport,' announced The Shreveport Journal on Jan. 14, 1920. Cedar Grove was annexed into Shreveport city limits in 1927. It is now known simply as a neighborhood. Sources: The Shreveport Journal, Jan 14, 1920, pp. 11 The Shreveport Journal, Sept. 2, 1911 he (Shreveport) Times, Aug. 12, 1911, pp. 3 The Shreveport Journal, Mar. 8, 1911, pp. 2 The Shreveport Journal, Jan. 27, 1911, pp. 26 The Shreveport Journal on Feb. 20, 1911, pp. 1 The Shreveport Journal, June 21, 1911, pp. 6 Original Land Patents, Sections 24 and 25, Township 17 North, Range 14 West (1839), Caddo Parish, Louisiana. Louisiana Department of Administration, Office of State Lands, Historical Documents Collection, Baton Rouge. Caddo Parish Clerk of Court Records, 1862-1865. Original Land Patents, Sections 25, Township 17 North, Range 14 West (1859), Caddo Parish, Louisiana. History of First Baptist Church of Cedar Grove. Eric J. Brock, 'To the Caddos, Cedar Grove Was 'Wahahula,' Presence of the Past, Shreveport Journal, August 15, 1999. 'Our History: Cedar Grove to mark centennial soon,' Lafayette [Louisiana] Daily Advertiser, February 20, 2014 Eric J. Brock, 'Cedar Grove Was First a Town On Its Own,' Presence of the Past, Shreveport Journal, February 21, 1998. Louisiana Oil and Gas Museum, Oil City, Louisiana. The Indianapolis Star, Dec. 27, 1908, pp. 5. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
11-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
MLK gave this speech in Shreveport in 1958
SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) — When Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. came to Shreveport in August 1958, Shreveport resident and civil rights activist Dr. C. O. Simpkins did more than just attend the voter drive at Galilee Baptist Church where King spoke. Simpkins also recorded King's speech. And it now it appears that Simpkins' recording may be the earliest recording of a speech given by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Mik Barnes, a graduate student at LSU Shreveport and a Caddo Parish Civil Rights Heritage Trail research team member, has written a detailed history of why King came to Shreveport. Our team recommends reading Barnes' article before reading King's speech, which is below. Why MLK came to Shreveport in 1958 'Distinguished (?) and associates, my Christian friends. I need not cause to say how very delighted I am to be here this evening, and to be a part of this occasion. I have long wanted to come to Shreveport, and I have long admired the courageous work that is being done here. And so to be here, and to see it firsthand, and to meet the citizens of this community, is a great privilege and a great opportunity for me. I want to commend the leaders of this community, and the leaders of your Christian association here, for the great work that has already been done and the great work that will be done in the future. I want to commend these ministers. I have had the good fortunate of working with many of your ministers in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and it is a great honor and a great privilege to work with them and to see that dedication and that devotion to the cause of freedom. Then I've had the good fortune of working with Dr. Simpkins, also in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. I haven't lived very long, but in the few years that I have lived, I've met quite a few people. And I can say to you this sincerely, that Dr. Simpkins is one of the most dedicated, devoted persons that I know in this whole area of freedom and civil rights. Lost history: Triple bombing at Lake Bistineau in 1962 Then I want to say this, too. I say it because I think it needs to be said. Dr. Simpkins is a unique person in the sense that he doesn't have to do what he does. He's relatively comfortable, I imagine. He's a professional man. And some of our professional people get in comfortable positions and they forget about the master. 'But I've seen him, time and time again, leave his office, leave a day's work when he could make a good sum of money–close his office to come to meetings with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and help men and women solve problems that they are facing every day. And I think this is a commendable thing, and something that you should be proud of, in having a man like that in your community. 5 key moments in Northwest Louisiana's civil rights history Again, I want to say God be praised for your ministers. I can remember several months ago when you started out in the bus struggle. And I can remember the ministers going to the busses–I don't know how it happened, but last night I just picked up an old magazine and opened that magazine and saw the picture of a bus. And I looked at that bus and I saw the face of my good friend, the ? sitting up on that bus on the front seat. And I said this is courage and this is what it will take in this struggle. And I'm also grateful to see people in other surrounding communities, and to be in their presence–the people who came today for the workshop on registration and voting. This is one of the most important things that we can do. In this hour, I am convinced that one of the most important steps a Negro can take is that short walk into the voting booth. And in such workshops and institutes we are able to get some of the techniques over and try to organize a community, getting them ready for this big job ahead. And so we hope to continue in that, and I hope you will give this organization your support, your