SHREVEPORT, La. – Carver Memorial Cemetery, one of Shreveport’s most historic African American burial grounds, is home to the graves of veterans, business leaders and civil rights activists. But for years, families say the site has fallen into neglect, leaving them heartbroken and frustrated.
For Deborah Allen, the condition of the cemetery became painfully clear when she buried her daughter, Iesha, who died of COVID-19 at just 29 years old. Allen already had two sons interred at Carver, both of whom died at age 16.
“She was an auntie, a sister, my baby,” Allen said of her daughter. “I couldn’t understand why it looked the way it did. And that’s what got me. I was hurt. I was hurt more than anything.”
Founded in 1952, Carver Cemetery sits off Linwood Avenue on Kennie Drive in south Shreveport. It is the city’s largest African American cemetery, with ties to some of the community’s most prominent figures. Yet rows of toppled headstones, overgrown grass, and sunken graves tell a different story…