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Shreveport, Louisiana (U.S.)

Caddo Parish

3:5 image(s) by permission of David B. Martucci
image(s) from American City Flags, Raven 9-10 (2002-2003), courtesy of the North American Vexillological Association, which retains copyright.

Current Flag
Seal

See also:

Current Flag

Text and image(s) from American City Flags, Raven 9-10 (2002-2003), courtesy of the North American Vexillological Association, which retains copyright. Image(s) from American City Flags by permission of David B. Martucci.

Design

Shreveport’s flag is a vertical tribar of equal blue, white, and yellow stripes. In the center of the white bar is the civic shield, divided diagonally by a red bar running from the top hoist to the bottom fly. On the bar are three white magnolia blossoms in square frames. The upper section has a blue field with 18 gold five-pointed stars, the lower section has a white field with stylized bluish ermine tips. Atop the shield is a nesting pelican, in natural colors. Curving around the lower portion of the shield is a squared wreath of green cotton leaves, partially covered on its lower part by a white heraldic ribbon on which appears City of Shreveport 1835. The date is divided, with the “18” on the hoist side and the “35” on the fly side. The city’s name is in the center.
John M. Purcell, American City Flags, Raven 9-10, 2002-2003

Symbolism

The colors of the tribar are said to represent the three nations that had owned Louisiana: France (blue), United States (white), and Spain (yellow). The 18 stars in the shield’s topmost third symbolize Louisiana as the eighteenth state to join the Union. The three magnolia blossoms, the state flower of Louisiana, represent Shreveport as the center of the tri-state area known as Ark-La-Tex (Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas). The ermine in the lower portion of the shield comes from the arms of the Shreve family, in honor of Captain Henry Miller Shreve, the city’s founder. The cotton leaves show Shreveport’s importance in the cotton industry, and the pelican is Louisiana’s state bird.
John M. Purcell, American City Flags, Raven 9-10, 2002-2003

Selection

A contest was held in 1934 with a top prize of $50. A seven-member contest committee chose a winner, then submitted the design to the eleven-member design committee, which approved it and submitted it to the flag committee, made up of 31 members, where it received final approval. A seven-member publicity committee was charged with the responsibility of having an actual flag manufactured.
Flag adopted: 1935 (official).
John M. Purcell, American City Flags, Raven 9-10, 2002-2003

Designer

Stewart G. Davis, a local artist.
John M. Purcell, American City Flags, Raven 9-10, 2002-2003

More about the Flag

As the local chamber of commerce was planning a large celebration in honor of the city’s centennial in 1935, it felt that a suitable flag for the city should be adopted to generate interest in the city’s citizenry.
John M. Purcell, American City Flags, Raven 9-10, 2002-2003

The City of Shreveport Louisiana was founded in 1836 based on a treaty with the Caddo Indians of 1835. As part of the centennial celebration a public contest was held to design an official flag for the city. In 1934, the only city in the State of Louisiana that had a flag, adopted in 1918, was New Orleans with its French style red-white-blue which had there upon emblazoned a golden fleur-de-lis.

The design prize of $50 was collected by a local artist, Stewart G. Davis, after having been selected by a civic committee. This design was a French style tricolor of deep French blue - white - gold and a coat-of-arms centered in the white panel.
C. Eugene Baldwin, 15 November 1998

Seal

image located by Paul Bassinson, 17 August 2019

Source: https://www.shreveportla.gov/
Paul Bassinson, 17 August 2019