local organization here, and other organizations through the state. Just this afternoon the groups wanted to think of coming together a little more in the various parishes and Brother Coleman was elected chairman of that group–a courageous man himself, a heroic man. And this is gonna make for a great deal of united action in this area. I hope you will give them your wholehearted support and that you will support us in our whole South-wide struggle, and that Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Now I'm not gonna talk specifically this evening in the area of registration and voting. I want to talk about some of our general problems and touch on registration and voting here and there. I want to use, as a subject, what Negroes can learn from history. One of the most obvious facts of human existence is the fact that no individual, or no group, is isolated or detached. Every individual is a part of a continuing process. And one of the unique things about man is that he can comprehend the process. Man has a history, and because of that he can meditate on the past, and project his vision to the uncertainties of the future. Providence Academy: One of Shreveport's first Black educational institutions This is man's uniqueness: that he can look back and learn and think about the past, and that he can look forward and meditate on the future. I imagine this is why Shakespeare could have Hamlet say, 'What a piece of work is man! How noble in faculty, how infinite reason, in forme and moving and expressive and admirable. In action, how like an angel in apprehension, how like a god! The beauty of the world, the paragon of animals.' This is man. You can't say that about animals. You can't say that about dogs and cats and monkeys and horses. They have no sense of history. You will never see a group of animals thinking about the past and looking into the future, worrying about its uncertainties; but man is unique. Man is made in the image of God so he has a history. And so he can reach back and study the facts of the past and use them to charter a meaningful course for the future. Ephriam David Tyler: Shreveport civil rights poet born in 1884 And so tonight I want to discuss with you some of the lessons of things that we can learn if we can only look back and think about history. Some of the things that we can learn from the long, unfolding processes of the century. Something that we learn from man's long struggle to adjust himself to his environment–something that we can learn from man's long struggle to adjust himself to the will of Almighty God, lessons that we can learn from history. And I think if we can learn some of these lessons, they will serve as a guide for us in the future and they can help us understand the present. Now I think the first thing that we, as Negroes, should learn from history is this: that privileged groups never give up their privileges without strong resistance. This is a part of the long story of history. Look back to the distance days of Egypt at its height, and look at the children of Israel, trying to get out of the bondage of slavery. And you see a lesson there that privileged groups have hardened hearts, they have to be plagued a great deal before they give up that privilege. And even when the Red Sea opens, they will even venture to go out there and bring oppressed people back under the yoke of oppression. Lost history: Reverend M.M. Flynn and the South's first voter drives Privileged groups never give up their privileges without strong resistance. And if we understand this lesson of history, we will understand what is happening all over the South today. The White man is not defending what he thinks is morally right. He is defending what he believes is economically profitable. What the White South is fighting for today is to maintain its privileges. There was a time that some sincere men, I image, dreamed of dreams back in 1896, and they had the dream in their minds that some such strange phenomenon of separate but equal could be a reality. And so they rendered a decision–the Plessy Vs. Fergeson decision. And after 1896 the years unfolded, and everything was centered toward the sun but never was there a real move toward the east. What happened was that men failed to see that separate can never be equal because the fact of separate itself came into being to make things unequal. And the system of segregation came into being to maintain the privileges of the majority group. This is the purpose of segregation: The purpose of segregation is that the segregator will remain on top and the segregated will remain on the bottom. That's the purpose of it. That's why it came into being. Prince's family lived in Cotton Valley, Louisiana for generations; here's their story And all of the resistance that we find today in the South is an attempt to maintain a privileged position. And history teaches us that, and the strange thing is that the individuals who seek to maintain this privileged position never realize that God made this world in a certain way. He made it in a certain interrelatedness, which means that whatever effects one individual directly effects all indirectly. Which means as Booker Washington discovered years ago that you can't keep a man down in the valley without staying down there yourself. This world is (?) and we are made to live together. That is an interrelatedness in reality. God made it that way. And so when you hurt me, you hurt yourself. