North Bossier Park – Twenty Years Strong

Late last year, in a pervious article written by Kevin Flowers, a fellow member of the Bossier Parish Libraries History Center, he wrote about the Bossier Racquet and Swim club, and how the city planned on potentially buying the ailing complex. Ultimately, however, they would decide against doing so and would instead seek to build their own recreation site. This caught my eye, as around this time last year I wrote an article on Mike Woods Park. Therefore, let’s take a look at another major Bossier Parish park, the North Bossier Park, and the associated Bossier Tennis Center.

The earliest mention to the park project itself was in late 2003, according to the Bossier Parish Police Jury minutes from both September 17 and October 15, when Police Juror Eddy Shell met with members of a committee made up of representatives from the City of Bossier City, Bossier Parish School Board, and of course the Bossier Parish Police Jury. After the events of this meeting, the jury agreed to draw up an action plan for the development of the North Bossier Recreation Park Complex. Late that month, funds for the project would be approved by Bossier City, with $1 million dollars approved by the City Council, drawing an equal mix of funding from gaming revenue and the sales tax capital improvement fund. A series of meetings would follow as 2003 ended, and 2004 began, and in April of 2004 a steering committee would be formally established for the purposes of coordination between the three bodies.

By the end of the year, ground would be broken on the project, with the initial estimates for the cost of the project being around $98,000, with an approved expense of $60,000 from the BPPJ to cover the cost of the labor. Work would continue apace through the fall of 2004, with the clearing of the site and the laying of the base infrastructure for the first phase of construction. In the December 1, 2004, meeting of the BPPJ, concerns were raised about the park being built as purely a tennis complex. Statements were made to reinforce that the park should be for everyone, not just tennis players, and it is here where the first discussion on playground equipment at the new park was had by the Police Jury. The next series of meetings for the Police Jury would include discussion of the potential playground equipment, and on February 2, 2005, the Police Jury would authorize the purchase of handicap accessible playground equipment in conjunction with Bossier City funding.

The construction of the tennis courts themselves, the underlying driving force for Bossier City’s contribution to the project, would begin in the summer of 2005, continuing into 2009. Finally, come early July 2006, the day would come: the North Bossier Park Tennis Center would have its ribbon cutting. Members of each of the three contributing bodies would participate in the grand opening, and the full park would be, officially, open to the public. The initial count for the tennis courts would be a ‘mere’ twelve, which would be later expanded to add another six in the coming years. The courts were built, in part, to encourage children and the greater community to develop an appreciation for tennis in the local area. Indeed, as part of the grand opening, there was an accompanying set of tennis scrambles open to the public.

From the lengthy walking trail to the eighteen tennis courts, there is plenty for everyone to enjoy. For the past twenty years, the North Bossier Park has been a mainstay of the community, servicing the area with free and easy access to the amenities therein.

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: 

• Students at the Bossier Tennis Center – BPT (Jul 04, 2006) – Rachel Hayes
• Construction of the North Bossier Park Parking Lot – BPT (Sep 23, 2004) – Jennifer Ganey
•  Jim Pevier walking his dog at North Bossier Park – BPT (Dec 02, 2005) – Rachel Hayes

Article by: Johan Daigle

 

Bossier Parish Responds to East Texas School Disaster

Among the many headstones at Forest Park Cemetery in Shreveport, there stands one with the name of a young girl who perished 89 years ago in the worst school disaster in our nation’s history. Mary Priscilla Carney was only 12 that fateful afternoon in 1937 when an explosion reduced her school in New London, Texas to rubble. Bossier Parish responded, as did many communities, and began taking steps to ensure such a tragedy wouldn’t happen here.

Revenue flowing from the East Texas oil fields brought much-needed prosperity to New London in the 1930s. Located approximately 122 miles southeast of Dallas in Rusk County, the town grew as families moved there drawn by its wealth. Little expense was spared in building a school to accommodate the influx of children. An article from March 2007 in Texas Monthly magazine states that oil revenue “contributed to top-notch facilities … that included an elementary building, a gymnasium, and even a lighted football field. But the crown jewel belonged to children in fifth through eleventh grade (“senior year” at that time): the $300,000 two-story junior and senior high school, … fully equipped with a chemistry lab, an auditorium with a balcony, and an industrial-arts workshop.”

