C. C. Antoine

{{short description|Louisiana politician and civil rights activist (1836-1921)}}

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = Caesar Carpentier Antoine

| image = Caesar Antoine Oval Alt.png

| caption = Antoine {{circa}} 1873

| office = 13th Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana

| term_start = May 22, 1873

| term_end = April 24, 1877

| governor = William P. Kellogg
Stephen B. Packard

| preceded = P.B.S. Pinchback

| succeeded = Louis A. Wiltz

| office2 = Louisiana State Senator from Caddo Parish

| term_start2 = 1868

| term_end2 = 1872

| preceded2 =

| succeeded2 =

| birth_place = New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.

| residence = {{unbulleted list|(1) Shreveport, Louisiana|(2) New Orleans, Louisiana}}

| birth_date = c. 1836

| death_date = {{death year and age|1921|1836}}

| death_place = Shreveport, Louisiana, U.S.

| resting_place = New Bethlehem Baptist Church Cemetery

| spouse =

| children =

| party = Republican

| occupation = Barber, Editor, Businessman

| religion =

| allegiance = United States of America

| branch = Union Army

| unit = 7th Louisiana (Colored) Infantry Regiment

| battles = American Civil War

| rank = File:Union army cpt rank insignia.jpg Captain

| relations = Felix C. Antoine (brother)

}}

Caesar Carpentier Antoine (c. 1836–1921) was a soldier, businessman, editor, and African-American Republican politician in Louisiana during the Reconstruction era.{{Cite web |last=Brock |first=Eric J |year=2003 |title=Louisiana Political Pioneer |url=http://www.ccantoine.com/LA%20Political%20Pioneer.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140223023346/http://www.ccantoine.com/LA%20Political%20Pioneer.pdfhttps://web.archive.org/web/20140223023346/http://www.ccantoine.com/LA%20Political%20Pioneer.pdf |archive-date=2014-02-23 |publisher=Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities}} He served in the Union Army during the American Civil War and was a member of the Louisiana Senate before serving as Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana.

Biography

Born a free man of color in New Orleans, Felix C. Antoine was his brother.{{cite book |last1=Foner |first1=Eric |title=Freedom's Lawmakers |publisher=LSU Press |year=1996 |isbn=978-0807120828 |page=9 |author-link=Eric Foner}}

During the Civil War, he served as Captain in the 7th Louisiana Regiment Infantry and 10th U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery Regiment.{{Cite web |title=Antoine, Caesar C. |url=https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-soldiers.htm#sort=score+desc&q=%22Antoine,+Caesar+C.%22 |access-date=2023-05-19 |website=Soldier Details - The Civil War (U.S. National Park Service) |language=en}} After the war, he moved to Shreveport, Louisiana. 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 Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana, the third man of color to hold that position. He co-founded a newspaper with P. B. S. Pinchback, his immediate predecessor.

He became a Worshipful Master in Freemasonry 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, which fought the case that became Plessy v. Ferguson, 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.[http://www.northstarideas.com/community/Shreveport-BossierCityPress.htm John Andrew Prime, "Cities to declare Confederate History Month next week"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110714200305/http://www.northstarideas.com/community/Shreveport-BossierCityPress.htm# |date=2011-07-14 }}, 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 in Shreveport.[http://ccantoine.com/ccantoine/?p=155 C.C. Antoine Celebration] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140223023247/http://ccantoine.com/ccantoine/?p=155 |date=2014-02-23 }} website, accessed 7 February 2014

Antoine's house in Shreveport was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 20, 1999.{{Cite web |date=May 13, 2022 |title=Historic Shreveport house 1 of 2 destroyed in early morning fire |url=https://www.ktalnews.com/news/local-news/historic-shreveport-house-1-of-2-destroyed-in-early-morning-fire/ |access-date=May 19, 2023 |website=KTAL-TV |language=en-US}} 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)

{{succession box

| before = P.B.S. Pinchback

| title = Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana
Caesar Carpetier Antoine

| years = 1872–1876

| after = Louis A. Wiltz

}}

{{Lieutenant Governors of Louisiana}}{{African-American politics}}{{Portal bar|Biography|United States|Politics|Schools|Journalism|Business and Economics|American Civil War}}

Category:1830s births

Category:1921 deaths

Category:African Americans in the American Civil War

Category:19th-century African-American businesspeople

Category:19th-century American businesspeople

Category:19th-century American newspaper editors

Category:Businesspeople from New Orleans

Category:Barbers

Category:American hairdressers

Category:Union army officers

Category:Republican Party Louisiana state senators

Category:American planters