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. So long as there is poverty in the world, I can never be rich even if I have opinions of it. So long as diseases are rampant, and hundreds and thousands and millions of people cannot expect to live more than 28 or 30 years, I can never be totally healthy–even if I just got a checkup at Mayo Clinic. John Donne called it years ago, and he could cry out 'No man is an island entirely by itself–every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.' Then he could end in saying that any man's death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind, therefore never pretend to know for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee! And the oppressor never sees us, and he goes his merry way trying to maintain his privileged position, never realizing that in doing so he hurts himself just as he hurts others–that's one of the lessons in history. There is another lesson that history teaches and we can learn from. It is this: freedom is never gained without a determined struggle, coupled with a willingness to suffer and sacrifice. In this naughty world, men got mixed up and theologians say they failed. They call it the fall of man, and they talk about original sin. Now I'm not out to go into any theological doctrines here, but the doctrine of original sin reminds us that men do have a little evil in them, and that they can be bad, and so as well a little naughty. And because of that oppressors never come up to the oppressed people and say 'I thought about this thing and I'm gone give you your freedom now.' They don't do it voluntarily. Booker T. Washington spoke at Coleman College in Gibsland before it moved to Shreveport Maybe they would have done it voluntarily in that phase you sometimes think of when man lived by the will of God, but he is a fallen creature now. And so it just doesn't happen that way. It only comes through the persistent efforts and the hard work of dedicated individuals. You know there are approximately two billion, 500 million people in this world. And the vast majority of them are colored people, just like you and me. They're colored people. About 1 billion, 600 million of them live on two continents–Asia and Africa. 600 million in China. Four hundred million in India and Pakistan. Two hundred million in Africa. One hundred million in Indonesia, more than 86 million in Japan. Yes, most of these people have been dominated politically, exploited economically, segregated, humiliated by some foreign power. And most of them have gained independence. Now, about a billion three hundred million of this billion six hundred million have their freedom and their independence today. Never forget that it wasn't given to them on a silver platter. It came through their struggles, it came through their persistent work, it came through their constant agitation. It wasn't handed out. We can learn something from that. Booker T. Washington High School's place in Shreveport Civil Rights history I remember very vividly, about a year ago I had one of the great experiences of my life. Mrs. King and I had journeyed over to Africa to what was in the Gold Coast for the Independence Celebration. I never will forget that night, about midnight when about a hundred thousand people stood in an open field, in front of the house of parliament, and at that moment we watched an old flag come down. It was a Union Jack flag, and we watched a new flag going up–it was the flag of the Nation of Ghana. A little Black man mounted a platform by the name of Kwame Nkrumah, and he looked out across that vast crowd of people and said, 'I declare to you, that our nation is now independent and a free nation.' When he declared that, I looked out and my ears were open and I could hear Black boys and Black girls, old men and old women crying, 'Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!' And at that moment, tears began to flow from my eyes. To my right was standing my wife, and to my left was standing Congressman Adam Powell, and as I looked around at them I saw tears rolling from their eyes. This was a great moment. Then I looked over at Adam Powell and said, 'Adam this means something. This represents something. And we must never forget something that we must take home.' It should remind us that freedom is a costly thing, and it never comes without suffering and sacrifice. We must never forget that little Black man who mounted that platform had on a little cap. And it was a cap that he had worn for months and months while in prison. He went to jail for that freedom. We must never forget that hundreds of people spilled their blood on the shores of this nation that we are free today. They suffered and sacrificed for that freedom, went to jail for it, and some of them died for it. Nkrumah is now a popular man in this world, leading the second most populous nation in this world. Neru spent years of his life in a British jail. Mahatma Gandhi spent years of his life in a British jail. We must never forget this lesson in history. Now I'm afraid that some of us are forgetting this. We feel that it is just gonna roll in on the wheels of inevitably, and so we sit down by the wayside and do nothing. It doesn't happen that way. Complex mapping project gives Shreveport civil rights historians the ability to see much bigger picture Years ago, a man lived in England by the name of (Charles) Darwin and he developed what is known as the theory of evolution. But Darwin's theory applied only to the biological realm, and he conceived that man, biologically, is moving up