For Mary, who was in seventh grade, and approximately 500 of her fellow students, who occupied this nice, new crown jewel the afternoon of Thursday, March 18, 1937, the bell signaling the end of the school day was likely top of mind. It was supposed to sound at 3:30. What the students and their teachers didn’t know was that it would never sound. Its ringing would never be heard again.

Natural gas had been used to heat the campus since its construction. In January 1937, the school board voted to cancel its gas contract and save money by tapping into a nearby line of lower quality gas, sometimes referred to as a residue line, that was available for free. An article of May 1, 1995, on the Texas State Historical Association website states that tapping such a line “was a frequent money-saving practice for homes, schools and churches in the oil field.” In this instance, the practice proved deadly.

Within weeks of the change, ominous warning signs made themselves known. Headaches and burning eyes began afflicting students, according to the online news site Texas Standard in an article from August 13, 2024. But apparently no one suspected the culprit was a gas leak. At the time, natural gas had no odor additive, making leak detection difficult. As Mary and her classmates waited to go home that Thursday afternoon, the unthinkable happened.

At 3:17 p.m., a teacher flipped a switch to turn on an electric sander in the industrial-arts workshop located in the basement, unaware of the volatile gas fumes that had invaded the building. A spark flew from the switch, igniting the gas. The high school building exploded. The article on the TSHA website describes the blast: “Immediately the building seemed to lift in the air and then smashed to the ground. Walls collapsed. The roof fell in and buried its victims in a mass of brick, steel, and concrete debris.” A nightmare had come to New London.

Assistance arrived swiftly, as townspeople, oil field workers and many others who heard and felt the explosion rushed to the scene. Bossier Parish also offered help. An article in the March 25, 1937 edition of The Bossier Banner newspaper details how Bossier City businessman Arthur Ray Teague and E. W. Rice, chairman of the Bossier Red Cross chapter, delivered medical supplies. It also mentions Bossier City doctors John Victor Hendrick and William Mastin Scott arriving to render aid. The Planters Press newspaper of the same date describes Bossier firefighters providing first aid and “anything else which would be of help.” Barksdale Field - as Barksdale Air Force Base was then known - sent planes with medical supplies and doctors and nurses. According to an item in the March 20, 1937 issue of the Miami Tribune of Miami, Florida, these Barksdale planes flew over the disaster site and dipped their wings as a show of condolence.

The death toll estimate was approximately 300 killed, including about 16 teachers. Five of the young victims, including Mary, were brought to funeral homes in Shreveport. An investigation into the cause of the accident “concluded that gas had escaped from a faulty connection and accumulated beneath the building,” states the 1995 article on the TSHA website. This conclusion prompted Bossier officials to begin checking gas lines here.

On April 9, 1937, The Plain Dealing Progress newspaper noted that the Bossier Parish School Board “ordered a thorough inspection of plumbing or gas fixtures in all school buildings of the parish burning natural gas.” The Bossier Banner reported in its April 1 edition that classes at Benton High School were cancelled for a day in late March while workmen tried to find gas leaks. But the newspaper asserts that this was not done because of concern about a possible explosion, but solely because of high gas bills.

Texas quickly passed legislation requiring something be added to natural gas to give it an odor, making leak detection much easier. Other cities and towns followed suit. Because of New London, the rotten egg smell signaling a gas leak became the industry standard. And lives have been saved because of it. Mary and her classmates and their teachers did not die in vain.

