SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – A triple-bombing that occurred on the night of Tues., Apr. 24, 1962 was meant to strike fear in the hearts of those working for equality in Northwest Louisiana. It all began on Apr. 26, 1962, when the sound of an explosion ripped through a quiet night near the shore of Lake Bistineau. A lakehouse owned by Shreveport dentist and civil rights activist Dr. Cuthbert Ormond (C.O.) Simpkins was destroyed when the bomb blasted the property. Within an hour, two more buildings in the area had been severely damaged or destroyed—including a building in the “colored section” of Lake Bistineau State Park in Webster Parish. Dr. Elaine Simpkins explains origins of mysterious photo of MLK, RFK, and C.O. Simpkins An investigation of the bombing of Simpkins’ home revealed that someone returned to the lake house the day after it was bombed. They set the remains of the home on fire. The (Shreveport) Times reported on Apr. 26 that fuses used with dynamite were found in the debris. "This doesn't look like a coincidence to me. It looks like they all tie in," stated the Lake Bistineau State Park Superintendent in the same paper. The paper also reported that three white men were seen at Simpkins' lake house on the day after the explosion. Two of the men drove away and the third man escaped in a motorboat before the fire was noticed at Simpkins' home on the day after the bombing. Simpkins was out of town at the time. Less than 10 years before, Simpkins had become the first Black candidate to seek public office in Shreveport since the Reconstruction period. He ran for the school board. When Simpkins ran for office in 1954, a Black man had not held a public office since Fletcher S. Legardy was a trustee of the Shreveport City Council in 1887. Image of bombing at the Lake Bistineau State Park. (Source: Times photo by Lloyd Stilley) Officials said the bombings occurred between 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. The explosions were heard by several people, but no one reported the sound of bombs exploding because the blasts “sounded like sonic booms.” (Sonic booms were frequently heard in NWLA at that time.) The St. James Masonic Lodge 95 was also bombed when Simpkin's lakehouse and the kitchen at the state park were bombed. The lodge was located on the Koran/Lake Bistineau Road about four miles from Koran, La. On Apr. 25, The (Shreveport) Times reported that two holes were ripped through walls at the St. James Masonic Lodge 95 just east of Koran, Louisiana. They estimated the damage caused to the three buildings was around $25000 (in 1962 dollars.) Agents with the FBI investigated the bombings “at the request of the U.S. attorney general to determine if violations of federal law had occurred within FBI jurisdiction.” Harry G. Maynor was in charge of all FBI activities in Louisiana at the time, and he arrived in person to direct the federal probe into the bombings. The FBI entered the case at the request of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. An officer familiar with the bombings told The (Shreveport) Times that the dynamitings were “obviously the work of the Ku Klux Klan.” Bossier Parish Sheriff Willie Waggonner denounced the bombings and said his department would put forth every effort to find the people responsible. "I'm a segregationist," he said. "But I don't go along with this type of violence. It doesn't do our cause any good, nor does it solve anything." The ruins of Dr. C. O. Simpkins' home on Lake Bistineau was destroyed by an explosion in 1962. (Source: Times photo b Lloyd Stilley) “It would be naïve, indeed, for anyone to pretend that these are not racial incidents,” stated The Times. “However, one of the buildings bombed at Lake Bistineau was a public recreation structure which means that the bomb was aimed at property owned by the people and paid for by the taxpayers, regardless of color.” In August, The Shreveport Journal reported that a former citizen of Shreveport would pay for the conviction of responsible persons in the following incidents: the bombing of the Jacob Heller home on July 21, the bombing of three properties in Bossier Parish owned by people of color, the kidnapping of Elvis Rodgers in Shreveport on Mar. 10, the bombing of Dr. C.O. Simpkins' home in Shreveport, and the bombing of St. Rest Baptist Church in Shreveport. Unsolved crime: Shreveport’s St. Rest Baptist Church bombed during Civil Rights Movement On Feb. 21 of the previous year, a letter to the editor of The Shreveport Journal wrote that “to know that some of the leading citizenry associate themselves with these terrorist groups is extremely disheartening and makes them just as hoodlumish, no better than the element they associated with and just