Friendship CME Church

From 1965-1937, Friendship CME Church served as a house of worship in Claiborne Parish where the Claiborne Parish Civic League, a local activist organization, met and organized plans to bring fair and just changes throughout the parish and North Louisiana. A primary focus of the Claiborne Parish Civic League was voter registration. Mr. Fred Lewis, president of the CPCL, led an action in United States District Court in Shreveport challenging the constitutionality of the apportionment of the Claiborne Parish Police Jury and the Claiborne Parish School Board, which would affect an unfavorable voting outcome of an election. The court declared that the police jury and school board of Claiborne Parish were malapportioned in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. This decree resulted in less intimidating and more equitable voting experiences for African-Americans throughout the parish. Soon thereafter, African-Americans were being elected to local offices and being appointed to serve in capacities that had previously been off-limits to them.

Louisiana · United States