from some type of animal existence now to his present state of personality. There was another man who had lived in England and had read the works of Darwin, and he tried to apply this concept to the whole of society. And so men came to believe that progress was inevitable. Somehow men thought that things are just evolving to a better state, and so you don't have to do anything–they're just gonna do it anyway. But history has proven that that just isn't true. Human progress is never inevitable. It only comes through the tireless work and persistent efforts of dedicated individuals. It's not a process of sitting down, waiting. You've gotta do something about it. You remember when the children of Israel got out of Egypt, and they got out in the wilderness and they sent some spies out in the promised land to see how it looked and what the conditions were. The spies came back and reported, and they said there were giants in the land, and it's gonna be hard to get in there because giants are in the land. Then Caleb and Joshua went over, and (they) came back with what was the minority report. And they said yes, there are giants in the land. But in spite of that we feel that we can possess the land. Now as a result of this, three groups emerged. Three groups developed that Moses had to deal with. After they discovered that it was gonna be hard, and there were giants in the land, three groups developed that Moses had to deal with. One group wanted to go back to Egypt. They wanted to go back to Egypt. They preferred the flesh parts of Egypt to the challenges of the promised land. Now there are some people today who have so conditioned themselves to the system of segregation and discrimination that they want to stay down even to the segregation. This is happening to people. Maxine Prescott Sarpy: Shreveport civil rights movement royalty When I was living in Atlanta years ago, I remember going in an area and there was a man that used to play the guitar. He would play it over and over again, and one day I stopped and I heard him saying something and I discovered what he was saying. He was singing, 'Been down so long, don't bother me.' And I've seen people like that. You have some people just like that–they have come to the point of freedom of exhaustion. And so they would rather stay in Egypt. They've conditioned themselves to the system. Then you had another group to develop there–they were the people who didn't wanna go back to Egypt. They hated Egypt. They had suffered in Egypt and they knew the disadvantages of Egypt. But they did not want to go through the sacrifices involved in getting to the promised land. And so they just wanted to hang around out in the wilderness. I believe Moses was talking to this group when he said, 'We've been in this mountain long enough.' They wanted to hang around on the mountain, not out in the wilderness. They wanted freedom, but they didn't want to go through the sacrifices involved in gaining freedom. They wanted the fruits of freedom. But they didn't want to do the necessary work in gaining it. And now there are some people like that today. They want it–they hate the Egypt of segregation and discrimination. They hate it. But they don't want to go through the sacrifices involved. These are the people who are afraid, you see, that they will lose a job. These are the people that have the philosophy that 'I've got to live and I've got to make a living and in order to do that, I must not get too involved.' These are the people that have certain positions. And because of the security of their positions, they sacrifice the security of their freedom. They want freedom, but they don't want to suffer a little for it. They don't want to sacrifice for it. These are the people who want to remain at one spot–they want it to be worked out by somebody else, and when it's worked out then they'll go on and jump over there and do it like that. They want it. Moses confronted another group. This is the beauty of history–they confronted another group that was probably a small group. And they looked over, and they faced the fact that there were giants in the land, but they believed that (?) they could possess the land. They were determined to go. They knew that they had difficulties ahead. They knew that although they had conquered Egypt, there were (people in the land.) But in spite of the prodigious hilltops of evil and the gigantic mountaintops of opposition they believed they could go to the promised land. They moved on, they moved on with faith in God and with the strength of their convictions. Today, who will be in that group? Who will be in that group today? What is the connection between a sunflower and activism I'm not gonna fool you, my friends, there are giants in this land. Giants of vested interest. Giants of rational emotionalist. Giants of political dynasties that have been set up across the years–they are there. Who today will believe that we can possess the land? This will be the group that will change history. This will be that creative minority. Who will be in that group? Till that group emerges, and until that group stands there, the Negro will not achieve his freedom in America. We have got to get there, and stand there, and be determined, and keep moving. Freedom is never achieved without determined struggle and a willingness to sacrifice. I see right here in your city you're still having bus difficulties. Now don't you think busses are going to get integrated in Shreveport, Louisiana voluntarily and that nobody