If you have any information or items relating to the history of 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 Monday-Friday 9-6, and Saturday by appointment. 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:

• Mary Priscilla Carney/courtesy Christie Marie Shepherd Findagrave.com
• Workers dig through the rubble to find victims/San Antonio Express News, March 20, 1937

Article by: Kevin Flowers

Charlotte A. Mitchell: The Second “Class Act” for Bossier Parish’s Jeanes Teachers

Until as late as 1970, if you wanted to easily find the leaders of African-American communities in the South, you would do best to look in the segregated Black schools. The most educated, highly-regarded, and active members of the community could be found there, working as school teachers or administrators. The supervisors of African American schools in hundreds of school districts throughout the South were called Jeanes Teachers, or Supervisors, and they exemplified leadership. Their titles were named for the Philadelphia Quaker philanthropist behind the Jeanes program, Anna T. Jeanes.

The Bossier Parish School Board tapped Charlotte Mitchell as its second Jeanes Teacher in 1925, following Carrie Martin. Mrs. Mitchell supervised Bossier Parish’s approximately one hundred African-American teachers spread throughout the rural parish. The parish superintendent stated that Mrs. Mitchell was expected to travel throughout Bossier to “Improve classroom instruction, direct industrial activities and promote production and preservation of foods, through school activities.”

Charlotte Watson Mitchell was born in Benton, Bossier Parish in 1880 to Ralph and Jane Watson. Ralph Watson was born enslaved in South Carolina in about 1825. Jane Watson was also born in South Carolina, in 1843. According to the 1880 Census, Ralph Watson could read but not write. He worked as a janitor at the Bossier Parish courthouse in the parish seat of Benton and owned 50 acres that he farmed. In 1912 Charlotte Watson married Oliver L. Mitchell. Oliver Mitchell worked in many occupations during his lifetime, including as a preacher in the Colored Methodist Episcopal (C.M.E.) Church, teacher, school administrator, and farmer.

When Charlotte Mitchell became a Jeanes Teacher for Bossier schools, she was 45 years old and the mother of three young children. Husband Oliver was working as principal of what became the Bossier Parish Training School in Benton where the family eventually lived on campus. As the “new” Jeanes Teacher, Charlotte Mitchell already had thirty-one years of teaching under her belt, mostly in rural schools, including eleven years in a one or two-teacher schoolhouse where she was responsible for teaching children in multiple grades at one time. She also taught algebra and Latin at the high school level and spent a year as a Jeanes Teacher in Lafayette County, Arkansas immediately north of Bossier Parish.

Charlotte Mitchell kept up Carrie Martin’s busy pace. In a “Report of Jeanes Agents” for 1928-29, there were sixty-two “Negro” public schools in Bossier Parish. She visited all but two of them over an average school term of 106 days. She also raised $1,615.00 for new, improved school buildings. On her visits, Mrs. Mitchell would check on the progress of the teachers. Retired Bossier Parish teacher Minnie B. Walker Payne remembered Charlotte Mitchell “was the supervisor of the school. And she would come around and sit…and write as you teach. Every class you taught she would write. After she would do that, she would have a conference with you and tell you of your weak points and tell your strong points…She never was harsh and she kept a smile. And she said, ‘Now teacher, it should be this way.’”

Ms. Payne also remembered how Charlotte Mitchell would help the teachers take care of the nutritional needs of the students. She reminisced:

And then too, we didn't have lunchrooms. We had…big old iron heaters like that with the pipe. And we would get commodities…I never will forget [Charlotte Mitchell]. In this commodity it was a lot of cabbage and apples. And she taught us how to cook apple and cabbage together. Oh, honey that's the best stuff in the world. You wouldn't believe it…Layer of apple, layer of cabbage on that wooden heater, get a great big old boil. And it was the best something.

Mrs. Payne said that Mrs. Mitchell was responsible for distributing the food for the schools, commodities that (along with all the cabbage and apples) typically included giant cans of vegetable soup that the teachers would heat up for the students.

A crowning achievement of Charlotte Mitchell’s tenure was the opening of the Bossier Parish Training School in Benton in 1928, producing its first secondary-level graduating class in in 1932. Training schools were post-elementary schools with an emphasis on industrial subjects or teacher training. The training school eventually expanded its offerings to increase the local supply of African American teachers by offering two years of college. As the only school of its kind in the parish, many students boarded in dormitories or with local families.

