Shreveport Louisiana Touring Article

Louisiana bridges span miles of swampland. Cranes pose still as mannequins, and cypress branches hang low. Sugar cane and rice fields, cotton farms, pecan groves and trees that don't see a change of season--these are the roadside views along Interstates 10 and 49, which traverse the Bayou State.

Why ever leave New Orleans--the Crescent City, the Big Easy, the home of "good times" and one of America's premier playgrounds? Because African Americans have stamped their accomplishments all over Louisiana, from the Gulf Coast to the northernmost city of Shreveport, and because the state's good times are likewise scattered abundantly. Nonstop, one can drive the length and breadth of Louisiana in about five hours, but that would defeat the purpose of a vacation. For relaxation, pleasure and enlightenment, schedule time to see Louisiana's lesser-known faces.

From New Orleans, get on 1-10 toward Baton Rouge. Exit onto state Highway 44 to Burnside. The two-lane black top curves along the famous communities of River Road. Louisianans say this is the most fertile land in the country, and the wealthiest back in the 1800s, when sugar was king and the River Road plantations exploited black labor to sweeten the Western World.

Today, sugar cane, oil refineries and chemical plants share the lush countryside. A grass-covered, 16 to 25-foot levee keeps the Mississippi River at bay. Most of River Road's black communities--Iberville, Darrow, Sunshine, Modeste, Vacherie and Donaldsville, to name a few--are near the old plantations, and many of today's residents are descendants of slaves and sharecroppers who once worked them.

Moved by her awakening, Hambrick began researching the area's plantations and the black people who worked them. "Before that, I never wanted to visit a plantation," she says. "I wanted to forget that part of our history, but something just told me to start going on those plantation tours and learn a little about that part of my history that I didn't know."

What she learned was that the African Americans who labored on the River Road plantations, first as slaves and then, after Emancipation, as sharecroppers, never figured in the history offered on the tours. "I took every plantation tour in the region," says Hambrick, "and there was almost never any mention of the slaves and how they lived. They talked more about the curtains and the furniture than about the people who worked there."

With little experience, 2 1/2 years of research, and advice from other black curators and researchers, Hambrick opened her museum's doors in March 1994, determined to pay tribute to the hundreds of slaves who were brought to Burnside in 1858 to work the sugar and rice plantations. Her brother in California, a collector of black memorabilia, loaned parts of his collection for exhibition, and residents in nearby towns donated old photographs, furniture, legal documents and farm tools. The owners of Tezcuco Plantation donated 1,000 square feet next to the plantation's own museum and commissary.

Hambrick's one-room museum is a treasure of local African-American history, highlighting the successes and hardships of African Americans from slavery through the present. Much of the collection focuses on people of local historical importance: there is a registry of Union soldiers from Ascension Parish, and photographs of local philanthropists and prominent African Americans grace the walls. Resident fine artist Malaika Favorite has begun a series of paintings depicting life along the Mississippi River. The first is "The River Preacher," a scene of George West, who baptized folks in the Mississippi until 1968. A wider perspective on black history is provided by an original deed signed by Frederick Douglass, Recorder of Deeds in Washington, ., in 1884 and by photos of Marcus Garvey, Mary McLeod Bethune and George Washington Carver at work.

Most of all, Hambrick says, she wants the museum to be a healing place for African Americans. Documents such as deeds of sale and descriptive inventory lists of Africans owned by area plantations are some of the museum's more evocative pieces. "As African Americans, we have a phobia of plantations," Hambrick argues. "We want to forget that part of our history, because it is so painful. I hope I make [visitors] more comfortable and able to talk to their children about what our ancestors had to go through."

After touring the museum, visit the chapel, where a larger-than-life-sized sculpture of a black Christ has been hanging since 1982. Carved out of cypress by noted sculptor (and professor at Louisiana's historically black Southern University) Frank Hayden, the work complements the artifacts, photographs, documents and deeds of the African-American Museum.