is gonna have to suffer and sacrifice here. You've got to begin now devising a method whereby you will stand before this community and say, 'Come what may, these busses will be integrated.' And we are gonna suffer if necessary, we are gonna sacrifice if necessary, but we are gonna stand here until they're integrated because we know this is the will of the Almighty God. There is such a thing as moral and righteous pressure. And things are done by people who can apply that adequately and morally, that righteous pressure. That's why we talk so much about the ballot now. That's why we talk about it–because we know that there is power in the ballot. Things that disturbed me about Little Rock, Arkansas, along with other things, is that Governor Faubus was elected was quite tragic. And something else even more tragic–he was elected by more than 200,000 votes. Did you know that there are more than 200,000 eligible Negro voters in the state of Arkansas? If these people had gone to the polls–if these people had registered with the other people who voted against Governor Faubus he wouldn't have been elected. So that is a failure to apply what we have in our hands. We've got to sacrifice enough to walk down and get registered and then go to the polls. We've got to give some money in our pockets and give some money to the cause of freedom. Who is in the creative minority? That creative minority that I'm trying to talk about will say somehow that we are going on into the promised land, that we are willing to sacrifice anything, that we are willing to suffer because we must possess the land. Who is in that group tonight? And I want you to ask yourself a question tonight before you leave here–which of the three groups do you fit in? Are you in that group willing to suffer and sacrifice and say to yourself that I must be free because God himself made me to be free. Who this evening can somehow say to his wife's brother, I'm not trying to tear up the nation–I just want to be free. I'm not trying to take possession of everything in this nation–I just want to be free. I'm not out to become your brother-in-law, I just want to be your brother and I want to be free. I'm not out to go into this great nation of ours and set it back in terms of its moral achievements–I just want to be free. Who can go out this evening and say, paraphrasing the words of Shakespeare's Othello–who steals my purse steals trash; tis something, nothing, twas mine, tis his, and has been the slave of thousands. But he who filches from me my freedom robs me of that freedom that does not enrich him but makes me poorer indeed. I just want to be free. You this evening can go out and cry to the nations, 'I just want to be free!' Then somebody will come to the point of saying I'll do anything to be free. May mean I to go to jail, but I'll go to jail to be free. May be losing my job, but I'll lose my job to be free. May mean physical death, but if physical death is the price I must pay to free my children from a permanent life of psychological death then give me death, for I want to be free. Who this evening can go out and cry to the nations, 'I want to be free!' Then come to the point that you can cry out with your forefathers, 'Before I'll be a slave I'll be buried in my grave and go home to my Lord and be saved.' I just want to be free. History teaches us a lesson. A lesson that freedom never comes without sacrifice and suffering. And struggle. There's another lesson that we can learn from history, and I don't want to be too long. History teaches us that freedom can be achieved without violence. We have some lessons in history that reveal to us that we don't have to get our guns. So take courage now; I've come to see that you don't have to stack your house with ammunition. I've come to see that you don't have to fill up some deposit of bombs, now. You don't have to do it that way. History reveals that you can gain your freedom and you don't ever have to pick up a gun to do it. History reveals that all of us have something that's powerful–more powerful than any gun that has been created. You may be poor. You may not have any money. You may be illiterate–you may not know the difference between you does and you don't. You may not have ever heard of Plato or Aristotle. Never heard of Einstein's Theory of Relativity. You may not have all of the cultural attainments of this nation. But you have a soul. History said that if you will somehow decide that you're gonna use the whole force of your soul, you can shake empires… Because you have a soul. 'Bloody Caddo': Research uncovers post-Civil War racial violence Mahatma Gandhi, a little brown man, looked at the people of India. He said you may be illiterate… The French Empire has exploited us so much that 350 million of you make less than $50 a year. You don't have any money… But you got a soul. You will use the force of your soul. I will begin to walk with you and talk with you. We can shake the British empire. That little brown man galvanized the whole of India. And I remember reading of that day when he started his people, and they were being exploited and they were being charged tax on salt and he told them that we're gonna walk down to the salt sea. And against all of the British empire, we're gonna just reach down in that sea and get all the salt we want. And I want you to march with me today, and if they shoot you don't shoot back. If they kick you, let them kick you down and you get up if you can and keep walking and if they kill you, remember