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.