As a Jeanes Teacher, Charlotte Mitchell not only affected the educational life of the parish’s African-American community, but home life, as well. Over an eight-month period in 1932-1933, Charlotte Mitchell reported sixty visits to homes in addition to her seventy-five visits to schools. She led the Colored Home Demonstration Clubs in the parish and oversaw food canning centers in four of the parish’s African-American schools, allowing community members to put up thousands of tin cans of food each year. Many of the cans were set aside for the Red Cross to distribute to the hungry.

Charlotte Mitchell retired as Bossier Parish’s Jeanes Supervisor in 1937. She continued to teach for at least four more years at the Bossier Parish Training School where she still lived at the campus. Oliver Mitchell passed away in 1939. Charlotte Mitchell died in 1948 at the age of sixty-eight. However, Charlotte Mitchell’s name has endured. In 1954, the Bossier Parish School Board renamed the Bossier City Colored High School to Charlotte Mitchell High School. It is now known as Mitchell Community Center, with an adjoining Mitchell Park. The building, on Cox Street in “Old Bossier”, is used for youth and food bank programs by the Bossier Parish Sheriff’s Office. In 2017 the Charlotte Mitchell High School class of 1969, the last to graduate in the school, dedicated “Charlotte Ann Mitchell Memorial Drive” with a large and visible sign on Cox Street, honoring Charlotte Mitchell almost 70 years after her passing.

Visit the History Center in the Bossier Parish Central Library Complex for more information on the Jeanes Teachers or other local women for March, Women’s History Month. We are located in the Bossier Central Library Complex at 7204 Hutchison Drive in Bossier City, LA. 2206 Beckett St, Bossier City, LA. Or, go online to our collections database and search for “Catalogs” at http://bossier.pastperfectonline.com/ The History Center is open: M-Fri 9-6. Saturdays we are open by appointment. Our phone number is (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org For other local history events, facts, photos, and videos, be sure to follow us @BPLHistoryCenter on FB, or check out our blog at http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/.

Images: 

• Portrait of Charlotte A. Mitchell 1999.130.001
• Bossier Parish Training School (AKA C.H. Irion HS) in Benton, La. (Cover of Reunion Booklet 1986, Collection of BPL History Center)
• Charlotte Mitchell High School (AKA Bossier Colored HS) in Bossier City, La. 2013.016.001

Article by: Pam Carlisle 

Big Hands and a Big Legacy – The Story of Gary Johnson

It is a busy time to be a fan of sports this time of year, with the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and the NFL Super Bowl LX having just passed. Therefore, what better time to look back on one of Bossier Parish’s football legends, one Gary “Big Hands” Johnson.

Gary Johnson was born August 31, 1952, in Shreveport, Louisiana, though he would grow up in Bossier Parish. His iconic nickname, “Big Hands,” has a number of conflicting origins, with one standing out more than the others. According to the December 22, 1983, edition of the Shreveport Journal, Johnson was given the nickname at Bossier City’s Charlotte Mitchell High School after being told by Coach Riley Stewart during gym class to “Keep your big hands off my basketball!” Following desegregation, Johnson finished is high school career at Airline.

After high school, Gary Johnson went to Grambling State University in Grambling, Louisiana, having decided on the school long before any others that tried to recruit him. Johnson is said to have stated during his 1991 Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame induction: “It would not have mattered if 100 schools contacted me, I was going to Grambling.” It was there at Grambling where he would really begin to shine, where he would letter all four years of his college career.