that you have a soul and they can't kill that because. it's immortal. So don't worry if they kill the physical parts. Gandhi started with them that day. He just started walking with a few people and they walked on and other people joined, and they walked on and other people joined, and when they got down to that sea hundreds and thousands of people stood there. That day I image that the boys back in London at number 10 Downing Street said to themselves, 'That's all, boys. It's all over. It's all over now. It's all over.' It was the power of the soul, and this is what we have. This is what we have. Let us come to the point that we can say to ourselves that we will meet your physical force with soul force. Get your guns and keep shooting, bomb our homes and our churches and slap our children, and we gonna still love you. We gonna wear you down by our capacity to suffer, and one day we gone win our freedom. But not only will we win freedom for ourselves, we will so appeal to your heart and conscience that we will win you in the process. And our victory will be a double victory. We will not only achieve our freedom, but we will win the hearts and souls of those who have deprived us of that freedom. This is why I believe so firmly in the power of love and nonviolence in our struggle: we are not won the battle hating white people. Hate doesn't help the hater and it doesn't help the person who is hated. There's something about hate that hurts the hater. Somebody must have the power to transform through love. You hate somebody, and you are as uncomfortable and as frustrated as the person you hate. Powerful Southern segregationist Senator was from Claiborne Parish, Louisiana Oh, there's something about hate that keeps you from walking straight. There's something about hate that keeps you from standing up straight. When you hate, you can't see right. When you hate, you lose your power of objectivity. If you hate somebody, you can't see that person. When you hate strong enough, the beautiful becomes ugly and the ugly becomes beautiful. A good speech becomes a bad speech and a bad speech becomes a good speech. When you hate strong enough, you will look at a good deed of a person and call it a bad deed. Hate causes you to put the wrong price tag on everything. When your hate's strong enough hairpins begin to sell for a thousand dollars and diamond rings for five cents, because you got the wrong price tag on things. There's something about hate that does something to the hater. And so our way must be a way of love. We will stand upright here in this South land and say to our white brothers, we cannot in all of good conscience obey your unjust laws. Do to us what you want to, and we gone still love you, but we gone disobey these unjust laws. And when you put us in jail, we gonna still love you. Whatever you do to us, we gonna still love you. Do to us what you will and we gonna still love you. Have we come to that point yet? That we can use the power of our souls to turn the corner? Now somebody saying to me, Reverend what in the world do you mean when you say love your enemies, and love those people who are hurting you? Do you mean to say that you can love those people with an affectionate love? Complex mapping project gives Shreveport civil rights historians the ability to see much bigger picture I can't have an affectionate people for people who bombed my home, trying to kill my wife and my baby, and I can't love them with this affectionate love, or sentimental love, certainly not. You know the Greek language has three words for love, and it's a very interesting thing we out to apply to our situation. The Greek language has a word called Eros, and Eros is a sort of ecstatic love. Plato talked about it a great deal in his dialogues. A yearning of the soul to the realm of the gods. It's good enough to be a sort of romantic love that we have in our romantic relations, and so we all know about that kind of love. We all know about it. We've all been a part of Eros. I guess Edgar Allen Poe was talking about Eros when he was talking about his beautiful Annibelle Lee with love surrounded by the halo of eternity. Shakespeare was thinking about it when he said love is not love, which alters when it alteration finds, or bends with the remover to remove. Oh, no, it is an ever-fixed mark that looks on tempest and is never shaken. It is the star to every wondering bark. And you know I can remember that because i used to quote it to my wife when we were courting. The Greek language talks about Philia, which is another love, another level of love, is a sort of personal affection. It's a sort of reciprocal affection between personal friends. And on this level you love because your are loved. You love people that you like. There are things in common with them. You have dinner with them, you talk to one another on the telephone. They are likeable people, and you have things in common, and they are your person friends. This is a powerful love. Then the Greek language comes out with another word. They call it Agape. Agape is more than Eros, more than Philia, it's understanding creative objective goodwill toward all men. It is an overflowing love that seeks nothing in return. Unsolved crime: Shreveport's St. Rest Baptist Church bombed during Civil Rights Movement Theologians would tell us that it is the love of God working in the lives of men. When you rise to love on this level, you love men not because you like them. But you love them because God loves them. And i