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Star Cemetery
Star
Cemetery
2100 Texas Street
On June 22, 1883 a group of fourteen African Americans
bought ten acres from
Andrew Currie, paying $350 for the
land on which they wanted to bury their dead.
1
The men were incorporated as the
Star Cemetery Association, many of which in signing the
agreement simply made their marks.
2
This group disbanded in 1939,
mortgaging the property to Commercial National Bank,
which became AmSouth Bank after a change in ownership.
3
Star was the first African-American cemetery in
Shreveport.
4
In 1965 the city saw that
Star Cemetery was terribly overgrown and the city began
its upkeep. Many of the graves date to the late 1800s.
The city is not permitted to dig at Star because it is
condemned because of its poor condition.
5
The cemetery, which was grown up
and deteriorating, was restored in 1968 under the Public
Safety and Public Utilities Commissions.
6
In July of 1992 vandals
broke open above-ground vaults in the cemetery, opening
coffins, removing skulls, and using the vaults as an
area to burn papers.
7
African-American
Multicultural Tourist Commission applied to get the
cemetery registered with the National Register of
Historic Places. It was placed on the register in
January of 2002, one of only nine cemeteries on the
National Register.
8
Several of
the tombstones mark those who died in World War I.
9
J. S.
Williams, the founder of J. S. Williams and Sons Funeral
Home is buried in Star Cemetery, along with Reverend
Luke Allen, Sr. and his wife, Cora M. Allen, who was the
president and founder of the Louisiana Association of
Colored Women’s Clubs.
10
Reverend Thomas Luke, the founder of Galilee Baptist
Church, is also buried here.
11
References
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