Caesar_Antoine

Caesar Antoine

Caesar Antoine

Louisiana politician and civil rights activist (1836-1921)

Caesar Carpentier Antoine (c. 1836–1921) was a soldier, businessman, editor, and African-American Republican politician in Louisiana during the Reconstruction era.[1]

Quick Facts 13th Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana, Governor ...

He was born as a free man of color in New Orleans.[1] His brother was Felix C. Antoine.[1][2]

During the Civil War, he served as Captain in the 7th Louisiana Regiment Infantry and 10th U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery Regiment.[3] After the war, he moved to Shreveport, Louisiana. He was a member of St. Paul's Colored Methodist Episcopal Church and lived in the Allendale neighborhood.[1]

He was elected as a state senator for Caddo Parish in 1868, partaking in the Louisiana Constitutional Convention.[1] He served until 1872 when he was elected to serve as Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana, the third man of color to hold that position.[1][2] He co-founded a newspaper with P. B. S. Pinchback, his immediate predecessor.

He became a Worshipful Master in 1884. Shreveport's Freeman Lodge Number 185 of the Price Hall Masons is named in his honor.[1]

In 1887, he co-founded Comité des Citoyens, which fought the case that became Plessy v. Ferguson, and became its vice-president.[1]

Legacy and honors

  • In 2008, C. C. Antoine Celebration was established as an annual event during Black History Month in Shreveport.[4]
  • A tombstone was dedicated at Antoine's gravesite on Memorial Day, 31 May 1999.[1][5]
  • In 1984, a Shreveport park was named for Antoine and a sculpture of him was installed in it.[1]
  • Antoine's house in Shreveport was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 20, 1999.[1][6] It was destroyed by fire in May 2022.[6]

See also

References

  1. [1]
    Brock, Eric J (2003). "Louisiana Political Pioneer" (PDF). Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-02-23.
  2. [2]
    Foner, Eric (1996). Freedom's Lawmakers. LSU Press. p. 9. ISBN 978-0807120828.
  3. [3]
    "Antoine, Caesar C." Soldier Details - The Civil War (U.S. National Park Service). Retrieved 2023-05-19.
  4. [4]
    C.C. Antoine Celebration Archived 2014-02-23 at the Wayback Machine website, accessed 7 February 2014
  5. [5]
    John Andrew Prime, "Cities to declare Confederate History Month next week" Archived 2011-07-14 at the Wayback Machine, Shreveport Times, n.d., hosted at North Star website, accessed 7 February 2014
  6. [6]
    "Historic Shreveport house 1 of 2 destroyed in early morning fire". KTAL-TV. May 13, 2022. Retrieved May 19, 2023.
  • "Caesar Carpentier Antoine". A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography, Vol. 1 (1988), p. 16
  • John W. Blassingame, Black New Orleans, 1860-1880 (1973)
  • Dorothea Olga McCants, ed., Our People and Our History (1973)
  • Charles Vincent, Black Legislators in Louisiana during Reconstruction (1976)
  • Rayford W. Logan and Michael R. Winston, eds., Dictionary of American Negro Biography (1982)
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