Dr. Gary Joiner, Professor of History at LSU Shreveport, calls Little Union Baptist Church, in the 1800 block of Milam Street, "the epicenter of the Civil Rights struggle in Shreveport." C. O. Simpkins was in the process of transporting activists from the conference when police pulled over his station wagon. He was arrested, as was Reverend Ralph Abernathy (President of the Montgomery Improvement Association), Guy Carawan (Music director at the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee), and John Brooks (NAACP Director of Voter Registration.) All the men were held for about an hour and a half before being released.
BYU’s production of North Star by Gloria Bond Clunie will be streamed live from March 4 to 6. The play tells the story of 11-year-old Relia navigating her place in the Civil Rights Movement. (Ty Davis)
The BYU theatre and media arts department will be livestreaming the show “North Star” by playwright Gloria Bond Clunie with an all-Black cast.
“North Star” portrays the life of an 11-year-old Black girl named Relia witnessing the Civil Rights Movement sit-ins and protests firsthand. Sariah Lyles, a senior majoring in music dance theatre, plays Relia. She said her character must decide with her family if she is mature enough to join the sit-ins.