Now, some readers may be asking, which position did Gary Johnson play? The answer: Defensive Tackle (DT). Even in his early years of college football, Eddie Robinson (coach for Grambling State) was making the bold claim that Johnson was the best defensive lineman in college football at the time. For three years straight, he would be selected for the Associated Press Little All-American team, and in his senior year, he would make it to the All-American squad selected for the Newspaper Enterprise Association. All-American teams are a series of annual honors given to the best player in a position, as determined by various news organizations. The “Little” in Little American stands in for the size of the school, not the size of the player. For Johnson, who was attending Grambling State, this was a big honor. In his senior year alone, Johnson earned an impressive 136 tackles and 49 sacks, according to Jerry Byrd’s book “Louisiana Sports Legends.” Gary Johnson didn’t stop there though, as after graduating he would go on to join the National Football League.

In 1975, when Gary Johnson was drafted, it was to the San Diego Chargers in their first round (eighth overall) pick. While his career was comparatively quiet during his first years on the team, 1980 would see him earning the most sacks in the league for that year, at an impressive seventeen-and-a-half, leading the team’s impressive sixty sack record for the year. His time with the Chargers would be a long and storied nine years, but his career did not end with them. The same year he was traded to the San Francisco 49ers (1974), Gary Johnson would win the biggest game in the NFL, the Super Bowl. San Francisco would win Superbowl XIX with a score of 38-16 against the Miami dolphins, and Gary Johnson would get his ring

In 1975, when Gary Johnson was drafted, it was to the San Diego Chargers in their first round (eighth overall) pick. While his career was comparatively quiet during his first years on the team, 1980 would see him earning the most sacks in the league for that year, at an impressive seventeen-and-a-half, leading the team’s impressive sixty sack record for the year. His time with the Chargers would be a long and storied nine years, but his career did not end with them. The same year he was traded to the San Francisco 49ers (1974), Gary Johnson would win the biggest game in the NFL, the Super Bowl. San Francisco would win Superbowl XIX with a score of 38-16 against the Miami dolphins, and Gary Johnson would get his ring.

In 1991, Gary Johnson would be inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, immortalizing his achievements alongside other legends from the state. In a story written for the Louisiana Sports Writers Association (LSWA) in 1991, Johnson reportedly stated that “’Just being there alongside Coach Robinson is a dream come true in itself.’”

Tragically, Gary Johnson would pass away in 2010 in his sleep. He left behind his wife Alice, son Gary II, daughter Morgan, two granddaughters, two sisters, and three brothers. Much of the information from this article comes from a combination of the work of Jerry Byrd, NFL stats recorded by the league, and his obituary.

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: 

• Gary Johnson - The Shreveport Journal - 22 Nov 1972
• Gary Johnson in 1985 - The Daily Advertiser/Associated Press - 20 Jun 1991

Article by: Jonah Daigle 

Bossier Parish’s first Jeanes Supervisor, Carrie Martin

Early 20th-century schools for African American children in the South, especially in rural areas, were in a catch-22 caused by a segregated education system that offered less months in the school term, and less years of schooling: You couldn’t have schools for African American students without African American teachers, and you couldn’t have African American teachers without African American schools, especially high schools. Enter a Quaker woman and philanthropist from Philadelphia named Anna T. Jeanes. In 1907 she created a one-million-dollar endowment named the Negro Rural School Fund, more commonly referred to as “the Jeanes fund,” to develop a cadre of educated and professionally trained African American teachers to staff more and better schools for African American children in the rural South, including secondary schools.

Carrie Washington Martin was a school teacher who became the first Jeanes Teacher (often referred to as Jeanes Supervisor) in Bossier Parish, and only the third in the state of Louisiana, in 1913. She was appointed by the Bossier Parish School Board after teaching for a number of years in the Plain Dealing area of northern Bossier Parish.

Carrie Martin was born in December of 1883 in Spring Ridge, Louisiana, a rural part of southwestern Caddo Parish. Her parents were Anthony and Georgia Jackson Washington. Her father farmed and served as a Methodist preacher; census records note that he was literate. Carrie was 16 years old when she married her first husband, Franklin Roan. The young couple lived a few houses away from her parents in Jackson Parish in 1900. Franklin’s fate is unknown, but in May of 1909 Carrie married James C. Martin in Bossier Parish. Her father owned land in the Hughes Spur community, which is near Plain Dealing. Carrie became a school teacher and her husband farmed. Carrie did not have a college degree, but she received teacher training during summer institutes for black teachers. This was typical of the early Jeanes Teachers.