Tezcuco Plantation itself is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and offers a typical, glamorized glimpse of the upper reaches of antebellum Southern life. Finished in 1855, it was one of the last mansions completed before the Civil War. Today it is a bed-and-breakfast establishment. Rocking chairs sit on front porches of cottages, and the grounds are covered by century-old oaks, formal gardens and brick paths.

For historical ambiance, as well as good food, lunch or dine at the Cabin Restaurant in Burnside. The place is unique; the food, scrumptious. "Rock," the world's largest alligator--carved from a cypress sinker log chopped down more than a century ago--greets patrons in the garden. The Cabin is composed of original slave dwellings that date back 150 years. The original cypress roof still hangs overhead, and spider webs from yesteryear still cling to the ceiling. The walls are papered in newspapers and paste made of flour and water, a form of insulation slaves used to keep warm and dry. Antique farm tools used by slaves dress the walls. The four massive beams in the main dining room are manufacturer's rejects that were exchanged for a bottle of Old Crow bourbon.

The extension to the rear of the main building is a 140-year-old, two-room slave home from the nearby Welham Plantation, and this, too, has the original roof and walls. Even the restrooms are unique; they were built from a cypress water cistern that was once used to store fresh rainwater.

The Cabin serves up excellent Cajun-Creole cuisine. Seafood, including oysters, crawfish, catfish, shrimp and crab, is plentiful. It might be served as an etouffee or au gratin, fried, blackened or broiled. As a side, try dirty rice or red beans, rice and sausage, For dessert, indulge in a slice of pecan or buttermilk pie or homemade bread pudding. The buttermilk pie recipe costs just $1 and makes a great souvenir. After lunch, exit the main dining room through the French doors to a brick courtyard surrounded by two more slave cabins and a schoolhouse, the first black Catholic school in Louisiana.

Having fed one's soul and stomach, get back on 1-10 West toward Louisiana's capital city. Baton Rouge, named by its French founders, is home to Southern University, which first opened its doors as a technical high school for black students in 1880. The campus sits on the old Scott's Bluff Plantation overlooking the Mississippi. The Harding Boulevard exit of I-10 runs into and then loops around the college, which is best known today for its absolutely incredible marching band and for its participation with Grambling in the greatest black football clash of the year, the Bayou Classic. Take the time to get out and wander about, and look for the Frank Hayden sculptures, which are prominently featured on the grounds.

Also not to be missed is the State Capitol. Raised by Huey Long, America's most flamboyant and controversial governor in the years of the Great Depression, this 34-story edifice consists of 26 varieties of marble. its Memorial Hall floor is polished lava from Mount Vesuvius in Italy, and the ceiling is hand-gilded in 14-karat gold leaf.

The Old State Capitol, along the banks of the Mississippi in downtown Baton Rouge, is said to be the country's most extravagant example of Gothic architecture. Inside, the Victorian decor includes two-ton chandeliers of solid bronze and two murals depicting Louisiana as "the Land of Plenty."

The small Old State Capitol museum offers a quick guide through Louisiana's history and mentions Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback, the African American who served as acting governor from December 9, 1872, to January 17, 1873, when the state's sitting governor, Henry C. Warmoth, was impeached. Pinchback, the son of a Georgia planter and a freed black woman, enlisted as a private in a white Union regiment in New Orleans before transferring to the black 2nd Louisiana Guards, in which he held a captain's rank. He resigned after protesting the discriminatory treatment he received from white officers and the unequal pay offered black troops. After the war, he was active in black self-help measures in Alabama. Returning to Louisiana, he entered the state legislature, became lieutenant Governor on the death of his predecessor and then briefly governor when Warmoth was impeached. He made his money through speculation and corruption, leading his grandson, the noted black author Jean Toomer, to describe him as "an adventurer."

