A 145-year-old church in Northwest Louisiana is Civil Rights landmark

SHREVEPORT, La. — For over 47 years a Shreveport building has stood vacant, as time slowly eats away at the ceiling like a cancerous cell taking over a body.

Within these walls lives the words of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and many others who laid the road to the Civil Rights movement.

Old Galilee was built in 1877 by freed Black slaves and was home to the same congregation from 1917 until 1975 when it was closed. Since its closure, it has remained vacant and is now owned by the city of Shreveport.

This church at one time was the main hub for the Civil Rights movement in Shreveport and served as a non-violent meeting place for adults and children. Old Galilee taught children how to integrate peacefully into Caddo Parish Schools.

King not only appeared once at Old Galilee but twice. During one of those visits he gave the famous “Speech at Galilee” in 1958, which is thought to be his first speech recorded on video.

In 1962, King made his second and last appearance at Old Galilee, which was memorialized on the historical marker in front of the church.

Today the historic church stands as a building with a legacy.

“Historicity means that just because something’s old doesn’t make it important, but it’s important if it has historical significance. And that significance is historicity,”

said Dr. Gary Joiner, department chair of History and Social Science at LSU-Shreveport.

The 145-year-old building holds a significance that can not be recreated.

After seven years, the City of Shreveport and the North Louisiana Civil Rights Coalition are still working to keep this piece of history alive.