SHREVEPORT, La. (KSLA) — Did you know that civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. visited Shreveport three times during his lifetime?

That’s one fact people were reminded of during a special Black history bus tour held in celebration of MLK Day.

“I saw things I had not seen in years,” passenger Ruby Bell said.

The Shreveport-Bossier African-American Chamber of Commerce teamed up with SporTran to offer the informational bus tour throughout Shreveport. The MLK 318 Dreamfest guided bus tour — with departures scheduled for 9 a.m., noon and 3 p.m. — featured historic sites that honor King’s legacy.

“In 1962, when Dr. King came, churches had voted that he could not come. So the only churches he visited in Shreveport were Old Galilee, Evergreen and Little Union,” Asriel “AG” McLain, associate minister of Little Union, told passengers.

The buses were filled with people of every color and every generation. They enjoyed taking photographs at the historic stops and even earned some cash for learning some MLK trivia.

“Where did MLK Jr. die?” tour guide Gregory Powell, of SB Ride Bicycle Tours, asked one young passenger.

“Georgia,” he replied.

“Okay, that was the answer to the first question. He was born in Atlanta, Ga., but killed in Memphis, Tenn. But that was close. We might be able to get you a dollar. We’ll see,” Powell said, prompting laughter from fellow passengers.

There were several stops along each tour revealing the deep history Shreveport has with the late civil rights leader.

“We, as human beings, need to go back to caring about one another. It’s not about color.” Bell “A lot of the things that the young people only read about I lived.”

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