think this is what Jesus meant when he said love your enemies, and I'm glad he didn't say like your enemies. He didn't say like your enemies, because like is a sentimental, affectionate sort of thing. But love is greater than like. I find it pretty difficult to like all of these Southern senators and congressmen up in Washington who are doing everything that they possibly can to defeat the goal of the negro. I don't like their ideas, I don't like their attitudes, I don't like what they're trying to do to my people. But Jesus says love them! And love is greater than like. When you rise to the true level of love, you can love the person who does the evil deed by hating the deed that the person does. This is another level, you see. You come to the point that you hate deeds and you hate systems, but you don't hate persons. This is what we must have at this time, and I can hear Jesus speaking to us in this day, and in this period, saying once more, 'I know what you're going through. I know how you are being treated, and how you're being kicked around. I know all the violence that you were facing. I know the brutality that you are facing. And I know you've heard men say love those people who love you and treat you right and hate your enemies; but I say unto you love your enemies! Bless them that curse you! Pray for them that despitefully use you. Shreveport was a major Confederate capital; here's why it still matters And only through this method can you matriculate into the university of eternal life. Only by loving. And this is the way history reveals to us that we can achieve our freedom, and we can achieve justice, with our fathers. I come now to a final point, a final lesson that history teaches us. It is this: that in the struggle for freedom and truth and righteousness, you are never alone. But God works with you. History reminds us that truth and justice and love and freedom are ultimately triumphant. And that evil must ultimately go down. History teaches us that. History teaches us that the children of Israel may be taken away into Egyptian captivity, and there for years were Lorded and dominated and trampled over. But one day the Red Sea opens. History teaches us that Hitler may rise on the throne. He may bolster the fact that he is gonna rule the world. He may even kill five million Jews. But one day, that same Hitler is crushed and the power of his office tumbles. History teaches us that good Friday may occupy the throne for a day. But ultimately it must give way to the triumphs and feat of the drums of Easter. History teaches us that Ceasar will occupy the palace for a while, and crash the course. But one day, that same Christ will rise up and split history into A.D. and B.C. so that even the lack of Ceasar must be dated by His name. History teaches us. Call out it's right and you will live forever. History teaches us. (Missing sentence.) History teaches us. James Russel Lowell was right. 'Truth forever on the scaffold, forever on the throne.' Yet that scaffold sways the future behind the them unknown standing guard within the shadows, keeping watch above his own. History teaches us that the Biblical writer was right. You shall reap what you sow! History teaches us that even though midnight will come, ultimately the daybreak will emerge. History teaches us that Longfellow was right. Be still, sad heart, and cease repining. Behind the clouds, the sun is still shining. History repeats itself. Surprising Caddo Parish Civil Rights artists You must never get weak. And I say to you this evening, be of good courage. Walk together–children, don't you get weary. For you know there's a great (?) in the great promised land. History teaches us that sometimes we have to sing, 'nobody knows the trouble I've seen.' Then it teaches us that the next day we can begin to sing 'I'm so glad that trouble don't last always.' History teaches us that there is a God in the universe–a God concerned about his children and what they go through. I close with this demonstration of…. fact. I remember when our struggles started down in Montgomery, Alabama. I had lived 25 comfortable years of my life. Didn't have any real problems. Didn't worry about anything much–always had a lovely mother and father in the background who were so nice and they provided all the comforts and conveniences of life. I have religion, I have grow up in the church. But it was the type of religion that you grow up in and naturally I hadn't had all of the experiences of religion and life. Then I was called to a little church down in Montgomery, Alabama, and I went there and started out in my pastorate. And then on Dec. 5, 1955, people of that city got tired. Tired of being kicked around, and tired of the indignities they had encountered on the busses over the years. And we said we are gonna protest. We are not gonna ride these busses anymore until conditions change. They said to themselves, we gonna substitute tired feet for tired souls and we gonna walk the streets of Montgomery because we believe it is ultimately more honorable to walk in dignity than to ride in humiliation. So they said to me now, we want you to serve as our spokesman and to lead us on in this struggle, because (? people and the social gospel.) I answered the call. Things went smoothly for several weeks, several days. But then about the middle of January threatening calls began to come into the house and threatening letters. And they started coming almost 30 and 40 a day, and I was trying to get in over my… and I was trying