From an African-American adventurer to Africa is a journey of about two miles, for just the other side of the Mississippi from the capital, in Port Allen, is the West Baton Rouge Museum. (Follow State Highway #1 and look for the green sign that says, "West Baton Rouge Museum, Aillet House." Turn right onto Louisiana Avenue, then right again onto North Jefferson. The museum is on the corner.) Exhibits here include a collection of masks and baskets and a wari board from the Chokwe tribe in Zaire. Wari is considered the oldest game in the world, and was brought to the New World by enslaved Africans. The museum also displays a slave cabin built in 1850 and a typical two-room Creole house that dates back to 1830.

Tired of touring and want to kick back while in Baton Rouge? Try Tabby's Blues Box, which offers genuine down-home blues and soul food day and night. Take the 1-10 Government Street exit to Eddie Robinson Boulevard, and then look for North Boulevard. Tabby's is the one-story blue building located at 1314 North Boulevard.

The Bayou State gets its name honestly: Highways are sometimes called "swamp expressways." No visit to Louisiana would be complete without a cruise through these creepy waters, where egrets and alligators flourish. On the trip between Baton Rouge and Lafayette, one will find the Atchafalaya Swamp, one of the largest river swamps in the country. Freshwater fish (including bass and other game fish), a forest of cypress trees, and water hyacinths that bloom in mid-April grace the swamp, which is 23 miles long by 20 miles wide.

The area is also a hotbed of Cajun culture. McGee's Landing offers one of the best swamp tours in these parts, plus sports fishing and authentic Cajun fare at the countrystore-cafe. The sightseeing boats are modern, with big picture windows that allow for panoramic views of the swamp. Tours are given in English and French. (From Baton Rouge continue on I-10 toward Lafayette to exit 115. Turn left, go under the intersection service roads, and follow the signs to Henderson Swamp Tour. Go straight all the way to the levee road. Turn right on the levee road and follow the signs to McGee's Atchafalaya Basin Tour. The drive from Baton Rouge to Henderson takes about 45 minutes.

Continuing west on 1-10 brings one to Lafayette, the leading city in the heart of what some call Cajun country. African Americans, though, refer to the region as Southwest Louisiana, home of zydeco music and Creole culture. Outside of New Orleans, Lafayette offers the best taste of local nightlife. Zydeco dance halls like Hamilton's, Slim's Y-Ki-Ki and El Sido's swing on weekends and feature dancing to live zydeco bands.

For a broad history of the region, visit the Lafayette Museum, once the residence of Alexandre Mouton, the first Democratic governor of the state, and now a museum full of antique furnishings, Civil War relics and carnival costumes.

From Lafayette, the driving tour winds its way north on Louisiana's other interstate highway, I-49, which connects Lafayette with Alexandria and Shreveport. On the drive through central Louisiana, relive the story of Solomon Northup, a free black man who was kidnapped in New York, brought South and auctioned off at the slave market in New Orleans. From there, he was brought to work on a plantation on the Bayou Boeuf in central Louisiana between 1841 and 1853. In 1853, Northup finally won his freedom and moved back to New York, where he published an account of his travails, titled Twelve Years a Slave.

Today, Louisiana State University at Alexandria offers a pamphlet that enables visitors to follow Northup's life in slavery; highlights of the Solomon Northup Trail include the Epps House Museum in Bunkie and, in Marksville, the site of the old Avoyelles Parish Courthouse, where Northup won his legal bid for release.

Formally, the trail begins in Alexandria near today's city hall, which also happens to be a stone's throw away from the Arna Bontemps African American Museum and Cultural and Art Center. The museum is housed in the original middle-class family home of Alexandria's native son, who as a novelist and poet became one of the leading lights of the Harlem Renaissance and the author of Black Thunder (a fictionalized account of Gabriel Prosser's 1800 slave rebellion in Virginia), Drums at Dusk and The Old South, among other works. Each of the rooms in the museum is in some way dedicated to the celebrated author's life. Le Bontemps Room chronicles his life with artifacts, letters and pictures, including a photo album of Bontemps and his Harlem Renaissance writer contemporaries. Traveling exhibits of local black artists are featured in the foyer and the Hall of Fame Room, in which Bontemps was born. As an important part of the Alexandria community, the center also sponsors a junior writers guild, an African-American Studies Program, an annual Arna Bontemps Jazzfest and an annual African-American Heritage Quiz Bowl that involves local junior- and senior-high school students.

