Caesar Carpentier Antoine (c. 1836–1921) was a soldier, businessman, editor, and African-American Republican politician in

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

during the

Reconstruction era The Reconstruction era was a period in History of the United States, US history that followed the American Civil War (1861-65) and was dominated by the legal, social, and political challenges of the Abolitionism in the United States, abol ...

. He served in the Union Army during the American Civil War and was a member of the

Louisiana Senate The Louisiana State Senate (; ) is the upper house of Louisiana’s legislature. Senators serve four-year terms and participate in various committees. Composition The Louisiana State Senate has 39 members elected from single-member districts ...

before serving as

Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana The lieutenant governor of Louisiana (; ) is the second highest state office in Louisiana. The current lieutenant governor is Billy Nungesser, a Republican. The lieutenant governor is also the commissioner of the Louisiana Department of Cultur ...

Biography

Born a free man of color in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

, Felix C. Antoine was his brother. During the Civil War, he served as Captain in the 7th Louisiana Regiment Infantry and 10th U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery Regiment. After the war, he moved to

Shreveport, Louisiana Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the List of municipalities in Louisiana, third-most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Baton Rouge. The bulk of Shreveport is in Caddo Parish, Lo ...

. He was a member of St. Paul's Colored Methodist Episcopal Church and lived in the Allendale neighborhood. He was elected as a state senator for Caddo Parish in 1868, partaking in the Louisiana Constitutional Convention. He served until 1872 when he was elected to serve as

, the third man of color to hold that position. He co-founded a newspaper with

P. B. S. Pinchback Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback (May 10, 1837 – December 21, 1921) was an American publisher, politician, and Union Army officer who served as Governor of Louisiana from December 9, 1872 to January 13, 1873. Pinchback is commonly referr ...

, his immediate predecessor. He became a

Worshipful Master In Craft Freemasonry, sometimes known as Blue Lodge Freemasonry, every Masonic lodge elects or appoints Masonic lodge officers to execute the necessary functions of the lodge's life and work. The precise list of such offices may vary between the j ...

Freemasonry Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

in 1884. Shreveport's Freemason Lodge Number 185 of the Prince Hall Masons is named in his honor. In 1887, he co-founded

Comité des Citoyens The (; ) was a civil rights group made up of African Americans, whites, and Creoles. It is most well known for its involvement in '' Plessy v. Ferguson''. The Citizens' Committee was opposed to racial segregation and was responsible for multiple ...

, which fought the case that became

Plessy v. Ferguson ''Plessy v. Ferguson'', 163 U.S. 537 (1896), was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision ruling that racial segregation laws did not violate the U.S. Constitution as long as the facilities for each race were equal in quality, a doctrine that ...

, and became its vice-president.

Legacy and honors

In 1984, a Shreveport park was named for Antoine and a sculpture of him was installed in it. A tombstone was dedicated at Antoine's gravesite on Memorial Day, 31 May 1999.John Andrew Prime, "Cities to declare Confederate History Month next week"
, ''Shreveport Times'', n.d., hosted at North Star website, accessed 7 February 2014 In 2008, C. C. Antoine Celebration was established as an annual event during

Black History Month Black History Month is an annually observed commemorative month originating in the United States, where it is also known as African-American History Month. It began as a way of remembering important people and events in the history of the Af ...

in Shreveport.C.C. Antoine Celebration
website, accessed 7 February 2014 Antoine's house in Shreveport was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 20, 1999. It was destroyed by fire in May 2022.

References

*"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) 1830s births 1921 deaths African Americans in the American Civil War 19th-century African-American businesspeople 19th-century American newspaper editors Businesspeople from New Orleans Barbers American hairdressers Union army officers Republican Party Louisiana state senators American planters African-American state legislators in Louisiana Politicians from Shreveport, Louisiana Politicians from New Orleans Lieutenant governors of Louisiana School board members in Louisiana African-American politicians during the Reconstruction Era 20th-century African-American businesspeople 20th-century American businesspeople American Freemasons American civil rights activists 19th-century members of the Louisiana State Legislature {{AfricanAmerican-stub

Biography

Legacy and honors

See also

References