to be strong, but it continued and it continued. And I soon discovered myself faltering a little and I soon discovered that I was getting a little afraid. Morning after morning I would look across the breakfast table and see a devoted wife and a charming little daughter. And I started thinking about how at any moment I could be taken away from them, or they could be taken away from me. Something could happen because these threats might be true. And I started feeling myself weak and faltering along the way, and I started fearing a little bit. And then I remember very vividly one night very late, it was about midnight, I was in bed and the phone rang and I picked up on the phone and on the other end I heard this voice, and… told me terrible things, and what was going to be done, and this was it: that they were getting ready to get rid of me. And for some reason, that voice did something to me. It sort of took my nerves and it got me to faltering even more, and it seemed that all of the fears and all of the weak moments came to me at this one time and they all fell down. And I tried to go to sleep and I couldn't go to sleep, and I got up and I started walking. And I remember I went back in the kitchen. My wife was asleep, and there on that table I started thinking and I started to make a little boil and a little coffee, and I thought that would give me a little relief. And I was still deep in fear. And I started thinking about a lot of things. I thought about the problem of evil. And I started thinking about the philosophical and theological connotations, and the explanations that theologians and philosophers have given for evil and I was raised in a Christian house–why are people like this? And then I came to see that I couldn't answer the question like this. Then I thought about the fact that Momma and Dad were just 175 miles in Atlanta, but that was too far now. There was a point that I could call on them, but I couldn't do that now. They were 175 miles away and I had to face this thing. And I came to see in that moment that I had come to the end of the road and all of my particular powers had gone. And I never will forget it. I bowed down on the side of that table and began to talk to the Lord about it. And I began to develop a religious experience for myself that I had never had before. Lord, I'm here trying to lead the people and I feel myself getting weak. I'm doing it because I think it's right and I think the cause is right, and now I'm in fear and I can't go before the people like this because if I go before them then they themselves will falter. I've got to be strong when I go before them. And I tried everything. I turned to all explanations, and now I've come to see that I can't solve this problem by myself. And I turn everything over to you. And I leave it with you. Seems that at that moment, something spoke to me within not a literal voice, but something began to speak within saying in substance stand up for truth. Stand up for righteousness, stand up for justice, and lo I will be with you, even until the end of the world. MAPS: Are Shreveport's food deserts connected to civil rights era? Three nights later, I was in a mass meeting at the First Baptist Church and people began to run up and down the aisles delivering messages and I noticed that nobody was coming to me. Pretty soon, something said to me there's something wrong and it affects you. And I started asking em now, 'what's wrong? What is this?' And I called Reverend Say and Reverend Abernathy, and one or two other of my closest associates and I said I know it's something wrong and you're trying to hide it from me. But whatever it is let me know. I'm prepared for it. And they looked over to me and said reluctantly, 'Your home has just been bombed.' And I said how is Coretta and the baby? Have you heard yet? Did you get any information on that yet? And they said we don't have that yet, but we're trying to find out now. And when I heard the words, I didn't get upset. I didn't go back and tell the people to go pick up their guns. I was just as calm as I'd ever been in my life. Why? Because three nights before, something had happened. A power greater than anything in this universe had said to me in substance that you are not in this struggle alone. And I can say to you sincerely my friends, ever since that day I have been able to walk the streets of Montgomery with my feet solid to the ground and my hair straight to the air–…. because I felt the power of the Almighty God. And He's still saying that to us days ahead, the days ahead are difficult. And we're gonna need something to keep us going. We're going to need some power to keep us going. And I say to you, go out with a faith that God is with us. We have constant companionship in this struggle. If we would learn these three lessons from history, 100 years from now when historians write of the history of America they will have to say there lived a great people–a Black people. People with (?) locks and Black complexions. But a people who injected new meaning into the veins of our civilization. Historians will have to say this world is better because those Black people lived. And it means we will do this a few years from now and a few decades from now: men will be able to come together Black men and White men. Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will join in the singing of a new song–Free at last, free at last, praise God almighty we are free at last! Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
