History and local icons of Shreveport's Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church Cemetery

SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – The Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church Cemetery in west Shreveport holds a rich history dating back to the 1800s, with stories of influential locals and groundbreaking figures.

Created around 1880, this cemetery became part of an Antebellum-era church located on the Flournoy Plantation. For nearly a century and a half the church has served the people of Shreveport and remains an active place of worship.

Sale of Flournoy Greenwood Plantation (The Times Nov. 19, 1880 page 4)

The first church on the grounds was a place of worship for enslaved people. Founded in 1860, the congregation gathered in the cabin of Isom and Agnes Sims. They received permission to use the plantation bell to call the members to worship.

The Sims, along with many other emancipated people, stayed after the Civil War, becoming sharecroppers on the land. The Flournoy family donated a parcel of land to the congregation following the war, and the congregation replaced the cabin with a small red brick building in 1925, naming it the Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church.

C. C. Antoine portrait
Portrait of C. C. Antoine (Public Domain)

Agnes and Isom, along with many of the sharecroppers, are buried in the Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church Cemetery. Notably, the cemetery is the final resting place of Caesar Carpentier (C.C.) Antoine, a captain in the Union Army, a Reconstruction politician and a civil rights activist born in 1836.

He was one of only three Black Republicans to hold office in Louisiana during Reconstruction. Antoine served as a delegate to the Louisiana Constitutional Convention and was elected as a State Senator serving Caddo Parish in 1868. After his term, he was elected Lt. Governor of Louisiana under Governor Kellog and served as acting Governor in 1876.

Antoine played a pivotal role in shaping Shreveport’s history. He sponsored the bill to incorporate Shreveport as a city, leading some to refer to him as the ‘Father of modern Shreveport.’ He also sponsored a bill to establish the city’s first charity hospital.

Grave of C.C. Antoine at Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church
Grave of C.C. Antoine (Source: KTAL/KMSS staff)

He purchased land previously belonging to the old Flournoy Plantation, including the area where Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church and its graveyard sit. Antoine’s old home in Shreveport was on the National Register of Historic Places before it sadly burned down in 2022.

Despite his numerous achievements, Antoine’s grave remained unmarked for many years.

That changed on Memorial Day 1999 when a coalition of Shreveport residents, civil rights activists, Black ministers, Sons of Union Veterans officers and Sons of Confederate Veterans honored him with a military headstone.

The current Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church, rebuilt in 1988, stands just outside the cemetery, overlooking the weathered headstones. In the tower lies the old bell, a special piece of the church’s history.

Bell at Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church
Antebellum Bell at Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church (Source: KTAL/KMSS staff)

“The antebellum bell is believed to have come from CC. Antoine’s plantation. Bethlehem’s cemetery occupies the western edge of Antoine’s plantation,” said LSU Shreveport Professor of History Dr. Gary Joiner.

Although full of historic graves, the cemetery still serves as a burial ground for members of the church. It not only stands as a piece of Shreveport’s history but a monument to the resilience of its community.

  • Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church overlooking the graveyard
  • Gravestone in Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church
  • Gravestone in Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church
  • Bell at Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church
  • C.C. Antoine House

 

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