As Bossier Parish’s first Jeanes Teacher, Carrie Martin was charged with providing or improving education for 4,733 African American “educables” ages six to eighteen, and supervising their teachers in 59 schools spread throughout the parish’s approximately 838 square miles. She would likely have been driving in her own vehicle, without travel compensation, on dirt roads that were, for much of the year, mud pits.

In addition to supervising and training teachers in the African American schools, and improving the literacy rate of less than 50% among the parish’s African American population according to the 1910 census, Carrie Martin was also expected to be a leader in school and community health and nutrition, home life, and beautification. As a Jeanes Teacher, she supervised home demonstration (home economics) work for African-American women, such as teaching food preservation, home management skills, and public health by making home visits and organizing homemaker clubs. She also organized community members to raise money to build more or better schools, including by raising livestock or growing cash crops with proceeds going toward a school fund.

Leo Favrot was the state supervisor for Rural Negro Schools and made several visits to Bossier Parish to inspect the schools and the work of Carrie Martin. She was ill during one of his visits, so he called on the parish’s superintendent of schools, W.A. Fortson, to discuss her work. Mr. Favrot concluded from this trip that there was considerable activity on Carrie Martin’s part, but that the Jeanes program did not have secure standing with the Bossier Parish School Board. Mr. Favrot’s suggestion was to win the board over with the usual strategy used at the time to sway a reluctant white community to the cause of education for African Americans– emphasize the practical, industrial nature of the Jeanes Teacher’s work, especially in agriculture.

In 1919, Bossier was without a Jeanes Teacher. The reason for this gap in Carrie Martin’s term is unknown, but Leo Favrot admonished the school board by saying, “This is to be deplored,” because Carrie Martin’s work had “done a lot of good” promoting the interests of schools in Bossier Parish. He hoped the board would resolve to again have a Jeanes teacher and make an appropriation “sufficiently large” to attract a very capable agent. They must have listened, because Carrie Martin was rehired as a Jeanes Teacher the following year.

Carrie Martin passed away on March 11, 1926 from cervical cancer, after an illness of about six months. In recognition for her significant work expanding and improving the educational opportunities available for African American students, the Bossier Parish School Board named the Plain Dealing all-grades school for African American students “Carrie Martin High School” in 1954. After the de-segregation of Bossier Parish schools (1970), the school closed, and Plain Dealing Elementary School opened in the same building. In 2003, community members pressed for the school board to once again have an existing school named to honor Carrie Martin, and Plain Dealing Elementary was re-named Carrie Martin Elementary. In 2018, the elementary school was moved to the campus of Plain Dealing’s middle and high school due to a declining enrollment, but the elementary wing is still named after Carrie Martin, and her portrait hangs in the hallway.

You can visit the Bossier Parish Libraries YouTube channel to watch a virtual slide show on Carrie Maritn, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig-kWHgY5mw&t=3s or contact us at the History Center if you’d like more information on the parish’s Jeanes Teachers. We are located in the Bossier Central Library Complex at 7204 Hutchison Drive in Bossier City, LA. 2206 Beckett St, Bossier City, LA. Or, go online to our collections database and search for “Catalogs” at http://bossier.pastperfectonline.com/

Please note the new hours for the History Center: M-Fri 9-6. Saturdays we are open by appointment. Our phone number is (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org For other local history events, facts, photos, and videos, be sure to follow us @BPLHistoryCenter on FB, @bplhistorycenter on TikTok, and check out our blog http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/. Contact us if you’d like to be on our email list to receive our newsletter and History Center event updates.

Images: 

• Carrie Washington Martin: 2003 The Yellow Jacket Carrie Martin High School Reunion Yearbook
• Louisiana Rural School Agent Leo Favrot (caption on photo)
• Jeanes Teacher exhibit at La. State Fair (caption on photo)

Article by: Pam Carlisle