SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – Star Cemetery, a historical burial site in Shreveport, got a sign denoting its historical significance to the city’s Black community.
If you drive down Texas Avenue and turn onto a gravel road, you’ll come to Star Cemetery; the first cemetery organized by and for Shreveport’s Black American citizens back in 1883.
Until recently it was, as one Star Cemetery Preservation Society member says, not given much attention but that is changing.
Shreveport Parks and Recreation approved a sign for the historic cemetery and installed it Thursday after nearly two years of the cemetery preservation society and actively advocating for improvements for forty-five days.
The cemetery earned a spot on the national register of historic places in 2002.
Cherie Gray, a staunch advocate for Star Cemetary, says this update is only the beginning.
“What we would like to do. This is kind of like phase one. We want to get lights; we would also like to get the whole cemetery mapped out. So people can know where everything (is) buried, everything is charted, all of that,” Gray said.
The Star Cemetery is no longer used for burials, but it remains an important cultural property in Shreveport’s Black community.
