“What’s in a name? This question from Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” might well have been asked concerning a name change for Bossier City. Beginning in the early 20th century, efforts surfaced to re-label Bossier City as East Shreveport. But how serious were those efforts, and could Bossier still retain its own identity if referred to as something else? Would Bossier, by any other name, still be Bossier?
When Bossier City, namesake of soldier and congressman General Pierre Bossier, was still officially a village, local maps from the early 1900s show a subdivision of the village was called East Shreveport. In the History Center collection is a copy of a Bossier map from 1914, displaying the words East Shreveport. Real estate advertisements appeared in local newspapers, touting the benefits of living in the subdivision. An ad in the February 9, 1914 edition of The Shreveport Journal states, “East Shreveport is bound to grow. East Shreveport is at the end of the new traffic bridge. High cost of living is reduced in East Shreveport. East Shreveport puts you closer to Shreveport.” These and more were listed as reasons for moving east of Red River. The ad was placed by the Bossier City Realty Company.
In 1923, with Bossier’s population topping one thousand, the village was upgraded by Louisiana’s governor to a town, and the idea of changing the entire town’s name to East Shreveport began to take hold. A headline in The Shreveport Journal of February 19, 1923, declares, “Bossier City To Be ‘East Shreveport.’” The accompanying article states, “Bossier City will drop out of the list of Louisiana municipalities, and East Shreveport will appear on the map in its stead, if a motion carried by a large majority at a mass meeting Friday night is finally adopted.” According to the article, 82 Bossier citizens met to discuss the town’s future, and a vote of 68 to 14 was made favoring the name change. Three days later, The Journal printed a column supporting the change. “Congratulations to the East Shreveporters!,” the column began. It states that “quite a number” of Bossier residents do business in Shreveport, making them “almost a part of Shreveport;” therefore, “It seems natural that they should wish to be known as East Shreveporters.”
In researching this topic, I found no mention in local newspapers that year of a final adoption of the motion passed at the meeting. Obviously, Bossier City kept its name, but the debate continued. Fast forward 27 years to December 1950 when the Shreveport Chamber of Commerce proposed that Bossier become East Shreveport, saying both communities would benefit. An article in The Planters Press the following month says those benefits, according to the chamber, would include Shreveport gaining Bossier’s population numbers and Bossier gaining Shreveport’s industrial recognition. Under the proposal, Bossier would still have operated under its own municipal government.
In March 1951, the Bossier Chamber of Commerce agreed to the name change after sending ballots to its membership and receiving a favorable vote. The chamber then asked Bossier’s town council to call an election so residents could vote on the proposal, but the council declined, citing public opposition to Bossier changing its name. Afterwards, chamber leadership decided to abandon the contentious idea. Chamber President James Larkin was quoted in The Planters Press on June 21, 1951 as saying, “The fact that there is strong feeling against the issue, and since there is no real all-out leadership for the project, it has been dropped.” But apparently the idea was not forgotten.
Changing Bossier’s name to East Shreveport surfaced again in the mid-1960s when a local developer suggested it while speaking to the Shreveport-Bossier Board of Realtors. The reasoning echoed earlier claims about the benefits of such a change. The Bossier Tribune, in an article of July 28, 1965, states an argument was made that Shreveport and Bossier “constitute a single industrial complex and should be linked together by name” and “East Shreveport would give Bossier a national identity that it now lacks.” But according to the article, a random survey conducted by The Tribune found the majority of Bossier residents opposed the change. One resident was quoted as saying, “I much prefer the lack of national identity to the loss of identity.” And so the matter was put to rest and has remained a part of Bossier City history. As Shakespeare might have written, thus we bid adieu to thee, name change.
If you have any photos or other information relating to the history of Bossier City or Bossier Parish, the History Center may be interested in adding the materials to its research collection by donation or by scanning them and returning the originals. Call or visit us to learn more. We are open M-Th 9-8, Fri 9-6, and Sat 9-5. Our phone number is (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org. We can also be found online at https://www.facebook.com/BPLHistoryCenter/ and http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/
Images:
- photocopy of 1914 Bossier map showing East Shreveport subdivision/History Center collection
- Bossier Tribune headline from July 28, 1965/Newspapers.com
Article by: Kevin Flowers
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