Now it's on to Shreveport, which lies about two hours away from Alexandria. Along the way, be sure to stop in Natchitoches. From the Roque House to the sprawling Melrose Plantation, Natchitoches is graced with African-American history and lore.

Bordered by eastern Texas and southern Arkansas, Shreveport is the entertainment center of "Ark-La-Tex." Casinos, horse racing, theater and the arts, botanical gardens, camping, and the Sci-Port Discovery Center are just a few reasons families are attracted to Louisiana's third-largest city. Commonly, this area is called Shreveport-Bossier, for the two cities linked by the Red River.

Downtown, Texas Avenue between the 800 and 1100 blocks was once known as "the Avenue" and was the center of black business and social life during the 1920s, attracting entertainers such as Louis Armstrong, Count Basie and Duke Ellington. Antioch Baptist Church, the oldest black Baptist church in Shreveport, used to rock on Sunday morning. Designed by the noted black architect . Allen, the church is on the National Register of Historic Places. Farther up Texas Avenue, behind St. Joseph's Cemetery, is Star Cemetery, the first established for blacks in the city. To get there, take the second small dirt road past the St. Joseph Cemetery.

Shreveport-Bossier offers a variety of galleries and art centers. Mooringsport Mini-Museum features an impressive collection of artifacts from the area's first inhabitants, the Caddo Indians (who've given their name to Louisiana's northwestmost parish), and a display of photographs and memorabilia documenting the musical legacy of the blues great Huddie "Leadbelly" Ledbetter. The Theater of the Performing Arts is a training ground and theater company for black actors, dancers, musicians and vocalists. The theater exists, says its founder and executive director, Gloria J. Christopher Gipson, because "it is important that black artists control and promote their own creative works."

Family fun is also easily found downtown at places such as the new Sci-Port Discovery Center. Kids of all ages can explore the science-oriented, hands-on exhibits, including the Tornado (which uses a mist generator to create a funnel that can be manipulated by the intrusion of a hand), Pipes of Pan (where pipes of various lengths create sounds of various pitches from the surrounding swirl of air) and Jacob's Ladder (the spark from 15,000 volts of electricity shooting up a V-shaped electrode gets bigger as the poles diverge; at the top there is an explosion that creates ozone, which can be smelled).

Gambling is big in Louisiana, and the northern part of the state doesn't come up short in this endeavor. Shreveport-Bossier offers the glamour of Las Vegas on dockside paddle-wheelers. On the Shreveport side of the Red River, Harrah's Riverboat Casino offers 800 jingling slot machines, 40 table games and--at the time of my visit--a $100,000 money machine. Each visitor got a raffle ticket; the three raffle winners each got a chance to go grab as much money as possible in 30 seconds. Of course, the bills ($1, $20, $50) were blown about by a wind machine, so one couldn't expect to put a child through college from a 30-second endeavor. On the Bossier side, Isle of Capri has more than 900 slots and games and the Horseshoe Casino is the biggest casino in the area.

Looking for a great vacation? You'll find it in Louisiana. You can bet on it!

Hungry for more?

Contact the Baton Rouge Convention & Visitors Bureau, (504) 383-1825; the Lafayette Convention & Visitors Commission, (318) 232-3737 or (800) 346-1958; the Alexandria/Pineville Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, (318) 443-7049; and the Shreveport/Bossier Convention & Tourism Bureau, (318) 222-9391 or (800) 551-8682.

A former travel editor at Essence magazine, Dari Giles is a freelance writer in Washington, .