as responsible. Some find this organization an excuse for fun-making, thrill seekers getting their kicks, so to speak, while others use this organization as an outlet for pent-up emotions, releasing their hatred upon some unsuspecting and innocent soul, horrifying, terrifying him into submission.” E. M. Eschenfelder, of 1948 W. Jordan in Shreveport, was kindhearted enough to put the following in The Shreveport Journal on the same day: “However did the cross, a symbol of God, become associated with such a low, contemptible, lawless breed? It makes you want to spit to mention or even think of our good Lord in association with this type of jackals. God should strike them dead for defying His Name, but, because He is all-loving, all-merciful, all-kind and all-forgiving He no doubt has compassion on them.” The Civil Rights movement in Shreveport (and across the American South) exposed a battle between versions of Christianity. One version was a hate and fear-based religion that demoted the worth of souls based on superficial observations and lit crosses on fire in the name ofterror. The other version of Christianity believed in practicing the teachings ofJesus in the face of oppression. The Shreveport Journal reported on May 12 that Ned Touchstone, editor of the Bossier Press, "charged the FBI was using 44 agents in Bossier Parish, mainly for 'political harassment.'" He also said the FBI concentrated on well-known conservatives when they questioned several hundred people. On Sept. 13, 1962, Jet Magazine printed the following: "Ex-La. Man Offers $5,000 Reward In Bombings: Former Shreveport, La., resident John R. Downes Jr., white, who was fired after attending an integration meeting offered a total of $5,000 in rewards for information about five bombings in the city. The latest explosion destroyed the home and car of white integrationist Jacob Heller. Downes offered $1,000 reward for information leading to a conviction in that case. The reward was also meant to find information about the bombing of two homes owned by Dr. C.O. Simpkins, the recreation building at Lake Bistineau State Park for Negroes, and the St. James Masonic Lodge. Jet Magazine reported (just after the bombing) that C. O. Simpkins "led voter registration activities, boycotts of the state fair and the ball park and desegregation of the trolleys. He also attacked school segregation, unfair hiring and police brutality. The 37 year-old Meharry-trained dentist filed more than 100 complaints with the U.S. Civil Rights Commission and aided its investigations." The article also explained that Simpkins quit work in March until his insurance policy (Employer's Group Insurance) was reinstated, but the policy was canceled again in April after his lake house was bombed. Simpkins told Jett that there was a cross burning in his father's yard, and "they finally burned one at my house. Then we began to see dead cats and rabbits on lawns with bullets in their heads and Ku Klux Klan notes stating 'Let your conscience be your guide.' They offered one fellow $1,000 to kill me." (Source: Jet Magazine, Sept. 13, 1962) Simpkins sold his properties for a loss and moved his wife Dorothy and their four kids to Chicago. In 1988 Simpkins moved back to Shreveport. Then in 1990, he ran for mayor. Simpkins was threatened by the KKK again and told to drop out of the race, but "Doc" was determined to become the city's first Black mayor. He is pictured here at his home after his property had been covered in toilet paper. Simpkins at home in Shreveport after his yard was covered in toilet paper. He refused to be deterred and continued running for mayor. (Source: Jet Magazine, Nov. 5, 1990) Simpkins stayed strong despite the threats. He refused to drop out of the race and told Jett Magazie that people--Black and White--can work together. "I just feel that I can do it," he said about potentially becoming Shreveport's mayor. "I feel if I don't do it, nobody else will do it. I feel that God placed me here for a purpose. If I don't do his will, I'd be living in vain." Dr. C.O. Simpkins and his wife Elaine with members of Simpkins' campaign staff. (Source: Jet Magazine, Nov. 5, 1990) Before the election, Simpkins said he was running for office because he believed in what he was doing. "I don't need to do it. I live comfortably. But like many of you, I'm willing to make the sacrifice to do something good." But Simpkins lost the mayoral race to a Republican named Hazel Beard who became Shreveport's first female mayor. Two years later, Simpkins ran for office again. Only this time, he became a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives. The three bombings of Simpkins' lakehouse, the kitchen at the state park, and the Masonic Lodge in Koran were never formally solved.